Their Eyes were Watching God - Essay Example

It all started when she refused to marry someone she truly loved but married another person with the view of gaining financial independence. But Janie would later defy odds and break up from two separate marriages to regain her individuality and freedom as a person. Personality of the Black Woman at the time of writing The story was set at a time when the Black Woman in America was seen as an inferior person. The case of the Black Woman was especially worse because there was both gender and racial discrimination.

As depicted by Hook (1981), “White men are ranked first, white women second, though sometimes equal to black men, who are ranked third, and black women last” (p. 53). Women were seen as people who were only expected to take instructions from men because men were more knowledgeable and intelligence. The decisions and ideas of men were what was supposed to run the affairs of society and not what women said. For this reason, there were several rules that were made in the society were made to bind women and not men.

History of the slavery that Nanny and some of the older generation also created a similar situation whereby Blacks were not respected but considered as strangers with no identity on the American soil. Nanny had lived since the time of slavery and so had a better understanding of how humiliating Black Women were made and expected to live. She therefore made the situation known to her granddaughter when she remarked: “Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out…De nigger woman is de mule of de world so far as Ah can see.” (p. 29) This is indeed an evidence that the power that the Whiteman exercised over the Black was going to have a very central part of Janie’s life and freedom.

In essence, she was not going to have it easy as a Black Woman to defend in long cherished individualism because she was going to be made to understand that she did not have an identity that could make her an individual. It is for this reason that Nanny was making the explanation in the quote above to her granddaughter. Trading Individualism In Nany’s opinion, independence and freedom for a woman is all about the woman, getting married to a rich man who can take good care of her. For this reason, she did not want her granddaughter to marry someone who was not wealthy.

As a loving grandma, Nanny actually made this known to Janie as she remarked to her that “Ah’ve been praying fuh it to be different wid you’ (p. 29) ‘No trashy nigger, no breath-and britches Johnny Taylor is usin’ yo’ body to wipe his foots on” (p. 27). But this was going to be a wrongful thought for the old woman. Individualism and freedom did not rest in the ability of another person to take care of some other person but the ability of a person to take care of him or herself (Brownmiller, 1975).

What Janie needed was therefore an avenue to be herself and have her life in her own hands. After agreeing to settle in that marriage, Janie came to realize that a lot had been lost as far as her individualism was concerned. Before, she was a person who would not succumb to the pressures of society. She did not see her race and gender as a limitation. Janie actually had a personality and that was a personality of independence. But her marriage took all of this away