Janie’s American Dream

Samantha Jackson

Jason Gibson

Hum 2020

Option B: Hurston

Janie’s American Dream is a Dream fundamentally linked to her realization of selfhood and an organic union with another in a period when women, especially women of color, are forced to accept traditional expectations of womanhood both confining and subservient.

Janie hopes for her future to begin with the very beginning of “Their Eyes Were Watching God”.   She shows a yearning for true love and someone to care for her. In managing the female idea of mindfulness in "Their Eyes Were Watching God", the author has made what seems to be a "heroine" in Janie Crawford. The female perspective is presented from the very beginning of the book. For instance, "Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly"(1-2). Hurston uses this quote to show that women can “reconstruct their pasts” by only remembering the pieces of the past that they wanted to remember and mold themselves into what they wanted to be. In this way, women are able to ensure themselves that they see one’s self as living out their dreams.  The contrast amongst men and women is made very early on. That is the point at which Janie's search for her own particular dream and suggests the "female journey" topic for the remainder of the novel. Revealing Janie's mission for self-disclosure and self-realization, the creator extols Janie as a good example for all by perceiving her comprehension of life. In discovering life's actual significance, Janie experiences self-realization. In spite of the fact that Hurston had Janie experience three connected unions and a multitude of disasters, the novel's hero achieved things she didn’t think she ever could. Janie had been a piece of the loving solidarity she had perceived from the very beginning of her youth.  Janie was unbroken and was wanted for nothing and by no one, besides Nanny. Janie Crawford was an African American girl who claimed herself far beyond the expectations of others, with a strong assurance that portrays her search for the love that she needed and longed for as a young lady.

Janie’s American Dream was linked solely to finding someone to love her and care for her.  Ultimately, she was always chasing the feelings that she got while watching the bees pollinate the pear trees blossoms.  The idea of the American Dream is available in the way that Janie's reality develops all through the book. These novel takes puts in the mid 1900's where people of color, but mostly women of color are compelled to acknowledge the customary desires of womanhood that are both binding and subservient.  Janie goes on to experience these stages of life, however she does not let them overcome her.  The fundamental pieces of her American Dream are expressed through affection, bliss, being a free woman, and her many goals.  Janie builds up the objectives of her American Dream through her life as well as through her three spouses; Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. Through movement in their lives and advancement towards achieving the American Dream, a considerable amount of them revealed facts about themselves that were obscure to them some time before.  But with her first two marriages, her husbands only expected her to only be submissive and dote on them, or just be quiet and be their trophy wife.  Janie even has to save herself from her last husband, Tea Cake, and this helped her realize that she could only really rely on herself for the love and care that she was in search of.  In the initial segment of her life Janie seeks after the fantasy that is proposed to her by Nannie.  She describes it by saying, "Heah you is wid de onliest organ in town, amongst colored folks, in yo' parlor.Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land righton de big road and...Lawd have mussy! Dat's de very prong all us black women gets hung on. Dis love! Dat's just whut's got us pullin' and uh haulin' and sweatin' and doin' from can't see in de mornin' till can't see at night." (23).  This prompted Janie to go ahead and marry Logan Killicks, whom Nanny pushed on Janie in light of the fact that he had a very big ranch with 60 acres of land. Janie's grandmother had great intentions for her granddaughter. Back in that time life was tied in with having security with a rooftop over your head and be able to have food on your table. She simply wanted and needed Janie to have that security despite the fact that there wasn't love included.  

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