55 pages • 1 hour read
Zora Neale HurstonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
The protagonist of the novel, Janie Crawford is long-haired African American woman—the product of two generations of rape—who begins the novel as an object of curiosity and past scandal. To her friend Pheoby, she recounts her life story and the quest for love that led to the scandal.
Janie’s ideas of love and sexuality begin when she is an idealistic 16-year-old with a strong desire for physical and emotional connection, as seen in her coming-of-age moment beneath the pear tree. Janie’s grandmother, however, sees marriage as an arrangement designed to ensure security. Nanny pushes her to marry Logan Killicks, a crude but financially secure farmer that Janie does not love. The marriage fails; Janie leaves Logan and marries Joe Starks, a self-important man who convinces her that marrying him would fulfill her desire for adventure. She moves to Eatonville to help him build the new town, but Joe is a deeply patriarchal man with traditional notions of marriage and women. Until her forties, Janie lives an unsatisfied life of obedience and silence, conforming to Joe’s expectations.
Janie finally achieves some degree of freedom after Joe’s death. Janie follows her heart and marries Tea Cake Woods, scandalizing Eatonville.
By Zora Neale Hurston
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Zora Neale Hurston
Drenched in Light
Drenched in Light
Zora Neale Hurston
Dust Tracks on a Road
Dust Tracks on a Road
Zora Neale Hurston
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
Zora Neale Hurston
How It Feels To Be Colored Me
How It Feels To Be Colored Me
Zora Neale Hurston
Jonah's Gourd Vine
Jonah's Gourd Vine
Zora Neale Hurston
Moses, Man of the Mountain
Moses, Man of the Mountain
Zora Neale Hurston
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Mules and Men
Mules and Men
Zora Neale Hurston
Seraph on the Suwanee
Seraph on the Suwanee
Zora Neale Hurston
Spunk
Spunk
Zora Neale Hurston
Sweat
Sweat
Zora Neale Hurston
Tell My Horse
Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica
Zora Neale Hurston
The Eatonville Anthology
The Eatonville Anthology
Zora Neale Hurston
The Gilded Six-Bits
The Gilded Six-Bits
Zora Neale Hurston