Friday, March 27, 2009
Overhead Assignment
The person who I admire the most is my uncle. He is the exact definition of what a man should be. He loves his family, is a protector and provider, and though he has made a lot of mistakes in his past, he chooses not to let them weigh him down. He is also constantly moving towards a brighter future. He inspires me because he has risen from the slums and gangs of the west-side of Chicago to be a pastor of his own church right in South Holland. He might not have his own church but he is still aspiring and doing what he can to make his dreams happen.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Their Eyes Were Watching God
If this is confusing, I'm very sorry. It made sense to me at first, but now I can't tell what was going through my mind when I came up with this. Guess it's appropriate I named my blog "It seemed like a good idea @ the time."
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer. Janie had had a chance to know things, so she had to ask. Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day?”
Through out my life there have been many questions that have plagued my mind, but this particular question more than others. I too have wondered what the purpose of marriage was, why it was sacred, and why do most fail. If it’s supposed to be about companionship then why do people wind up leaving each other? Moreover I wonder why were there so many people that go on the dating scene, cruise the bar for a little action, only to be let down in some way. This Janie experiences with three failed marriages: one with a man she was never in love with, one with a man whom she fell out of love with, and one with a man she had to kill to keep from being killed. So what is the answer?
The answer to that question is simple; love. Though the answer is very simple to understand, it’s very complicated to attain. Since the beginning of man, from the bible’s point of view, man has always strived hard for love and tried to fulfill the need to have someone to be emotionally connected to. Even from birth, an infant strives for its parental figures attention and love. This child will go through extreme measures to fulfill that need and when it isn’t fulfilled properly it often leads to abandonment issues and scars the child for life. As portrayed through her dream about the pear tree Janie is striving and has a deep yearning for love. She never met her father. Her mother was never around long enough to fulfill that need and she lost the one person who did love. But it’s through Janie’s story that Hurston explores the concepts of love, what it has to do with marriage, finding love and loving you.
As displayed through Janie’s marriages, and looking at most people’s marriages today, marriage doesn’t end loneliness. She was married three times and in each marriage she felt a certain degree of loneliness. There are people today that are married but will feel lonely with their spouse sitting right beside them. I’ve known people to be alone that live in a house full of people. The reason for this is a lack of love and that is exactly Janie’s problem. Her situation is comparable to that of a child. All children have a need for love and when that need is fulfilled properly it often leads to abandonment issues and scars the child for life. This causes a child to begin to feel emotions of rejection and search for love in the wrong places. Janie experiences this when she won’t allow herself to feel Mr. Killick’s love for her and when she is eager to run off with Jody immediately after meeting him.
Also displayed through Janie’s marriages is that love might compel marriage but marriage doesn’t compel love. At the beginning of her relationship with Jody love was there but soon it was gone. Just as quick as love can enter a person’s heart even before the thought of marriage occurs, it can just as quickly be wiped from the person’s heart after marriage and the person can lose interest and, just like a child feeling rejection, reject love from those that do love them. This will also lead them reject sound advice from others, like when Janie was advised by her friend to be careful in dealing with Tea Cake.
In the end all the complications that involve love doesn’t really matter. As Janie learns loving yourself is the most important thing even if you can’t find the right one, or you aren’t able to fulfill that need for love through another person. That what a lot of people have to learn to do; be independent and love themselves instead of causing yourself pain by trying to find love through other’s.
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer. Janie had had a chance to know things, so she had to ask. Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day?”
Through out my life there have been many questions that have plagued my mind, but this particular question more than others. I too have wondered what the purpose of marriage was, why it was sacred, and why do most fail. If it’s supposed to be about companionship then why do people wind up leaving each other? Moreover I wonder why were there so many people that go on the dating scene, cruise the bar for a little action, only to be let down in some way. This Janie experiences with three failed marriages: one with a man she was never in love with, one with a man whom she fell out of love with, and one with a man she had to kill to keep from being killed. So what is the answer?
The answer to that question is simple; love. Though the answer is very simple to understand, it’s very complicated to attain. Since the beginning of man, from the bible’s point of view, man has always strived hard for love and tried to fulfill the need to have someone to be emotionally connected to. Even from birth, an infant strives for its parental figures attention and love. This child will go through extreme measures to fulfill that need and when it isn’t fulfilled properly it often leads to abandonment issues and scars the child for life. As portrayed through her dream about the pear tree Janie is striving and has a deep yearning for love. She never met her father. Her mother was never around long enough to fulfill that need and she lost the one person who did love. But it’s through Janie’s story that Hurston explores the concepts of love, what it has to do with marriage, finding love and loving you.
As displayed through Janie’s marriages, and looking at most people’s marriages today, marriage doesn’t end loneliness. She was married three times and in each marriage she felt a certain degree of loneliness. There are people today that are married but will feel lonely with their spouse sitting right beside them. I’ve known people to be alone that live in a house full of people. The reason for this is a lack of love and that is exactly Janie’s problem. Her situation is comparable to that of a child. All children have a need for love and when that need is fulfilled properly it often leads to abandonment issues and scars the child for life. This causes a child to begin to feel emotions of rejection and search for love in the wrong places. Janie experiences this when she won’t allow herself to feel Mr. Killick’s love for her and when she is eager to run off with Jody immediately after meeting him.
Also displayed through Janie’s marriages is that love might compel marriage but marriage doesn’t compel love. At the beginning of her relationship with Jody love was there but soon it was gone. Just as quick as love can enter a person’s heart even before the thought of marriage occurs, it can just as quickly be wiped from the person’s heart after marriage and the person can lose interest and, just like a child feeling rejection, reject love from those that do love them. This will also lead them reject sound advice from others, like when Janie was advised by her friend to be careful in dealing with Tea Cake.
In the end all the complications that involve love doesn’t really matter. As Janie learns loving yourself is the most important thing even if you can’t find the right one, or you aren’t able to fulfill that need for love through another person. That what a lot of people have to learn to do; be independent and love themselves instead of causing yourself pain by trying to find love through other’s.
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