Padilla 1
Charles Padilla
Ms. Shwartz
October 4, 2013
Independence
Companionship is important; many people find comfort and happiness in interpersonal relationships and the unpleasant feeling of loneliness is usually quelled when with a group of people. However, relationships can be negative and being in groups usually leads to conformity with no unique individuals. People can find comfort, uniqueness, happiness and spiritual-fulfillment independently. Relations and companionship are necessary for a fulfilling life, but anyone can find fulfillment and enjoyment through independence. In the book Their Eyes were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character Janie usually finds herself in distasteful relationships. Janie’s first relationship is with Logan Killicks, an older man and farmer who hopes for a wife that can assist with house cleaning and farm work. Initially, the relationship is warm and positive but soon degenerates to a relationship with no love and forced labor. Janie is not satisfied with this and eventually runs off with Jody Starks, a pompous man with a desire to become the mayor of small a town. Jody does become mayor of the town and is responsible for convincing Janie to run off with him and the two eventually marry, but the marriage is far from pleasant. Jody achieves his dream of success and carries on a god-complex,

Padilla 2 alienating him from the towns people and suppressing the freedom of Janie. Janie is treated as trophy wife; she unable to do anything and her image helps reinforce Jody’s powerful position. Although obviously capable of though and speech, Janie is silenced by Jody, leaving all the talking to him. Jody also chooses to hide Janie’s natural beauty by making her tie her hair, a symbol of her attractiveness, under a head rag. Their relationship reaches an embarrassing climax with Jody humiliated by Janie, prompting him to beat her. Jody eventually passes away and Janie finds herself in another relationship with a younger man named Tea Cake. Tea Cake sees Janie as who she is and Janie sees this relation as way of fulfilling her dreams. Tea Cake and Janie marry, their marriage has its ups and downs, but Janie sees that she got what she wanted: a marriage with love. However, this marriage ends sadly when Janie is forced to shoot Tea Cake in self-defense due to Tea Cake’s contraction of rabies. Janie ultimately finishes her quest for spiritual fulfillment independently. Although it was a self-centered goal, Janie is free from all the unpleasant relationships. This leaves her with a deep connection to the world, showing that independence fulfilled her dream; she’s alone but she doesn’t feel alone. I find myself more in favor of independence over companionship. Although I’m around people ALL the time, I find more enjoyment in being alone. I spend a huge amount of time being with people I know and I’m usually not seen alone. To me it seems like I don’t have time for myself and I’m usually finding ways to have my thoughts for myself. When I am on my own, I honestly feel like I’m free from any annoyance and it also feels like there’s enough room to breathe and think. Talking to people brings obvious

Padilla 3 enjoyment to everyone and it comes easy to me, but I find myself more at peace when there are no voices but my own. It has been shown that confessing problems to someone else eases the trouble, I can talk to someone if I need to, however I feel like there are problems that I think would be awkward to share. So it feels more comfortable to fix problems independently since I see it easier to analyze my problems on my own. Knowing that there are problems that other people may find difficult to understand, solving my own problems comes easy when I’m by myself since I do understand myself more than anyone. Although I do enjoy company, I find more comfort being on my own. The song “Little Boxes” by