Janie And Edna example essay topic

... ng check and also contents? go hard on me please... thank you In the beginning of the 20th century, it was a new era for everything, especially literature. Two new and unique literary movements began; Local Color and Naturalism. Local Color with its distinct character tone and Naturalism with its weak main character was knowingly cherished by readers. As a response to Darwinism and the inequality in America, Naturalism opened Americans' eyes of the individual being defeated by society. Local Color freed the minds of the readers as well as the writers by putting the tone of the actual character, not everyone being sophisticated and educated. Despite the fact that Naturalism and Local Color was love, there were two notorious books of each kind; The Awakening, Naturalism, and Their Eyes were Watching God, Local Color.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin was banned from most of the places and Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, a talented African-American writer, was hated by her own race. Both of the books have a main character that searches for life's delirium; Edna Pontellier and Janie Starks. Their idea of life's delirium was to find the perfect marriage run by love and find the true joy by and through love. Though they seem to carry the same conflict, they have similarities as well as differences in both of the novels and the characters.

Though they are coming from two different literary movements, The Awakening and Their Eyes were Watching God's main character Janie Starks and Edna Pontellier had similarities. They were similar in that they both didn't marry because they loved their spouse. Janie was forced to marry Logan because her grandmother wanted Janie to be happy with a rich man before she leaves Earth. Instead of considering what Janie would want, love, Janie's grandma made Janie do it her way. Janie was asking herself, "did marriage compel love like the sun the day?" Edna married because she wanted to rebel against her parents.

Her father hating the fact that Leonce was Catholic pushed it off the edge for her wanting to get married. "Add to this the violent opposition of her father... (and) we need seek no further for the motives which led her to accept (Leonce)". Both of these characters got bored of their marriage. Janie never loved Logan, making her run away from him, and Edna's love for Leonce died as soon as the fact that she was rebelling towards her parents disappeared. Both of these characters, bored with their marriage, went out to look for their delirium. They both found another man to experience true love and true happiness with.

Janie found the true love after Jody died and when she met Tea-Cake and Edna found her true love with Robert. Though with the similar characters and similar goals, the two characters were very different on how they accomplished their goals and the way they handled their matters. The biggest and the most obvious difference would be the fact that Edna was white and Janie was black and that they were on a different social class. While Edna wasn't happy with all the money she had, Janie found true love and happiness with Tea-Cake, an adventurer who was very poor.

Edna gave up her life, being crushed by the society, and Janie found the life's delirium and accomplished her goal without being crushed by the society, and not even caring what the society thought about her. Janie enjoyed the life's delirium and felt good. When Janie and Edna both found love, Janie stuck to it, but Edna couldn't go any further, sleeping with another man to find that pleasure. This makes both of them a survivor of accomplishment of love, but their response to it was different. Edna felt bad toward sleeping with a man she didn't love. "There was with her (Edna) an overwhelming feeling of irresponsibility".

Janie, on the other hand, was natural about marrying two guys and marrying Tea-Cake not too long after Jody died. When Phoeby didn't want Janie to sound happy, Janie replied, "Let " em say what dey wants t uh, Phoeby. To my think in' mourning ought't t uh last longer'n grief". Edna, being destroyed by society, was the epitome of Naturalism, and Janie, being a survivor, surely was full of hope and was the epitome of Local Color. Edna was a weak main character who died by what society told her and gave up her life.

Though she fell in love with Robert, she didn't end up with him because she was too weak. She wasn't strong enough and she gave up on herself and Robert. "He (Robert) would never understand... and her strength was gone". Janie, on the other hand, was a very strong character. She failed to find her joy or life's delirium, from both of her first two husband, Logan and Jody, but she didn't give up.

Although she was old, she didn't give up hope to marry another man who she can find true love with. She wasn't hesitant about anything, because she didn't care what others had to say, and went with her own intuition. She was very confident that she was doing the right thing and others were all wrong. "They got t uh go t uh God, and they got t uh find out about liv in' fun they selves". She knew that she was doing the right thing and the society couldn't stop her from marrying Tea-Cake. From these two novels, we see the difference in Naturalism and Local Color, especially by the main characters' actions.

On the search for life's delirium, both Edna and Janie found it, but Edna failed to keep that joy. Both of their first marriage wasn't base on love and that is the reason why both of their marriage failed. On Janie's case, both of her first two husbands were rich, but she didn't find the joy until she met poor adventurer, Tea Cake. Edna, looking for excitement, wanted to rebel against her dad by marrying Leonce. She found the joy sucked out and died. She was very rich when she hated her life.

Ironically, materialistic people believes opposite; strong belief of money buying happiness. This seems like a case that goes against that theory; money can't buy happiness and those two are very opposite.