For my IOP I chose to analyze the way Hurston uses animals in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" to symbolize the varying degrees of suffering felt by women in a male dominant society. The first animal I really began analyzing was the mule. The mule represents the direct abuse that women receive at the hands of men. This means physical abuse, lack of emotional care, dominance and such things. This is portrayed through the way the town talks about the mule, how it is starved and so skinny that the women use his ribs for a washboard. This illustrates the lack of emotional care given to Janie by Joe Starks. Janie is a larger metaphor of women and the animals depict what she experiences throughout the novel. Though Joe gives her all the material things she desires he does not openly show his affection to her and this causes her to question her marriage. Jody also forces her to be submissive under his voice, he fights with her and continues to degrade her until she complies with what he wants. Even after she has given way he still crushes her even lower which is exhibited by Joe standing on the dead mule and using the body as a platform. Even Tea Cake, Janie's best and most loving husband, still demonstrates dominance over her. When he whips her just to show that he is boss. The word whip instead of beats denotes that Janie is lowering than human, because a whip is something you would use on a beast of burden to maintain power over it.
p.s. I didn't originally write my journals on the blog, I just typed them all at once. Sorry that it's a little out of order and scatter brained.
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