their eyes were watching god analysis essay

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Introduction of their eyes were watching god.

Termed as the classic book from the Harlem Renaissance, Their Eyes were Watching God created a niche in the American African literature within the category of American literature. Zora Neal Hurston published it in 1937 when the Harlem Renaissance was at its peak. The novel presents the story of Janie Crawford, an African American girl, her growth as from a naïve young girl into a woman, along with the sufferings she goes through during her life. Despite its poor early reviews, the novel gained immense popularity with the rising awareness about the rights of the African American people in the United States.

Summary of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Janie Crawford recollects her life and the times when she was growing up. She is now in her forties and her reflection takes her back to her blossoming puberty when she receives first the attention of a local boy, Johnny Taylor, who kisses her, showing his love for her. Though, her grandmother happens to be observing them guides her about her first reactions.

Then Nanny narrates her ordeal that she was molested by her owner during her slavery. Leafy, the birth of that incident, then, becomes the center of her eyes. Therefore, she makes a successful escape during the Civil War to break the yoke of slavery. When Leafy is young and attends a school, she too is molested by her teacher. She gives birth to Janie, who is now narrating the story of her life. That terrible ordeal leaves Leafy as an alcoholic and frustrated, leaving her daughter, Janie, with Nanny.

When Nanny sees this responsibility on her shoulder, she hopes that marrying Janie to Logan Killicks, an old farmer would let her have a stable life. On the contrary to her expectations, Killicks needs a domestic assistant and not a wife, while he thinks Janie of not any help to him. Janie seeks advice from Nanny who taunts her for not being grateful to Killicks for providing her a good life having no financial worries. However, Nanny soon breathes her last, leaving Janie alone in this world. When Janie sees that there is nobody to ask her about her actions, she finds Joe Starks, a talkative person with whom she elopes to Florida to live in an African American town of Eatonville. Joe Starks becomes the mayor of the town on account of his glib tongue and hard work. However, Janie rather feels that she has become a trophy instead of his wife. He not only abuses her but also begins to insult her and joke about her in front of people. Although Janie does not leave her, she hates him. During an accident, instead of helping him, she watches him die before her eyes. Later, she gives him a proper and respectable burial.

When men of the town come across the rich widow of Joe Starks, they offer their hands but Vergible Woods who is famously called Tea Cake captures her heart. Although his initial treatment is very loving and kind, Janie becomes enamored with his musical quality and loving attitude and soon leaves Eatonville to Belle Glade to marry him. When life takes its routine, the sourness creeps in their relationship as Tea Cake does not have regular work to afford her household expenses. However, she is satisfied with the relationship but soon a hurricane hits the area hard, making all others tun for their lives. During this survival struggle, a rabid dog bites Tea Cake when he tries to save Janie. In his fit of madness, he tries to kill Janie but she shoots him.

Soon the trail becomes the talk of the town, where white women come to support Janie. She wins her acquittal but arranges a good funeral for her dead husband. Although friends of her dead husband permit her to stay in Everglades, she returns to Eatonville and raises rumors in the town with her open and liberal outlook. The story ends with the note of her conversation with her former friend, Phoeby.

Major Themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Financial Security: The novel shows the financial deprivations of the African American community through Nanny’s character . When she finds that farmer Killicks is willing to take Janie in marriage, she feels her granddaughter will be financially secured. She also rebukes and taunts her saying that she should not be ungrateful. Janie, however, does not find it soul-satisfying and leaves Killicks and elopes with Joe. Joe is a hardworking but rude person, who takes her to Eatonville, making her a rich lady of the town. Therefore, financial security is of paramount importance for Nanny, though, not for Janie.
• Power : Power works in different ways in the novel, as Nanny has power over Janie to get her married. While her new husband, Killicks, too, exercises his power of money. When she becomes too dependent on him, she leaves him for Joe Starks, who uses the power of persuasion but when it comes to physical power by the end, she kills Tea Cake to stop his suffering after he is bitten by a rabid dog. Therefore, the thematic strand of power echoes throughout the novel.
• Love: The theme of love echoes at different places in the novel. Although Nanny finds love, yet she does not find it sincere, for she has to look for financial security. Therefore, she prefers financial security for her granddaughter to love, but Janie does not accept it and leaves Logan Killicks for Joe Starks, and finally for Tea Cake after his death. She even shoots Tea Cake dead, out of pity and love, when he poses a threat to her life. Therefore, power is a minor thematic strand in the big scheme of things of this novel.
• Sexuality: The theme of sexuality is tied to the character of Janie when she meets Johnny the first time. Zora Neal Hurston has demonstrated this theme in the novel through vegetative blossoming. Nanny knows the power of this feature and uses it to the advantage of Janie to win the favor of Logan Killicks. Janie also uses the same sexuality to get closer to Joe and later Tea Cake.
• Gender: The gender role, its significance, and the role of the female is another theme of the novel. In fact, the novel revolves around the feminine gender in that Nanny knows that she has suffered due to her being a female, she makes Janie aware of her significance and its use in exploiting the patriarchal structure comprising Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. Although she successfully hooks Joe after leaving Logan, she fails to save Tea Cake who becomes a victim of a rabid dog’s bite. She returns to her original role of weaving tales with Phoeby.
• Independence: The novel shows the desire of Nanny to make Janie independent by arranging her marriage to Logan Killicks. Though, her concept of independence is quite different, for she, as a human being, also needs emotional support and independence. That is why she elopes with Joe but ends up meeting Tea Cake after his death. Despite this far journey in her life, the feminine desire to shed off the shackles of the patriarchy does not make her a meek creature and she kills Tea Cake in the end when she sees him as a threat to her life.
• Racial Identity: The novel shows racial identity in that Nanny knows that the life of her granddaughter, Janie, as an African American girl, is not secure on social and as well as financial grounds. This identity goes with Nanny, with Leafy, and then with their third generation, Janie Therefore, she prepares her granddaughter about the importance of financial status and its impacts on the racial identity of a person. This also becomes clear through the obsession of Mrs. Turner.
• Judgment: The novel shows the theme of the people being judgemental in different ways. Janie feels that people talk about her status, appearance, and acts. When she returns and narrates her long tale to Pheoby, the people of the area gossip and spread rumors about her past.
• Money: The novel shows the theme of labor and the importance of money in life through Nanny’s life, her daughter Leafy and then Janie. Nanny, specifically, knows the value of money when she marries Jane to Logan. Her main concern is Janie’s financial strength and not her desire for happiness.

