This theme seems to be the theme of the year...don't quote me on this, but I believe it comes up in every major work that we'll read this year (mainly because we're going to be reading about some oppressive and corrupt societies from which people feel the need to break free...). It is, as you know, a great problem of everyday life as well; what we want to do doesn't always neatly line up with our social responsibilities. For example, I feel like eating four doughnuts but I have a track meet in twenty minutes. Hmmm, what should I do? Okay, not the best example because I also risk stomach upset on a massive scale.
Let's have you come up with the example. Let's say you want to become the greatest [fill in blank of your dream job here] but society, or the powers that be, will not allow you access to this career because you are (too young, too old, too female, too male, etc). What should you do? In this case, we need to ask the question: Who is right in this situation? You or society? Are you a moral person living in an immoral society? If that's the case, what should you do? On the other hand, does society ask us to make sacrifices that are actually beneficial to us in the long run? Is there a middle ground? When living in groups of people, will we always have to make individual sacrifices in order to live together? How do we know when we've sacrificed too much (to society, a community, or a relationship)? Are there some things that should never be sacrificed? Where do we draw the line?
Getting back to our novels, do Janie and Starr do what they want to do or what others or society thinks they should do? Do they make some mistakes? Does this change throughout the course of the novel? How do Janie's three marriage illustrate this theme? When are they happiest? When are they most successful in society's eyes? Do these match up? Hmmmm, what do you conclude from all of this? What is the message, according to Hurston and Thomas?
Janie is constantly conflicted between what she wants to do and what society wants her to do. At first, Janie did not want to marry Logan but after her grandmother's convincing, Janie decided that she did want a husband. More into the marriage, Janie realizes that she did not want to be married to Logan and she left. Janie then gets married two other times. Although Janie's marriages were not a mistake, that does not mean that she never made a mistake. The biggest mistakes Janie made involved listening to other people tell her what she wants. For example, when Janie is told that she needs a husband for protection. Throughout the novel, Janie starts to listen to herself more than to society which shows the most in her marriage with Tea Cake. The people of the town judged Janie for being with Tea Cake because they think he is after her money. Janie is seemed to be the most successful when she was with Joe Starks because she then was Mrs. Mayor and wealthy. However, Janie was not happy with Joe. The message conveyed from this is to do what makes you happy and not what society thinks will make you happy.
ReplyDeleteI think Janie begins to do what she thinks society will approve of. Because of this she makes two huge mistakes and those are her first two marriages. She is most successful and socially approved when she is married to Joe. Why wouldn't she be? She is the mayor's wife. But ironically, Janie is happiest when she is with her least wealthy husband, Tea Cake. This doesn't match up but it makes sense when you think more about it. Hurston is trying to say you do not need to follow society's view of how things should be, to enjoy yourself.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God", Janie, the main character, is constantly conflicted between doing what is best for herself and doing what others think is best for her. I know it seems like an easy decision, but external pressures are continually getting in the way. Janie is a smart and strong-willed girl, but she also makes mistakes like a normal human. Many outside pressures such as Janie's grandmother greatly influenced her to make her first major mistake which was her first marriage with Logan Killicks. She never truly wanted to marry him, but she did because she was constantly being badgered about how she needed to get married. Janie's second marriage was also a mistake and she was mistreated, but she stayed in that relationship because of the immense amount of societal pressure. What can I say, being the mayor's wife is a big deal. Janie truly did change after these marriages. She started respecting herself and doing things for herself. This is why her third and final marriage was such a success. She married "Tea Cake" because SHE wanted to. Nobody else but herself. He wasn't rich, he was actually quite poor. But what does that matter? All that matters is her happiness. You see, Janie was most happy when she chose what she wanted, not what others wanted. Even if she was poor, it didn't matter. She had all the money she could have ever wanted, but it still didn't make her happy. I guess the saying is true, money can't buy you happiness. I believe that Hurston is spreading a very important message. Do things that will make you happy and don't worry what others have to say about it. At the end of the day, all that matters is your own satisfaction with yourself.