Their Eyes Were Watching God: Comprehension and Analysis Blog

   hurston

November 28, 2005 @ 1:56 am

I think that Janie’s American Dream is to find true love. When we are first introduced to Janie’s tale, she expresses love with a lot of imagery: “She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her” (11). In a way, this foreshadows Janie’s life a “struggle” with life and love. Also, she describes herself as a blooming tree or flower which parallels the poem “November Cotton Flower”: “Such was the season when the flower bloomed.” This shows Janie’s attachment to nature and her surroundings and how, in life, she is growing and maturing just as anything else is.

Emily Ward

   hurston

November 28, 2005 @ 5:24 am

I dont neccesarily agree with Emily. I believe that Love was not as important to Janie as obtaining her own voice. In my eyes her American dream seems to be gaining confidence and the ability to stand up for herself. Never throughout the book did i feel Janie was in love with any man. I believed that the men were just pawns in Janie’s game of life. Although she seemed close with Tea Cake, i think it was more important for her to find herself then to get a serious bond and love for Tea Cake. Also, if her goal really was to find true love, i dont believe she would not have met another man after Tea Cake died. She returned home, signifying an accomplishment or even a conclusion in her struggle to find herself.

-JAY REIN-

   hurston

November 29, 2005 @ 2:08 am

I agree with what both Emily and Jay have proposed. At sixteen, Janie wants to find love because she thinks that to find love is the ultimate completion of self. As she grows and goes through her first two marriages she comes to see that she can be happy independant of men, something she just did not know at sixteen. Janie does find happiness with Tea Cake, but even he is not beyond trying to dominate her and taking away her freedom. Such is the case when Tea Cake slaps Janie: “Ah didn’t whup Janie ’cause she done nothin’. Ah beat her tuh show dem Turners who is boss” (Hurston). Janie has become an object to him, and that is not something that she is willing to stand for.  While she would have found happiness in spending the rest of her day with Tea Cake, she would not have come to her self-realization. “Although the novel follows Janie through three relationships with men, most critics see its main theme to be Janie’s search for herself” (Thompson).

      To return to what Nicole proposed about the similarity of the poem and the novel, I think that she is right on.  ”November Cotton Flower” is a great comparison to the path Janie makes.  I also find that the story of Janie can be compared to the poem “I, Too” by Langston Hughes.  While “November…” connects more with Janie’s budding at the beginning of the book, “I, Too” seems to deal more with her triumphant return back to Eatonville.  Just like the author in the poem, Janie left when the town shunned her, yet now she returns still rich and beautiful.  She people on the porch can only sit in awe after seeing her, much like the lines “They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed–”  Janie had bloomed into a much admired beauty in her time before leaving the town, it is only now upon her return that people can see how amazing she is, because now the beauty of self-discovery has bloomed on the inside of her as well.

                                                                                                                                 -Kara Buchan