Major Characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Janie Crawford: Partly white and partly African American, Janie Crawford is the daughter of Leafy and Nanny’s granddaughter. Janie marries Logan Killicks on the insistence of her grandmother, Nanny, but she leaves him for Joe Starks for his gift of conversation and persuasive power. However, feeling suppressed to her femininity, she becomes fed up of his limitations when they succeed in Eatonville where after Joe’s demise, she finds a bubbling young man, Tea Cake, who afterward tries to kill her when a rabid dog bites him. But she kills him with a pistol in self-defense. Later, the white women gather around to testify in her favor to assist her to win freedom after which she returns to her old town.
• Nanny Crawford: She is the grandmother of the protagonist , Janie, and also her guide and guardian. She reproaches her for being thankless to Logan Killicks when she complains of discomfort and dissatisfaction. She sets the course of life of Janie, thinking financial support and strength count much in life, oblivious to the fact that love plays an important role.
• Joe Starks: Joe Starks plays an important role in the novel. At first, Janie loves him and elopes with him, leaving Logan Killicks, the landowner and her first husband. However, he is not only ambitious but also hard-working and establishes a good business in Eatonville where he reaches the post of the mayor of the town and wins popularity and honor among the locals. Yet, in terms of femininity, he is a traditional patriarch and does not let Janie go freely in the public. His role, however, ends, when he breathes his last after an illness.
• Vergible Woods or Tea Cake: Woods or Tea Cake is an interesting character who sees Janie as a rich widow and himself a pauper worth of her to make his life good. An artist, engaged in gambling, he knows how to exploit a woman and situation. However, bad luck occurs when a rabid dog bites him by the end of the novel after which he tries to harm Janie under the influence of rabies, but she shoots him dead.
• Logan Killicks: The problem of Logan Killicks is that he is complaining about Janie that she does not thank him for providing comfort and financial security to her. However, he is oblivious that as a sensuous young girl, she also needs love, tenderness, and kindness , the reason that she becomes fed up and abandons him in favor of Joe Starks, who is very sweet in his talking but very hard in dealing.
• Leafy: Leafy is Nanny’s daughter and Janie’s mother and appears in the novel for a short time, leaving very strong impressions. As the progeny of Nanny, she becomes the victim of abuse by her teacher and after giving birth to Janie, she disappears.
• Pheoby Watson: She appears in the beginning and by the end and seems a very helping hand to others. She advises the protagonist, Janie, to abandon her reckless life but supports her through thick and thin. She is the main interlocutor of her narrative .
• Annie Tyler: Annie, the rich window, runs with the man younger than her. Janie is often found of making a comparison of her life with that widow when she also runs with Woods or Tea Cake.
• Johnny Taylor and Mrs. Turner: These are two minor characters; the first one leads to sexual awakening in Janie and the second one prefers caucasian features and being white. Both play an important role in the events in the life of Janie.

Writing Style of Their Eyes Were Watching God

True to her style , Zora Neal Hurston has used colloquial or conversational style in the novel. It shows the true accent of that the African Americans of the South existing during the early period of the 20 th century. Although the narrator becomes quite poetic at times, the conversation intervenes at places to make it a representative of the African American community. Shortened forms, broken syntax , simple diction , ironic, and sometimes somberly tragic tone and highly figurative language have made its style unique. It also shows the rhythm and specific musical quality of the African American accent.