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston portrays Janie goes back a fourth about listening to herself and listening to society about what she should do.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the novel, her grandma convinced Janie to marry Logan, even though she didn't love him and never did. Her grandma told Janie she needed someone to protect and take care of her and she would grow to love him. Janie chose to leave Logan (her first husband) for her second husband Logan. She didn't love him either but stayed with him because he was the major and there was a lot of social pressure. You can see how her influences on what she does goes back and fourth between society and herself. You can also see how she has made mistakes by marrying two people she never loved. However, her mistakes were based on what society wanted her to do. After these two marriages, she finally started to do what she wanted to do and not let anyone define her. She made decisions based on what she wanted to do. After she stopped listening to society, she stopped making mistakes. She married Tea Cake because she wanted to when society told her not to. This decision made her happy. She was most happy when she listened to herself and made decisions based on what she wanted. In society's eyes, Janie is most successful when she is married to a man with a lot of money, but that isn't what she wanted. She would rather be married to a poor man that makes her happy then to a rich man who doesn't make her happy. Her three marriages show the theme of not letting anyone defy you and what will make you happy. This goes with the message Hurston is trying to portray. Don't let anyone tell you what will make you happy. Make decisions based on what you want and what you want to do, not what other people are telling you what you want or telling you what to do.
In the novel, "The Hate You Give", Starr Carter does not do what she wants to do, but rather what she feels is expected of her given her circumstances, such as where she lives, her school, and her race. In the beginning of the novel, Starr did make mistakes when it came to staying true to herself. She did not stick up for Khalil in a way that was true to herself or her people. She did not speak out because she was in fear that the cops could potentially become more unfair to people like Starr and Khalil. Towards the end of the novel however, Starr began to speak out at riots and on national televised news specials in hopes of reaching Justice for Khalil. At the end of the novel, Starr vowed to always continue seeking justice for Khalil. This kick started her life as a future activist. Starr was at her happiest when she was speaking out for Khalil, but that was also when she felt she created the most danger for her family. In the end, luckily, Starr was able to follow her heart when fighting for Khalil and keep her family safe. According to the author, Angie Thomas, it is that no matter what the societal standards are one should always fight and stick up for what reflects their personal beliefs.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie first listened to what society thought would be best for her. This caused her to make the biggest mistakes of her life by marrying her first two husbands. Society believed that she would be best off with a wealthy and respected man. It wasn't until she started making her own decisions however when she truly became happy. When she did this she met Tea Cake. Tea Cake was known as a poor black man who should not have been with a woman of Janie's status. She didn't care though and was actually happy with Tea Cake. I think Hurston was trying to show us that society is not always right when it comes to your happiness and you should always trust yourself when it comes to what will make you happy.
ReplyDeleteIn Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie at first listens to society. She marries Logan because it is what her grandmother thinks is best and is told she will learn to love him. When Joe comes along later, Janie leaves Logan to marry him because she thinks it is what she wants and not society. However, not long into their marriage, society starts to play a role in how she acts and dresses. Joe wants her to run the store, not join in the conversations on the porch, cook when she is not working, etc. When Joe dies, Janie feels as if she is finally free. She wears whatever clothes she wants, wears her hair down and participates in the events on the porch. The moment Janie realizes she needs to start doing what she desires is when Tea Cake appears in the book. Janie marries Tea Cake and goes away with him even though the people in the town think he is too young, too poor, and even by Mrs. Turner's standards, too black. Janie was only truly happy when she made decisions based off of what she wanted and not by society's standard of what was "right".
