Their Eyes Were Watching God Quote Analysis

There is an immense divide between what an individual contemplates and what an individual veritably decides to act upon. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, protagonist Janie Crawford’s actions vastly differ from her inner thoughts as she attempts to please the people surrounding her. Consumed with the desire to find the love that she believes will bring her true contentment, Janie strives to fulfill the expectations of those closest to her. However, her quest to please those around her costs Janie her voice and influence, and at times, her happiness. By contrasting Janie’s passive deeds with her strong-minded thoughts, Hurston introduces the notion of conformity in order to communicate the pressures of society and how

At the beginning of their marriage they have a few ups and downs but they then promise to share everything with each other. In chapter fourteen, because of Tea Cake, Janie decides to start working in the fields on her own free will. This was something neither Logan nor Jody were able to get her to do, but now because of how in love with Tea Cake she is, she works in the fields so she can spend more time with him. She actually enjoys this work and tells him that “Ah laks it. It’s mo’ nicer than settin’ round dese quarters all day” (pg. 133). Her character has changed significantly at this point since the beginning of the novel since, while hanging out with the towns people, she “could tell big stories herself” which she would never have imagined doing while with

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie has allowed us to better understand the restraints that women in society had to deal with in a male dominated society. Her marriage with Logan Killicks consisted of dull, daily routines.  Wedding herself to Joe Starks brought her closer to others, than to herself.  In her final marriage to Vergible Woods, also known as Tea Cake, she finally learned how to live her life on her own.  In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie suffered through many difficult situations that eventually enabled her to grow into an independent person.

     As two different people, Janie and Tea Cake are allowed to live their lives as equals. When living with Joe, Janie is never allowed to do things such as speaking her mind, playing games, or doing anything which is not completely ladylike. Tea Cake encourages her to do things which were previously not open to her, such as playing chess, speaking openly about her feelings, and hunting. He teaches Janie to shoot and hunt wild game.

Janie was no longer letting anything control her any longer. She was making her own decisions now by talking to Jordan and not listening to her grandmother, who told her to respect her husband. With the results of this, Janie ran from Killicks to marry Joe for numerous years while waiting for her hunger for love to be filled. However it never was with Joe. After the death of Joe, Janie soon found Tea Cake, who gave her the love she starved for: “after a long time of passive happiness, she got up and opened the window and let Tea Cake leap forth and mount to the sky on a wind” (Hurston 107). Hurston gave Janie Tea Cake to show that she was no longer going to wait around and wait for love. She was now going to find it herself. Proving that she was no longer the naive girl who sat under a tree and dreamed all day.

Even before Joe’s death, Janie “was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew not how to mix them.”(75) Joe’s influences controlled Janie to the point where she lost her independence and hope. She no longer knew how to adapt to the change brought upon her. When she finally settles and begins to gain back that independence, the outward existence of society came back into play. “Uh woman by herself is uh pitiful thing. Dey needs aid and assistance.”(90) Except this time Janie acted upon her own judgment and fell for someone out of the ordinary. Tea Cake was a refreshing change for Janie, despite the society’s disapproval. “Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.”(128) This was what she had always dreamt of. When she was with Tea Cake, she no longer questioned inwardly, she simply rejected society’s opinions and acted upon her own desires.

A new hindrance called society skeptically watches Janie as she quickly changes from being a widow of a powerful man to the wife of a young, poor man named Tea Cake, since her quest for love was not nearly over. She had the option of either being submissive to society by staying as Joe’s widow or show tremendous self-reliance and confidence by marrying Tea Cake. Pheoby, Janie’s close friend, declares, “Dat’s de way it looks. Still and all, she’s [Janie’s] her own woman...she should know by now what she wants tuh do” (Hurston 111). This shows how Pheoby trusts in Janie’s self-reliance and genuinely believes that she can make her own decisions. Also, Janie explains that “Tea Cake ain’t no Jody [Joe] Starks… but de minute Ah marries ‘im everybody is gointuh be makin’ comparisons...dis is a love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, Ah means tuh live mine” (Hurston 114). She wants to live her own independent life, and not have to rely or depend on anyone. This is rather ironic because Janie does end up depending on Tea Cake, but perhaps not for material goods or money, like with Logan and Joe, but for something called love. Because Janie loves Tea Cake so much, she is willing to become submissive to his will. He ends up finding pleasure by letting out his anger by beating her. For example, Sop-de-bottom, one of Tea Cake’s friends, states “Ah love tuh whip uh tender women lak Janie! Ah bet

She marries him because he starts seeing her secretly at her current home with Logan Killicks. He convinces her to run away with him to Eatonville where they establish a town. Their relationship starts very loving and close, but as time passes their love fades away slowly. Jody is a man who needs power and rule to satisfy him; therefore, he seems to be a bit bossy. He was in charge of the town, the store and more and “They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the own bowed to him.” (Their Eyes Were Watching God 50). At the end of their marriage Jody gets sick and dies. Janie is left a widow for six months until she meets Tea Cake, a store

In the late nineteenth century, the New Woman time period emerged after World War I. Women began to cast away the domestic stereotypes and they became “independent [women] who [sought] achievement and self-fulfillment beyond the realm of marriage and family” (Miller 1). Straying away from the typical image of women staying and maintaining the home, women started attending universities, receiving professional jobs, and becoming involved in politics (1). The transition of women from the domestic sphere to the public sphere is a notion Zora Neale Hurston uses in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston’s use of dominant characters in society reveals her theme that experiences and relationships are the roots of finding independence and identity despite the obscurity caused by sexism.