Analysis of Literary Devices in Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Action: The main action of the novel comprises Janie Crawford’s search for true love in racially divided America . The rising action occurs when Janie runs away from Logan with Joe Starks to Eatonville. The falling action occurs when she kills Tea Cake when he suffers from rabies, by the end of her defense, and is finally released by the jury on the intervention of the white women on her behalf.
• Anaphora : Their Eyes were Watching God shows the use of anaphora . For example, i. It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. (Chapter-1) ii. Big Lake Okechobee, big beans, big cane, big weeds, big everything. (Chapter-14) The sentence shows the repetitious use of “it was the time” and “big.”
• Antagonist : Their Eyes were Watching God shows the search for self or the circumstances as the main antagonist in Janie’s life. As she meets and flees with different men and sadly kills Tea Cake, her last husband. However, she does seem to fit with any one of them; although they all seem, antagonists, the real antagonist of the novel is her search for happiness and satisfaction.
• Allusion : There are various examples of allusions given in the novel. i. “Dat mornin’ on de big plantation close to Savannah, a rider come in a gallop tellin’ ’bout Sherman takin’ Atlanta. (Chapter-2) ii. Freein’ dat mule makes uh mighty big man outa you. Something like George Washington and Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln, he had de whole United States tuh rule so he freed de Negroes. (Chapter-6) iii. They had him up for conversation every day the Lord sent. (Chapter-6) iv. Chink up your cracks, shiver in your wet beds and wait on the mercy of the Lord. (Chapter-18) v. When God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered all over. Then after that some angels got jealous and chopped him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. (Chapter-9) The first two allusions are related to the American Civil War characters, while the latter is related to Christianity.
• Conflict : The are two types of conflicts in the novel. The first one is the external conflict that is going on between Janie and different men such as Logan Killicks, then Joe Starks, and finally with Tea Cake. Then there is an internal conflict that is going on between Janie and the prevalent value of the culture.
• Characters: Their Eyes were Watching God presents both static as well as dynamic characters. Janie Crawford is a dynamic character as she goes through a transformation during her marriage spree. However, the rest of the characters do not see any change in their behavior, as they are static characters such as Tea Cake, Nanny, Leafy, or Logan Killicks.
• Chiasmus : The novel shows the use of chiasmus in the following example, i. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember , and remember everything they don’t want to forget. (Chapter-1) The sentence shows the use of chiasmus as the first clause has been reversed for impacts.
• Climax : The climax takes when Janie and Tea Cake come face to face and Janie feels that if she does not shot at Tea Cake she is going to die at his hands.
• Foreshadowing : The novel shows the following examples of foreshadowing : i. Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some, they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. (Chapter-1) ii. The town had a basketful of feelings good and bad about Joe’s positions and possessions, but none had the temerity to challenge him. They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down.  (Chapter-8) These quotes from Their Eyes were Watching God foreshadow the coming events; the first one about the difficult times for Janie and the second for her husband, Jody or Joe Starks.
• Hyperbole : Hyperbole or exaggeration occurs in the novel at various places such as: i. Every tear you drop squeezes a cup uh blood outa mah heart. Ah got tuh try and do for you befo’ mah head is cold. (Chapter-2) ii. If you can stand not to chop and tote wood Ah reckon you can stand not to git no dinner. ’Scuse mah freezolity, Mist’ Killicks, but Ah don’t mean to chop de first chip. (Chapter-4) The above sentences are hyperboles, and also they show how Janie is using this device when she is in different situations in her first marriage.
• Imagery : Imagery means to use images such as given in the novel: i. It was a cityfied, stylish dressed man with his hat set at an angle that didn’t belong in these parts. His coat was over his arm, but he didn’t need it to represent his clothes. The shirt with the silk sleeveholders was dazzling enough for the world. (Chapter-4) ii. The great clap of laughter that they have been holding in, bursts out. Sam never cracks a smile. “Yeah, Matt, dat mule so skinny till de women is usin’ his rib bones fuh uh rub-board, and hangin’ things out on his hockbones tuh dry. (Chapter-6) iii. Morning came without motion. The winds, to the tiniest, lisping baby breath had left the earth. Even before the sun gave light, dead day was creeping from bush to bush watching man. (Chapter-18). These examples show different images taken from the novel such as the images of sound, color, and nature.
• Metaphor : Their Eyes were Watching God shows good use of various metaphors . For example, i. So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time. But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gate and expect things. (Chapter-3) ii. She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. (Chapter-3) iii. Nature got so high in uh black hen she got tuh lay uh white egg. Now you tell me, how come, whut got intuh man dat he got tuh have hair round his mouth? Nature!”(Chapter-6) iv. Rumor, that wingless bird, had shadowed over the town. (Chapter-8)
• Motif : Most important motifs of the novel are community, racism, religion, and family.
• Narrator : The novel is narrated by a third person narrator, who is Zora Neal herself.
• Personification : The novel shows the use of personification at several places. For example, i. Business was dull all day, because numbers of people had gone to the game. (Chapter-10) ii. The sounds lulled Janie to soft slumber and she woke up with Tea Cake combing her hair. (Chapter-11) These examples show business and sounds as having human attributes.
• Protagonist : Janie is the protagonist of the novel. The novel starts with his entry into the world when she is narrating her tale and ends it at the same place.
• Rhetorical Questions : The novel shows good use of rhetorical questions at several places. For example, i. Look like he took pleasure in doing it. Why couldn’t he go himself sometimes? (Chapter-6) ii. Now and again she thought of a country road at sun-up and considered flight. To where? To what? Then too she considered thirty-five is twice seventeen and nothing was the same at all. (Chapter-7) This example shows the use of rhetorical questions posed but different characters not to elicit answers but to stress upon the underlined idea.
• Setting : The setting of the novel is the rural area of Florida, specifically, Eatonville.
• Simile : The novel shows good use of various similes. For example, i. But mostly she lived between her hat and her heels, with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods—come and gone with the sun. (Chapter-7) ii. His prosperous-looking belly that used to thrust out so pugnaciously and intimidate folks, sagged like a load suspended from his loins. (Chapter-7) iii. But even these things were running down like candle grease as time moved on. (Chapter-8) These are similes as the use of the word “like” shows the comparison between different things.
• Situational Irony : The situational irony exists in the novel at the point where Janie marries Tea Cake and comes to the point about love. Both pay attention to each other and understand each other but then she shoots him dead, as he forces her or better to say his disease, rabies, forces her to kill him.

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Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay (Book Review)

General analysis, mule as a main symbol in the story, novel criticism.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston in 1937. It is a story about an African American woman, Janie Crawford, her lifelong search for love and self-assertion.

In 1937, the times of the Great Depression, the novel did not get recognition as it gets today. Black people criticized the ideas presented in the story a lot. They said that Hurston had not underlined the real treatment of whites to South blacks. They argued that demoralization had not been described as it was in real. Only in the 1970s, the book was rediscovered and began studied by students. The essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God shall analyze Hurston’s story about African American women in 1930s.