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas, Starr Carter certainly does many things because of the societal standards she is held to. Many of her actions- specifically towards the beginning of the book- have motives rooted in fear and expectations rather than in what she believes is right or would like to do. Even small things, such as how she interacts with her peers and other characters surrounding her, is simply Starr doing what she knows is expected of her. Starr knows that she is in more danger than another person may be simply because of her racial background. Due to this, she makes several decisions regarding the situation with Khalil that stray from what she believes is correct. She knows that what happened to him is horribly wrong. She knows that he did nothing wrong. Still, Starr fears that speaking out in the way she would like to will make the situation worse. She fears that nothing will change regardless of what she does.
ReplyDeleteStarr lets the expectations of society and her fears control many of the things she does because, as far as she's concerned (at least earlier in the novel), she has to. Eventually, this does change, but Starr's earlier actions really speak for many people who let the fear of their corrupt society run their lives.
(-Sylvia Matthews)
Side note, I signed it at the end as well because I wasn't certain if I had signed in correctly.
DeleteIn the novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God", the main character Janie is told by her grandmother that she has to play the role given to her in this world. She is told to marry a wealthy man named Logan and be taken care of by him. She marry him not because she loved him but because it what people expected of her. Janie’s grandmother told her that she needed someone to “protect” her and take care of her and she would grow to love him. Later she married a second man named Jody who together, ran the town of Eatonville. She only stayed with him because she thought it made her special being the wife of the major. She made a lot of mistakes because she had a certain social states to follow. It is clear that her first two marriages were a mistake but throughout the book she starts to learn from it. Janie realizes that she's not happy and starts to fix that. The only place she found real happiness was with tea cake, the least wealthy of the others. Hurston is saying that to find happiness you don’t always need to follow your social role.
ReplyDeleteThroughout Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford adhered to social standards on the outside, but longed for adventure and fun on the inside. During her first two marriages, Janie never complained about the housemaid duties that were expected of her, but she was not happy in doing so. She always wanted to let loose and have fun with the people in town instead of waiting hand and foot on her husband. It wasn't until Janie met Tea Cake that she let go of the housewife responsibilities a bit and let her personality shine through. This idea goes along with the happy relationship/love blogpost because as Janie fell in love with Tea Cake, she became more relaxed and felt less pressured into becoming the perfect house wife. I think Hurston wrote it this way to show that when a person is happier, they let go of social pressures and become a true version of themselves.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel The Hate U Give, Starr makes it clear in the very beginning of her story that she feels out of place. With her trying to balance her home life in Garden Heights and her school life at Williamson Prep, the stark contrast of the two places her life mostly consists of alters her personality and the way she believes she should portray herself when interacting with others. The way she acts with her peers from Garden Heights opposed to her peers from Williamson Prep shows the way Starr has allowed society to change herself for others to deem her acceptable. According to some people in Garden Heights, their view of someone “successful” would be someone like King. King is the leader of the King Lords, making large amounts of money through drug sales and other gang activities. Thinking that someone who sells drugs and is involved in murders as “successful” is the result of an educationally and socially disadvantaged community and youth that has been desensitized to gang violence because of its constant presence in their environment. However, someone attending Williamson Prep would have a much different idea of the term successful because of their privileged setting where opportunities to strive educationally are almost always available. These divided perspectives offer insight into the effects of society's norms inside of smaller communities and its youth.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie Is told that she must marry a wealthy man in order to be successful. Even though she wants to marry another man she accepts the arranged marriage as it is what is best for her financially. This theme continues throughout the book when she goes into another unhappy marriage. Eventually her husband becomes ill and dies. Her third marriage goes much better after she marries someone she truly loves, instead of what society thinks she should. The book shows how while doing what society wants while it may financially make you successful you will be unhappy. only through focusing on yourself will you be happy.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Starr started out doing what society wanted her to do. In her own school she felt conflicted about acting one way, when her real self was completely different. Starr didn't want her peers to get the impression that all black people acted a certain way. In a sense, you could say she was breaking against society throughout the entirety of the novel. It all depends on the perspective and what events being focused on.
