In Their Eyes Were Watching God, The themes in this novel are abundant and very complex. The themes of the novel based on the context of the reading are love, innocence, gender, race, and dreams. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the novel gave off a feminist impression where the common man and woman are equal. The whole idea of a feminist is not to rely on a man's satisfaction and willpower. Throughout the novel, Janie, the protagonist, is constantly looking for a man who can give her contentment and give her the things she doesn't have. Janie battles constant struggles to realize her dreams and aspirations through the novel. A theme that came to mind when reading the context of the novel is love. The latest Janie is very passionate about true love and believes that it is directly connected to understanding and equality. If love were non-existent in Janie's life, her spirit would practically perish. An example of love in the novel is “Logan Killicks' vision was to desecrate the pear tree but Janie didn't know how to tell the nanny. He just hunched over and sulked on the floor” (Hurston). Janie is under pressure because she constantly thinks about marrying an ugly old man just to please her nanny. In Janie's mind, love should be found rather than arranged, and trying to please her nanny violates Janie's perception of love. Janie is obsessive about love, but unfortunately isn't committed to making it happen. He observes the surroundings where love happens and does not try to light his own flame for love. The theme of love is a crucial topic when reading In Their Eyes We Watched God and the novel takes you on a roller coaster ride of emotions. Another theme you will encounter in the novel is innocence. When you think of innocence what do you think of? Innocence linked to youth, adolescence. In the novel, men and women play different but crucial roles. The women in the novel belong to the weaker gender and are actually mocked for their fragility compared to men. The novel gives the impression that men are the elite gender in the relationship and will never reach the aristocratic image of the male gender. Tea Cake was the only man who gave Janie hope on the topic of gender. Even though Tea Cake treated Janie as an equal, he still has that power over Janie. Until her death, Tea Cake ensured that she had a power level equal to Janie's. Over the course of the novel we witness Janie lose parts of herself to the dictates of male domination. An example of gender as well as racial superiority is: "So the white man throws down the load and tells the nigger to pick it up. He picks it up because he has to, but he doesn't take it with him. He hands it over to his women. The negro woman is de mule ud de world as hairy as I can see” (Hurston is describing how, of every complexion, in the country, black women are defeated by all others. White men are exorbitant in the hierarchy and constantly look down). 'top down black men. Gender is directly related to race by white superiority White supremacy confuses the mentality of blacks and has stirred conflict in the African-American community race In Their Eyes They Were Watching God Is
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