One of the peculiar features of the work is the form chosen by the author. Hurston begins and ends the story with one and the same setting and people. The main character, Janie, tells the story of her life to one of her friends, Pheoby Watson.

Her story is a kind of trip to Janie’s past life via a huge flashback.

To describe Janie’s story of life, the author uses a high number of metaphors and symbolism. First of all, it is necessary to clear up what a metaphor actually means.

“In cognitive linguistic view, metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain of another conceptual domain.” (Kövecses 4)

In the novel, there are three brightest examples of metaphors: a pear tree, the image of the horizon, and mules. Two first examples are about Janie’s dreams and hopes. Janie climbs the pear tree to see the horizon. She wants to know what else is around her. She has a dream to make a trip and discover what is so special beyond the horizon.

The third example of metaphor, a mule, is an image of African American’s status during the Great Depression. Hurston tries to underline the plight of African American workers by comparing them with the mules.

The literary analysis essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God evidences consistent usage of symbolism in the novel.The image of mules represents Janie’s life, her searching, and her social status. Actually, mules represent Janie’s position in several ways.

With each stage of her life, Janie realizes more and more that her life is almost like the life of an ordinary mule. When Janie is a child, her grandmother, Nanny, usually compares black women and mules. She says: “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see” (Hurston 14). Nanny tries to explain to her granddaughter how helpless the status of African American women in society is.

Nanny does not see another way for a good and free life for her Janie but a marriage. It is not that important to marry for love and happiness. Granny tells that love and joy may come with time. A family is the very place where true love will appear. This is why Nanny finds a good option for her daughter.

Inexperienced Janie has nothing to do but obey her granny, and she agrees to get married to Logan Killicks, an old farmer who needs a wife to keep the house and helps on the farm. She truly believes that in this marriage, she will find true love and become happy. Unfortunately, it was only her dreams.

Just like a mule, Janie is forced to work in the field with her husband. Janie continues to believe that, working together, she will be able to become closer to her husband. However, being closer was not the objective of her husband. The primary purpose that Logan wants to achieve is his financial prosperity, nothing more. Janie cannot stand such an attitude anymore. The only way she sees is to leave her husband and start a new life. She desperately thinks that her new lover, Jody Starks, will help her.

They come to a new town, where Jody becomes a major. However, the situation does not change considerably. Now, Janie’s role is to be a trophy wife.

A situation with Matt Bonner’s mule can serve as one more example to find more connection between the life of the mule and Janie’s life.

As is clear from the summary, Jody Starks tempted Janie with his money and burning ambitions. He made her fall in love with him and took away from the husband. The same thing happens with Bonner’s mule. He buys the mule and takes it away from Bonner just to make it his property. This mule becomes one of the major themes for discussions. It is a centerpiece of the town, as well as Janie (because she is a major’s wife).

“The association between the mule’s liberation and its release from the debt of slavery comments in interesting ways on Janie’s own life history.” (Joseph 146).

Janie feels sorry for that poor mule. Maybe, it happens because she compares herself with it. She also suffers from abuse and sneers from other people. She cannot get into a way of being a major’s wife, listening, and obeying each word of her husband. Even though she has a better job (now, she should not work in the field but in the office), she does not feel satisfied. Such a “golden cage” is not for her.

It is also essential to underline one more situation that happens with Bonner’s mule and Janie. When the mule died, Jody does not allow Janie to go to the funeral. What are the reasons for such a decision? It is so evident that the mule symbolizes Janie’s life. In this case, why does Jody allow the mule to die and be eaten by the birds? Does he want the same destiny for his wife? Or, can it be that Jody wants to prove that even after the death, he can control the situation?

However, in any case, the mule’s death is a symbol of Janie’s freeing, at least, her soul. This death changes Janie in some way. Now, she is more or less ready to leave Jody and continue her search for freedom and happiness.

There is one more thing that needs to be considered – the color of Matt Bonner’s mule. It was yellow. Yellow is referred to light-skinned African Americans, just like Janie Crawford is. Is it a coincidence or one more technique used by the author? Maybe, it is one more attempt to underline an unbelievable resemblance to the status of an African American woman and a working mule.

Of course, the way Hurston chooses to describe the status of working black women was a bit offensive. To represent the terrible attitude of whites to black workers, the writer picks out mules. These animals have to obey their masters. They have nothing to do but work all the time.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God resolution,the main character of the novel, Janie Crawford, should follow the same way. She wants to find true love and become free as it is in human nature. Unfortunately, her path is not that easy. Too many obstacles are in her way.

“Hurston’s heroine, Janie, progresses through a series of destructive relationships with men before finally choosing solitude and reflection as the resolution to her quest.” (Nash 74)

At the end of the story, Janie kills her true love. She has to do it to save her own life. Such a decision is the brightest evidence of her strengths and her only desire to survive and be free.

Zora Hurston created the novel during the times of the Great Depression. These were the times when African American female writers were rather rare. Because of serious critiques and discontents of either whites or blacks, lots of her works were overlooked and even not published.

In the 1970s, Alice Walker reintroduced Hurston’s works. She wrote: “Her best novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), is regarded as one of the most poetic works of fiction by a black writer in the first half of the twentieth century, and one of the most revealing treatments in modern literature of a woman’s quest for a satisfying life.” (Walker A. 6)

Zora Hurston described Janie as a strong and courageous woman who never stopped her searching for independence and happiness. It was an unusual theme for those times. The essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God showed that the vast majority of African American women could not demonstrate their characters and represent their own ideas at the time. It was a risky step, and the writer was not afraid to take it. Her attempt may be justified as the book is great, and all the techniques are appropriately used.