ReplyDeleteTowards the end of the novel, Starr transforms into a whole new girl. She readily stands toe to toe with society, and battles the stereotypes that ultimately took Khalil's life. Starr knew she was putting herself and her family in danger by publicly speaking out, but to Starr, getting the truth out there was more important in the end.
At the beginning of The Hate U Give, Starr was mainly focused on being who society "wanted" her to be. She lived in a ghetto but went to a private school for better education, and therefore put it on herself to create two different personas depending on where she was. Starr had to restrain her true colors from her private school friends (minus Chris), but is then made fun of back home because she has white friends. Later in the book, she opens up to Maya and starts changing for the better. Instead of separating her two worlds, Starr decides to bring them together, because there is nothing stopping her from doing so. Starr uses her place as a witness to Khalil's murder to battle racist stereotypes that litter the nation. Although she knew this would obviously put her in danger, Starr knew that in the end her decision would help out so many more people.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” we as readers get to watch the main character develop throughout the book. At the beginning of the story Janie is forced into marrying a man who she hardly knows because her grandmother believes that this is what is best for her. This would be an example of Janie following the rules, and doing what society expects of her. Due to her unhappiness, she breaks the rule and runs off with her second husband, only to find out that after time passes by, he is no longer what makes her happy either. When she finally meets the right guy, the people of the town tend to judge her, because she truly did have everything with her second husband. While with her second husband Joe, she was the major's wife, lived in a large house, and had plenty of money. This is the time that society would define her as most successful, however she was very unhappy because her husband spent much more time tending to his duties as the major than he did paying attention to his wife. Rather than staying with him, Janie met a man who treated her the way that she had hoped to be treated, and decided to marry him, although he had very little and was speculated to have been using her for her money. While in this relationship Janie completely breaks the rules of society, and in turn, is the happiest that she has ever been. She joins her new husband, Tea Cake at work, which was unacceptable in society at the time given that she was a female. She also learned to shoot a gun, which was something that men strictly did. Regardless of what was said about her, Janie was happy, and at the end of the day, that is all that mattered. According the Hurson, the message that we can learn through Janie's marriages is that the most important thing should be your happiness. Janie was extremely unhappy when she “had it all.” Everything means nothing if you are unhappy. Society’s point of view should not matter when it comes to doing what you want to do.
ReplyDeleteThe novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" shows an evolution of Janie finding out what is she wants through events and situations that happen to her. Her first marriage to Logan doesn't go well because she does not love him, therefore learning that to her, what society thinks should have been a happy marriage with a husband with enough money and land, isn't good enough, she wants someone she truly loves. She runs off with Joe thinking he will fix everything, which seems to happen for a time, but as the town grows and more problems need to be solved, Joe becomes too into his work and Janie feels forgotten. Although this is not what society sees, they see the Mayor's wife who runs the town store who is seen by all the men as beautiful. When Joe dies, society feels she is not mourning in the proper way, she moves on to Tea Cake which causes discontent, as everyone had seen this as her most successful time, she seemed to have had everything. Then her happiest time comes with Tea Cake, he truly loves her and doesn't stop. She is allowed to do the things she wants which is a great excitement to her, being able to talk to people at the 'Glades is one of the things that signifies this as she wasn't allowed to participate in gossip at the store. I think what can be concluded from this is that society cannot decide your happiness. You are happy when you are doing things you love with people you love, happiness to everyone is not a large house or property and lots of money. Of course it could be to some, but most need a companion of which love dearly to fulfill this happiness.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God", Janie is constantly torn on what she thinks is right, and what society thinks is right. Society believes she should be married off to a wealthy man at a young age, so that is what she is forced to do. Since she does not agree with society, she goes off with another man, even though she knows she will be frowned upon by society. When Janie is finally happy with herself, she is faced with the judgment of society thinking she is doing the wrong thing. When she lets others define her, she is very unhappy inside. When she does what she thinks is right, she is very happy but looked down on by society. As the novel continues, she decides her happiness is far more important than what society thinks. I agree with Janie because she is doing what she believes is right and does not care what others think.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, "The Hate U Give," Thomas describes Starr as a girl who has two separate worlds, one where she is able to be herself and one where she is forced to fit into society's standards. Starr's life at Williamson is overshadowed by her distress of not fitting in. While at Garden Heights, however, Starr is able to be herself. Near the beginning of the book, Starr becomes consumed by her fear of not fitting into society's standards that she forgets who she really is. She lives in fear of society and is not able to stand up for her friends, such as what happened to Khalil. After this instance, Starr takes on a whole new perspective of her community and begins to speak out and tries to find justice for Khalil as an activist. Although Starr finds her family and friends in danger at times, she still lives to find justice for Khalil. Thomas wanted to show that no matter where you are or who you are, you must always be yourself.
