discovering self- identity in Zora Neale Hurston's "All Eyes Are Watching God "

Essay by Thomas JonesCollege, UndergraduateA+, January 1996

download word file, 3 pages 4.0

Downloaded 100 times

In life to discover our self-identity a person must show

others what one thinks or feels and speak his or her mind.

Sometimes their opinions may be silenced or even ignored. In the

novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character Janie

would sometimes speak her ideas and they would often make a

difference. The author, Zora Neale Hurston, gives Janie many

chances to speak and she shows the reader outcomes. When dealing

with all of the different people Jaine faced, she would find a

way to speak her ideas, receive a response, and through this

exchange she developed her sense of self-worth.

When Janie found a way to speak her ideas, they would have

an impact on everyone. Though, Janie did not always speak her

ideas. She would often do something that made an impression on

someone. The first real action Janie took was to leave her

husband, Logan Killicks.

By doing this, she has shown the

community that a person can not always be happy with material

things when she or he is not in love. Janie says, 'Ah want

things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree

and think.' She shows her grandma that she is not happy with her

Janie's next husband, Joe Starks was very nice to her and

gave her everything she wanted. When it came to Janie wanting to

talk or speak her mind, he would not let her, and that made her

feel like she was less of a person than he. Until one day,

towards the end of their long marriage, when Jody made a very

mean comment about Janie's body. She came back with, 'When you

pull down yo' britches, you look lak de change uh life.' After

these words came...