Joseph, Philip. American Literary Regionalism in a Global Age. United States: LSU Press, 2007.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. United States: University of Illinois Press, 1991.

Hemenway, Robert. E. and Walker A. Zora Hurston: A Literary Biography. United States: University of Illinois Press, 1980.

Kövecses, Zoltán. Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. United States: Oxford University Press US, 2002.

Nash, William R. Charles Johnson’s Fiction. United States: University of Illinois Press, 2003.

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IvyPanda. (2022, December 9). Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God. https://ivypanda.com/essays/their-eyes-were-watching-god/

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Bibliography

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Themes and Analysis

Their eyes were watching god, by zora neale hurston.

‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ by Zora Neale Hurston carries a range of themes based on the time period within which the book is concentrated on. Among these themes are those bordering on love, desire for freedom, selfhood, and equality - as well as themes on gender roles and racial prejudices.

About the Book

Written by Victor Onuorah

Degree in Journalism from University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

The reader gets to see the majority of these themes play out in the life of Janie Crawford – who takes up the mantle as the main act in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God. ’ Zora starts off her adventure as a teenager who is not afraid to be different but returns as a woman who is more experienced with life after having to endure the challenges and hardships across three marriages. The most frontal themes in the book will be discussed.

Love, Acceptance, and Appreciation 

Janie Crawford’s journey in ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God ’ begins and ends with her search for a marital relationship where she would share with her spouse true love, be accepted and appreciated by him, and not just see her as just another belonging or property. Unfortunately for the times in which she lives, these qualities are rare in men, and so it takes her three marriages to find something close to these.

A desire for Freedom, Selfhood, and Equality

With Janie entering her first two marriages – first with Logan Killicks and later with Jody Starks – she doesn’t get the freedom to be herself, nor does she enjoy independence or selfhood in the marriage. Talks of equality are even a joke with her first two spouses – who can’t see her being anything more than just a mere housewife, one who has little to no respect, zero decision-making, and zero purposes except the obvious – being a housewife. She can’t settle for such a life and seeks freedom from it, the result of which often ends in her separation from them.

Negative Gender Roles

The social and political clime in ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God ’ already has an underlying negative gender stereotype slapped on the women in the book’s reality – in which case they are reduced to playing the role of housewives, not allowed to have a meaningful impact in the decision making of the family while not also allowed to have and pursue their dreams.

Racial Injustice 

Throughout the book, there are bits and pieces of racial conflicts and issues, and although Hurston’s interest is not to focus too much on this subject, it is clearly exhibited by a number of frontal characters like Mrs. Turner.

Key Moments in ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’

• Janie returns to Eatonville in shabby apparel and without Tea Cake, her husband. 
• Ignoring the villagers and their judging eyes, she tells her best friend Phoeby the truth about what had happened to her.
• In her story, she takes us back to how her birth mother abandons her, and she’s raised by Nanny, her grandmother. 
• Nanny marries her off to Logan Killicks, a potato farmer, twice her age and controlling. 
• She leaves him, runs off, and marries Joe Starks for the next 20 years – settling at Eatonville. 
• Ambitious Joe gains fame, makes a fortune in business, and becomes the mayor – but still controls and doesn’t allow Janie the independence and support that she needs. 
• She leaves him after he beats her following an argument. She doesn’t return until she hears Joe is on his deathbed.
• Less than a year after Joe dies, Janie weds Tea Cake and finds the true love and best treatment that she’s always wanted. 
• She sells Joe’s investments to go live with Tea Cake in Jacksonville. 
• Tea Cake steals her money, runs away, returns back, and apologies. Janie forgives him.
• They move to Everglades, make friends, and live happily until a disastrous hurricane blows through their village. 
• A mad dog bites Tea Cake, and he falls sick and accuses Janie of cheating. 
• Tea Cake gets a gun to kill Janie but is instead killed by her. 
• Janie faces a trial for murder but is acquitted on account of self-defense. 
• She returns home to Eatonville with the satisfaction of having tasted the kind of freedom and independence her time with Tea Cake exposed her to. 

Style and Tone

Zora Neale Hurston is known to have, as her general writing style, a knack for infusing informal, demotic expressions peculiar to African Americans who dwelled in the South at the time. In ‘ Their Eyes We’re Watching God ,’ she replicates this style – building her major plots from black folklore while burnishing them with colloquial wit and feminist mentality. In terms of tone, there is a range of variety thrown in by Hurston – with the more prominent tone being that of empathy and affinity, as these are what the author feels towards the events going down around her primary character, Janie Crawford .

Figurative Languages 

Figurative expressions abound in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God ,’ however, some of the commonest found in the book includes – simile and metaphors.  

For simile, the expression below suffices to offer a better depth to the scenario Hurston tried to describe:

‘The morning road air was like a new dress.’

The quote above is one of several expressions of simile opted for by Hurston in her book ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God ,’ as she makes further portrays Janie’s positive state of mind after her separation from her first husband Logan Killicks.

Analysis of Symbols in ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’

The chair .

The chair used in Hurston’s ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God ’ represents the class system in the book’s reality, and although this is merely portrayed throughout the book, Janie’s time with the ambitious Joe Starks is essentially more remembered for this.

The Hurricane

The hurricane that hits Everglades, disrupting the lives of its dwellers – Janie and Tea Cake included – connotes the chaos and destruction that unexpectedly happens in life, and it just so happens when the couple is having a nice peaceful life together.

Janie’s Long Hair

Janie’s Caucasian hair is one of her most prized physical attributes that makes her very beautiful and wanted by a lot of her male suitors.