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DeleteIn The Hate U Give, Starr battles back and forth between what she thinks is the best plan of action and what society expects her to do. At first, she is hesitant to speak up for fear of being targeted, and also worries that it will put her family in danger. While staying silent, she is pressured by friends, family, and authoritative figures to speak up and fight back. Eventually, she does speak out like expected, and after giving her side of the story, she is met with praise. However, the officer at fault is not convicted, and Starr makes the mistake of attending a protest. She feels that even doing as she was told was not enough. Her attendance is publicly reported but it only further shows how she has found the confidence to do what she wants, not just what she is expected to do. Through this, Thomas tries to give the message that sometimes doing the right thing and doing what you want can be one in the same.The paths may start off differently, but they can converge as well as split. In order to bring forth that change you have to be heard, and it does not just have to be the in the way you are expected to do so.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, “The Hate U Give”, Starr goes against what society thinks she should be doing by dating a white boy. This is one of the many things she does that her society would consider wrong. She also doesn’t speak out about witnessing her friend’s death until the end of the novel. This is the result of her living two different lifestyles. If her classmates found out about the incident, she would be introduced to a new type of judgement. Throughout the novel, she changes the way she acts around the different societies she is apart of. The only person she is truly herself around is Chris. Another example of the way society pressures her to conform is her confusion over dating Chris. Before the riots, she was unsure about her relationship with a white boy. She knew she would upset people but she also knew he made her happy. The message Thomas displayed is despite what society wants you to do, it’s important to do what makes you happy.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, "The Eyes Were Watching God", Janie goes by what society wants of her, in the form of her grandmother and her husbands throughout the book. All Janie wants is to be loved, but society says that she should just be what a wife should be. In her first marriage, her husband wants her to help him on the farm, to her dismay. She then left by the promises of her second husband, Jodie. But he thought that she should stay in the store and house. After that marriage, she started thinking for herself and would only marry a person that would treat her as equal. She found this in her third and final relationship with Teacake.
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ReplyDeleteThe novel Their Eyes Were Watching God shows that when people let go of worrying about society’s standards, they are happier. Janie married Logan for her grandmother’s pleasure. She married Joe for what she thought was herself but later found that he wanted her to live to society’s standards instead of how she wanted to. When Janie finds her love, Tea Cake, she is not tied to society’s standards and she is visually happier. She does what she desires and is supported, not put down, by Tea Cake.
In the novel, “The Hate U Give”, Starr is faced with a tough decision that could ruin her life, yet help so many others. Starr is pressured by some to speak out against the police officer and the court system as they feel that Khalil was unjustifiably killed; however, pressure from the gang in her home town to stay quiet is overwhelming her. Starr does stumble along the way but is able to come to the morale just conclusion to speak out for Khalil in the hopes to gain justice for him and others like him. She decides that risking her own safety, in order to provide future safety for African Americans during run in’s with the police force is worth it. In this case, Starr’s decision to speak up seams to be the best option because once she does she becomes at peace with her friends death and her hometown sees better days.
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