Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay -- Essays Papers

Their Eyes Were Watching GodIn Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie battles to find Individualism within herself. Janie, all her life, had been pushed around and told what to do and how to live her life. She searched and searched high and low to find a peace that makes her whole and makes her feel bid a complete person. To make her feel like she is in fact an individual and that shes not like every peerless else around her. During the time of Their Eyes, the correct way to treat women was to show them who was in electric charge and who was inferior. Men were looked to as the superior being, the one who women were supposed to look up to and serve. Especially in the fact that Janie was an African American women during these oppressed times. Throughout this book, it looks as though Janie makes many mistakes in trying to find who she really is, and achieving the respect that she deserves.Living with her Grandmother and theWashburns, Janie was surrounded and raised with white chi ldren. She always believed that she was white herself, and that she was no different than anybody else. As she was growing up, she was told what to do and how to live by her grandmother. Janies grandmother planned her life out for her. She told her that she must get married powerful away. Yeah, Janie, youse got yo womanhood on yuh. So Ah mout ez well tell yuh whut Ah been savin up for uh spell. Ah wants to see you married right away. Janies grandmother did want what was best for Janie, only if she basically told her what to do instead of letting her know what she wanted for her. Janies grandmother told her exactly who she was going to marry and who she wasnt even to think about. Whut Ah seen reasonable now is plenty for me, honey, Ah dont want no trashy negro, no breath-and-britches, lak insurgent Taylor usin yo body to wipe his foots on. Brother Logan Killicks, hes a good man.......You answer me when Ah speak. Dont you set dere poutin wid me after all Ah done went t hrough for you She is basically telling Janie that she cant marry Johnny Taylor, the one she is exploring her womanhood with, the one she wants, and that she must marry Logan, for protection. Towards the end of the book, Janie resents her grandmother for living her life for her and planning her future. To find out what will happen in a persons future, they need to live their life on their own an... ... and scratching the dandruff from her scalp. Tea Cake and Janie obviously shared a special love betwixt them as their relationship grew. The things he did for her made her feel unbelievable. They did things she had never even thought of. Tea Cake took her places she had never been. To Janies strange eyes, everything in the Everglades was sizeable and new. Janie went to many new places and met many new people that she wouldve never met had she stayed with Logan or stayed in Eatonville with Joe. She wouldve just kept on living the same(p) life...never doing anything new with the same boring people. With Tea Cake, Janie began to work, and to feel a certain freedom she had never felt before. Janie found what she was looking for. She searched all her life to find what was within herself, and one special person was all that was needed to bring it out in her. Even though her and Tea Cakes relationship ended in a tragedy, she knew that he really loved her for who she was. She didnt need to be with him for protection, or she didnt need to be the leading lady of a townspeople or a mayors wife, she just needed the right kind of love and affection to bring out what was best in her.

The Great White Father Myth - A Hypocritical Belief :: Synthesis Essays

The Great lily-white Father fable - A Hypocritical imprint In the informative article The Great White Father Myth, the author Stan Steiner discusses the stereotypical spate that the white man has created of himself as the hero, conqueror, and delivery boy. He labels this view as The Great White Father Myth, and begins by talking about the silent role the Indians have taken in the face of their Great White Father. Steiner supports his view of the white mans superiority as being nothing more than a myth, by discussing the crimes the white man committed against the Indians were silenced. The Indian Wars and the White mans desire to tame the Indians were illustrations of the myth that whites were superior. Although the article contains a one-sided view of the events between the Europeans and the Indians, the fact that the white man is hypocritical in the view of himself as the Great White Father comes through very accurately and strongly. This idea is shown very evidently even t hough Steiner never comes out and defines what the Great White Father Myth is. He shows what he means through examples. Basically, through illustrations he shows that he feels the myth is that whites are superior beings of the human race. This created identity makes their values, religion, and culture the ideal design for other races to follow. Since the white race is the father it is his duty to punish and change anyone who is different. In An Indian Story of the Sierra Madre, the typical white hero and savior image of the Great White Father Myth that Steiner describes comes through. Captain Ben, who is the white cowboy hero, knows everything. In the beginning, he knows that the Indians are near just by flavor at some birds over head. In his mind, Ben knows without even seeing them that they want to shoot down him and his men. As a result of this conclusion, smart Ben devises a scheme to kill the Indians and saves the day. After the massacre, he finds money with the Indians and knows automatically that they stole it. Captain Ben, being the savior and all around good guy, recovers the money and intends to find its owner and transcend it. The story continues in this same stereotypical fashion (DeQuille 242). This is how the white man pictures himself in comparison to the Indian white = good and red skin = bad.