Does Janie Crawford ever get to see her mother in ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God ’?

Sadly, the book’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, doesn’t get to see her mother, Leafy, a troubled and traumatized woman whose readers are to flee from home shortly after Janie’s birth. 

What is the predominant theme in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God’ ?

The search for selfhood and true love are among the frontal themes of Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God ’ as it tells the story of a young woman who ventured across three marriages in search of true love and freedom to achieve her passions. 

What writing style does Hurston use in ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God ’? 

Zora Neale Hurston mostly deployed a combination of three styles: standard English, southern colloquial wits, and black American vernacular for her writings – which were a lot of times based on black people’s experiences through slavery and the civil war. 

What does Janie’s long hair symbolize?

Janie’s long hair represents her beauty and is the object of attraction for most men. She takes pride in them and wants to show them off to the world any chance she gets.

What is the tone of ‘ Their Eyes Were Watching God ’?

The book’s tone is generally of empathy and understanding, as the narrator is quick to argue in her defence and share her sentiments. 

About Victor Onuorah

Victor is as much a prolific writer as he is an avid reader. With a degree in Journalism, he goes around scouring literary storehouses and archives; picking up, dusting the dirt off, and leaving clean even the most crooked pieces of literature all with the skill of analysis.

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• Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston

• Literature Notes
• Book Summary
• About Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Character Analysis
• Janie Crawford Killicks Starks Woods
• Logan Killicks
• Vergible Tea Cake" Woods"
• Pheoby Watson
• The Porch Sitters
• The Migrants
• Character Map
• Zora Neale Hurston Biography
• Critical Essays
• Major Themes of Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Structure of Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Figurative Language in Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Use of Dialect in Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Full Glossary for Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Essay Questions
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Summary and Analysis Chapter 1

The porch sitters are spread out on the front porch of Pheoby and Sam Watson's home, happy to be free of the responsibilities of their long day's labor. They are astonished to see a bedraggled and weary-looking Janie Starks trudging into town, then turning her face in their direction. The women see her as a disaster, but the men see her as still possessing physical attraction. Janie speaks, acknowledges them, and goes on, and their indignation is great. How could she have the nerve not to stop and explain why she went off a year and a half ago in a blue satin dress and now she returns in dirty overalls?

Surely her husband — they assume she married the man, the guitar-playing, roving Tea Cake — took her money and probably went off with a younger woman. After all, Tea Cake was nearly ten years younger than Janie. They believe that Janie should have stopped and talked to them. The inherent jealousy of the women is quite apparent.

Janie's friend Pheoby defends her to the porch sitters. Pheoby believes that Janie does not have to share any of her personal business with them. Assuming that Janie is hungry, Pheoby volunteers to take Janie a pot of mulatto rice, and soon she finds her way through the darkness to Janie's back steps. Pheoby's motive is not completely unselfish. She is quietly certain that Janie will talk to her and explain what happened during the past year and a half. Janie welcomes her friend and the gift of food. She informs Pheoby that Tea Cake did not run off with the money that Joe left her. She reveals that the money is safe in the bank, but Tea Cake is dead. After Janie has rested for a while, cleaned and soothed her tired feet, and enjoyed the rice, she tells Pheoby about her months with Tea Cake.

Their Eyes Were Watching God opens with a focus on judgment, a powerful and prevalent theme in the novel. As Janie returns to Eatonville after a lengthy absence, the porch sitters treat her especially harshly when talking about her. They make it their business to criticize her past actions and her present appearance, while ultimately judging her. This theme of judgment will continue throughout the novel, as Janie will be judged by her husbands and others.

Thus, the character of Janie Mae Crawford Killicks Starks Woods, the novel's 40-year-old heroine, is introduced as she endures the judgments of the porch sitters. Readers will come to know Janie as a strong, independent, free-spirited woman who strives to define herself, rather than allow others to determine who she is. In the novel, Janie encounters many people who attempt to define her by her beauty or by her relationships with others, just as the porch sitters do in the first chapter.

Besides Janie, Pheoby Watson is introduced as Janie's loyal confidante and best friend. In this chapter, Pheoby, who is genuine and kind, contrasts with the porch sitters, who are mean and superficial. Pheoby shows true care and concern for her friend as she offers Janie rice as well as a listening ear. While the character of Pheoby is minor in the novel, she represents true friendship for Janie.

The end of the chapter sets the format for the remainder of the novel. Janie tells Pheoby that she cannot tell her about her experiences without relating the events of her life. This first chapter takes place in the present, while the remaining chapters (until the last) are composed of Janie's recollections of her past.

porch sitters hard-working farmers and laborers; men and women who work for someone else — a white boss. Only in the evening do they gain control of their time. Janie's late husband, Joe Starks, seems to be the only man in Eatonville who didn't work for someone else.

dat ole forty year ole 'oman a reference to Janie; the remark, by a woman, about a woman, is made out of spite and envy. Although Janie is 40 years old, she is still an attractive woman, much to the annoyance of the women.

bander log possibly a long log that people sat on while they bantered, joked, and gossiped.

fall to their level The women hope that Janie will someday, somehow, stop having an aura about her. Her charisma reinforces their envy and is proof that they do not think well of themselves.

to study about Mrs. Sumpkins' phrase that means she isn't "thinking about" Janie; ironically, from her remarks, she has evidently spent much time doing just that.

