Their Eyes Were Watching God Feminist Analysis “A woman is human. She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man. Likewise, she is never less. Equality is a given. A woman is human. ” -Vera Nazarian. Women are underestimated on a daily basis; We are not less than or better than men. We need equality to make the world a better place. While novels are typically fiction it can still be based on different human rights issues, In “Their Eyes Were Watching God” the human rights issue was women inequality.
Janie is the main character in the novel, she suffered through a lot of things including being hit. It also happens in today’s life. For intense, “He wanted her submission and he’d keep on fight until he felt he had it. ” (Hurston 100) Janie’s husband, Joe Starks, was not going to stop hitting her unless he felt like he broke her down from speaking and acting out. In the Caribbeans domestic violence has been ignore for a long time. “‘The court imposed a five-year jail sentence, which will give her a total of 13 years behind bars with the time she already served.
Her two accomplices, Haniff Hillaire and Denny Baptiste, remain on death row after losing appeals of their murder convictions. ” While we’re grateful her life was spared, we think the sentence is excessive compared to the sentence (given) men who kill their wives,” said Ken Franz-Blau, spokesman for Equality Now. ” (McDonald, Tim) This shows that women are not treated fairly, so she killed her husband. Her lawyer didn’t defend her like he should have. He didn’t bring up the fact that she was being hit everyday in front of her children.
Women struggle with their voices being heard, they are hushed down. They don’t the same respect as a man would have. To illustrate this ” The first it that the wage gap persists overall between women working full time and men working full time: women earn a median weekly wages that’s only 81% of a man’s weekly median wages. And even more importantly the percentage of mangers who are women has risen from 35% to only 38% of the last twenty years. “(Ferro, Laura) If women had the same respect as a man would have; they would be able to have the equal amount of jobs as well as have the same pay.
Even if women had said anything about the matter, the men would just deny it. That can be shown in stories too, including Their Eyes Were Watching God, it sates,”Thank Yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but muh wife don’t know nothin’ ’bout no specchmakin’. Ah never married her nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in da home. ” Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn’t too easy. She never thought of making a speech, and didn’t know if she cared to make on at all.
It must have been the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything one way or another that took the bloom off of things. ” Janie was hushed down and was not given the chance to speak for herself. If it was a women that said that to a man they would have been beat senseless. Young girls are forced to marry in South Sudan. If they would have said no they would be broken down until they stopped complaining about it. Janie was forced to marry someone she did not love.
According to the article “Half of girls in South Sudan forced to marry. ” Aguet N. of South Sudan, for example, was married to a 75-year-old man when she was 15 years old, according to testimony she gave to Human Rights Watch. “This man went to my uncles and paid a dowry of 80 cows. I resisted the marriage. They threatened me,” the report said. “They said, ‘If you want your siblings to be taken care of, you will marry this man. ‘ I said he is too old for me. They said, ‘You will marry this old man whether you like it or not because he has given us something to eat.
They beat me so badly. They also beat my mother because she was against the marriage. ” When they stood up and said no they were punished, so she and her mother just gave up. It is almost like Janie’s story, the novel quotes this, “The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree, but Janie didn’t know how to tell Nanny that. She merely hunched over and pouted at the floor. “Janie” “Yes ma’am. ” “You answer me when Ah speak. Don’t you set dere poutin’ wid me after all Ad done went through for you.
Janie was forced to marry at a young age, that can relate with the reality. It shows that women are poorly treated, and you see how much it happens in other places, in this case South Sudan. While the conflict in “Their Eyes Were Watching God”was women inequality in the 1800s, it happens today in different countries including the U. S. Women are forced to marry, are abused and not allowed to have the same rights as a man. We, as the world, needs to change and give everybody the same rights. It is not right to judge someone based on their sex, race, or culture.