In both the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and the poem “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, young girls are lectured on who they should be in life and how they should act.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie goes through three marriages, discovering herself along the way. At one point in her life, Janie marries Joe, an important leader for the town of Eatonsville, a large contributor to the town and well respected by many. Afterwards, she marries Tea Cake, a younger man but also well respected by his fellow workers. While both of their funerals may have the basic similarities of being funerals themselves, having many people, and being somewhat fancy, upon a closer look Joe’s funeral is an outreach of his being controlling others, while Tea Cake’s funeral is a memorial to him created by his friends and family, which reveals how much better of a husband and friend Tea Cake was.

Her third marriage was to Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods. This marriage was a choice and Janie was highly cautious before deciding to be with him. Similarly to Joe she did not know what to expect from being with Tea Cake. Janie went into this marriage having hopes of achieving true love and her idea of marriage. She hoped that she would be able to put her values first and that she did. “Tea Cake and Janie gone hunting. Tea Cake and Janie gone fishing. Tea Cake and Janie gone to Orlando to the movies. Tea Cake and Janie gone to a dance. Tea Cake making flower beds in Janie’s yard and seeding the garden for her. Chopping down that tree she never did like by the dining room window. All those signs of possession. Tea Cake in a borrowed car teaching Janie to drive. Tea Cake and Janie playing checkers; playing coon-can; playing Florida flip on the store porch all afternoon as if nobody else was there. Day after day and week after week.” (Hurston 129). Tea Cake was about 12 years younger than Janie, which is probably why he was so free and adventurous. He was not as traditional as Logan and Joe. Tea Cake allowed her the freedom and support she needed. He allowed exploration of her self-identity. Unlike her other husbands, Tea Cake was encouraging. He encouraged her to follow her own interests and with that she was fulfilled. Although she was fulfilled with Tea Cake and able to openly explore her values, he was similar to her other husband’s in many ways.

Tea Cake was Janie's third husband.  He was a simple person who returned kindness for kindness.  He saw women as equal human beings and told them that.  He was very passive in thought, but smart in his own ways.  His desire in life was to love and be loved.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Tea Cake proves to be affectionate but reckless. Together these traits create a flawed character. Janie has already developed an increasing proud sense of self, but Tea Cake furthers her spiritual growth and fulfillment. Instead of stifling her voice he supports it, allowing her to be herself in a relationship, opening her eyes to new experiences and life skills. Tea Cake’s character and personality cause Janie to learn things about herself she never knew in her marriages to Logan nor Joe. As said in the novel, “So the very next morning Janie got ready to pick beans along with Tea Cake. There was a suppressed murmur when she picked up a basket and went to work... But all day long the romping and playing they carried on behind the boss’s back made her popular right away. It got the whole field to playing off and on. Then Tea Cake would help get supper afterwards” (Hurston 157). This proves that Tea Cake is affectionate by giving Janie the choice/option of working beside him, he doesn't instruct her to do so, showing that he really cares about her overall happiness. This is something different for Janie because throughout her previous marriages she is made to do things. This gives Janie a sense of equality and independence.

She departs in secret from Logan and marries a newfound companion named Jody Starks, who she initially believes is a companion better suited to help her celebrate her individual identity. Yet, as their marriage progresses, and Jody becomes mayor in the town they relocate to, Jody begins to exercise his newly acquired power on her and against her wishes, and she becomes a mere fixture to Jody and his aspirations of power and influence. Again, this commanding influence from outside culture hampers her attempts at finding her identity, and again she becomes unhappy, and after finally voicing her displeasure at Jody, he even exerts physical force on her and assaults her. After their marriage ends, and Jody perishes shortly thereafter, she begins to date a young man whom she meets named Tea Cake, and finds a strong attraction for him, and marries him. Here is the ultimate culmination of her search for her own identity – not only does she go against common cultural precedent by marrying a man twelve years younger than her, but by doing so, she finds a companion not strong enough to exert overbearing power on her, and Tea Cake allows her to celebrate her independence with him. Though their marriage does end, it comes about by Tea Cake tragically perishing, not by a decision by Janie to leave her mate as in the previous cases. Yet, even though Tea Cake is gone, she still feels free, and is able to celebrate her