She sits high, but she looks low Lulu Moss suggests that while Janie carries herself in a high-mannered way, her social standing has come down considerably after her relationship with Tea Cake.

booger man the mythical monster who is often called the "boogeyman"; a frightening imaginary being, often used as a threat in disciplining children.

mulatto rice a concoction of cooked rice, chopped and browned onions, crisp bacon bits, and some chopped tomatoes.

lamps and chimneys the reference is to kerosene lamps. Apparently, Janie, a good housekeeper, either left the lamps clean when she went away or took time to clean at least one of them as soon as she returned. Kerosene lamps and their chimneys must be clean in order to function properly.

stove wood Although Janie has the most pretentious house in town, it does not have gas or electricity; she must cook on a wood-burning stove.

Mouth-Almighty someone who talks too much.

An envious heart makes the treacherous ear Pheoby characterizes the gossipy women with this biblical-sounding adage.

a lost ball in de high grass The townspeople love baseball; not only do they like to watch it, but they also like to play it. The field where they play has tall, uncut grass, and fly balls are often lost and the game delayed while both teams search for the ball.

They don't know if life is a mess of corn-meal dumplings and if love is a bed quilt The experiences of the townspeople are so limited that they can't make any valid observations on life and love.

come kiss and be kissed come and talk to me, Janie is saying; it's implied that the townspeople should do more of this in their lives.

The 'ssociation of life . . . De Grand Lodge, de big convention of livin' Janie refers here to the common experience of belonging to fraternal or church organizations and going to their conventions and meetings. Janie wants Pheoby to understand that her experiences in the past eighteen months were as exciting as attending a convention.

hard of understandin' Pheoby will want a detailed explanation to be sure that she understands all that Janie says.

a mink skin . . . a coon hide one thing looks pretty much like something else until both can be studied carefully. No one can understand what Janie's life was like with Tea Cake or with Joe until each is examined carefully.

monstropolous hyperbole invented by Hurston; perhaps an extension of monstrous.

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Essays

The importance of dreams laura lee, their eyes were watching god.

Throughout the history of black American culture, the pursuit of dreams has played a pivotal role in self-fulfillment and internal development. In many ways an individual's reactions to the perceived and real obstacles barring the path to a dream...

Getting in Touch with the Feminine Side Judd Salamat

In 1937, upon the first publication of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the most influential black writer of his time, Richard Wright, stated that the novel ìcarries no theme, no message, [and] no thought.î Wrightís powerful critique epitomized a...

Living for Yourself in Their Eyes Were Watching God Theoderek Wayne

Through Janie's growth from a girl so far removed from any identity that she doesn't know her own race, to a woman strong enough to return to her hometown that wants nothing more than to revel in her miseries, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were...

Their Eyes Were Watching God: Double Consciousness as an Indicator of Growth Meagan Bass

Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, utilizes a struggle W.E.B. Du Bois describes as "double consciousness" to chart the journey of Janie Crawford into selfhood. In "The Souls of Black Folk," Du Bois describes African...

A Voice of Abandonment Emily Flynn

In Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is encouraged to develop her own personality throughout the book, and she is forced into constant movement down roads after being abandoned by her grandmother and her three...

Uses of Metonymy in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses metonymy several times in order to express motifs which appear throughout the novel. For instance, one of the clearest examples of metonymy, the porch, appears as a whole or general entity,...

The Alpha Female Aaron Chan

The Alpha Female

Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God shows the Southern black women not as the weak and submissive slaves of their husbands, but rather, Eyes traces the development of Janie as the independent black woman....

Nature's Role in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous

"It [the tiny bloom] had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously" (13). Zora Neale Hurston, an African-American author,...

Community and Identity Justin Hamilton

Over the course Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie resides in several communities, each of which play an important role in the story, and serve as essential influences on Janie's life. At different stages in her life,...

The Use of Name Significance in Their Eyes Were Watching God Zachary Isaac Goldman

With their significance ranging from one’s place of origin to one’s occupation, last names have been used to distinguish and describe individuals for centuries. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, the author, experiments...

In Search of Voice Abraham G Berhane

As the old adage goes, it is not what one says, but how they say it that matters most. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the novel’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, is immersed in a journey to establish her voice and,...

The Sound of Silence Benjamin Keni Cook Piiru

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston uses language as a tool to show the progression of the story. Throughout the novel, Hurston uses a narrative style that is split between poetic literary prose and the vernacular of Southern...

Finding True Love in Their Eyes Were Watching God Laura Jean Kepko

The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story of one woman’s growth as a person physically, emotionally, and intellectually while on a journey for life fulfillment. Throughout the novel a theme illustrating the value of finding true love and...

Mules in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous

When Nanny tells her young, naïve granddaughter Janie Crawford, “de nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see,” (14) she is merely setting the stage for a number of connections between humans and animals that communicate Hurston’s...

The Multiple Meanings of "Their" in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous 10th Grade

In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Hurston leaves part of the title ambiguous and therefore open to interpretation. Throughout the novel, the characters mention or allude to God, or a “god.” The multiple meanings of the word “...

Love in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous 12th Grade

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the reader sees one character’s journey towards figuring out love. Janie Crawford, the protagonist, deciphers through experience what love actually is. Through her text, Hurston...

Folklore in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous 12th Grade

Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in seven weeks while she was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, researching the country’s major voodoo gods and studying as an initiate under the tutelage of Haiti’s most well-known Voodoo hougans...

Hurston's and Larsen's Commentary on Racial Loyalty Foster Cheng College

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Passing by Nella Larsen both feature black females as their main characters. Hurston’s novel follows a woman named Janie through her life, while Larsen’s follows Clare, a black woman who...

New Voices in the Harlem Renaissance Wei Dai College

Despite disparities in the poetic styles of Sterling Brown and Arna Bontemps, each author was equally effective in conveying the “new voice” of the black American during the Harlem Renaissance. The idea of a more suitable expression for African...

“Hope, Hopelessness and Despair”: An Analysis of Realism, Naturalism and Romanticism in Their Eyes Were Watching God Abbey Crowley 10th Grade

The 1930s: a pivotal point in the birth of literary modernism. After Sigmund Freud’s publication of studies of human emotion through psychoanalysis in the early 1900s, writing was forever changed. Authors added masks of character development...

Women’s Empowerment: Their Eyes Were Watching God and Love Medicine Anonymous College

In the novels Their Eyes Were Watching God and Love Medicine , Hurston and Erdrich (respectively) use the characterization of the women to promote women’s empowerment and self-fulfillment. Lulu can be seen within Erdrich’s work as the...

Nanny, Leafy, and Strength over Slavery in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous College

Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God follows Janie Crawford’s journey through three marriages and her search for freedom, independence, and love through black womanhood in the 20th century. In the beginning of the novel, Hurston,...

Hurston and Her Novel's Critics: Racism, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Disputed Merits of The Eyes Were Watching God Rochelle Ann Maloney College

“The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy” – Richard Wright.

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Sore Must Be The Storm That Could Abash the Little Bird': Janie’s Perseverance in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous College

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Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora neale hurston, everything you need for every book you read..

Their Eyes Were Watching God focuses on the experiences of Janie Crawford , a beautiful and determined fair-skinned black woman living in the American South. The novel begins when Janie returns to Eatonville, Florida after having left for a significant amount of time. She is met by the judgmental gossiping of Eatonville's townspeople, whose conversations focus on the fact that Janie had left town with a young man named Tea Cake . Amidst their gossiping, Janie's friend Pheoby Watson stands up for Janie and goes to greet her friend. Janie tells Pheoby her life story, including what happened in the time since she initially left Eatonville, which is the story of the rest of the novel.

Janie spends her childhood being brought up by her grandmother Nanny , a former slave who, despite her controlling nature, has only the best intentions for her granddaughter. Before buying a new home for herself and her granddaughter, Nanny raises Janie in the backyard home of Mr. and Mrs. Washburn , a friendly white couple whom Nanny began working for after she was granted freedom. Nanny wishes for Janie to find improved social standing and financial security in life, and so when she sees Janie kissing a boy she quickly arranges for Janie to marry the wealthy farmer Logan Killicks.

Janie is not content with her marriage to Logan Killicks, but hopefully wishes that she will grow to love Logan. Unfortunately, her hopes are instead met by abuse by Logan, whom she feels treats her as an animal. Thankfully, one day Janie meets the handsome and ambitious Jody Starks , who courts her and eventually encourages her to run away from Logan. Janie complies, they marry, and head off together to Eatonville, Florida.

In Eatonville, Jody seeks political power and entrepreneurial control over the town, becoming both the mayor and the owner of the main store in town. Janie feels love for Jody at the very early stages of their relationship, but ultimately comes to feel stifled by his desire for control and power – especially because he regards Janie as nothing more than an accessory to all of his success.

Jody eventually becomes ill and his treatment of Janie worsens along with his deteriorating health. Finally, Janie speaks up for herself and Jody violently beats her in front of everyone in the store. While Jody is on his deathbed, Janie ceases to be silent, and tells Jody all about how terrible he made and makes her feel. Soon after these conversations, Jody dies.

Following Jody's funeral, Janie does not feel as though she is in a state of mourning, but instead feels free and excited about her life and fulfilling her dreams for the first time in decades. She begins to wear her hair down – not in the mandatory head rag Jody made her wear – and white clothing, to alert potential suitors to her new availability. One day while Janie is working in Jody's former store, a handsome young man named Tea Cake walks in, flirts with Janie and invites her to play checkers with him. Despite Janie's initial ambivalence, she is charmed and spends the rest of the evening with Tea Cake. Because of Tea Cake's younger age and lower social status, the townspeople worry about Janie going out with him, but Janie disregards their judgment and listens to her feelings instead. She and Tea Cake eventually run off together to the Everglades and get married.

Janie and Tea Cake's married life together in the Everglades (or "the muck") is not perfect: he steals money from her, whips her once to assert power over her, and wrestles playfully with another girl in town named Nunkie . A woman in town named Mrs. Turner causes tension in their marriage, too, as she repeatedly tells Janie to leave Tea Cake for her lighter-skinned brother, demonstrating tremendously racist views. That said, Janie feels better with Tea Cake than she had felt with either of her other husbands: Tea Cake treats her as an equal and their marriage is built on authentic love and mutual respect. In the muck, they have many friends and host frequent informal parties at their home.

Their happy life in the muck comes to an end one day a massive hurricane hits the area. During the storm, a rabid dog attacks Tea Cake and infects him with the disease. At first, Tea Cake is unaware of his condition, but quickly worsens and begins to go mad. Janie calls for a doctor who tells her of his disease, but assures the worried Janie that he will send for medicine. Janie realizes, however, that in his ill and manic state, Tea Cake has convinced himself of Janie's infidelity, and has been hiding a loaded pistol beneath his pillow. Janie is forced to kill Tea Cake in order to save her own life. She is brought to court, but found innocent by an all white, male jury after delivering a heartfelt testimony about her true love for Tea Cake.

At the end of the novel, Janie returns to Eatonville – this return is the point at which the novel starts – and concludes her story to Pheoby. Despite her sadness about Tea Cake's death, Janie tells her friend that she is happy to be back, now feeling that she has reached the horizon and has access to her dreams. Tea Cake, Janie feels, is still a presence in her life, as their love provided her with the fulfillment of her desire for a voice and a sense of independence, things she had never known before him.