Powerful Symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston effectively used the symbol of the gate to display to the readers the beginning of a new outlook or change in Janie’s life. This symbol helped develop the character of Janie and clarifies the meaning of the story of Their Eyes Were Watching God which is about the self-discovery of women in the 1920s and

At the beginning of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is not knowledgeable about the world because her ambitions are determined by others. This causes her to be stuck with paltry horizons although, she still

Throughout life, everybody makes sacrifices that may become more beneficial to him or in ways they could not foresee. A sacrifice may be simply giving up an object or giving up something deeper in meaning. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a prime example of a book that reflects this theme. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie, struggles to figure out her identity and what she desires in life. As she matures in her relationships and in life, she learns to make sacrifices in order to seek what she really needs. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston illuminates Janie’s values and the text’s emphasis on self-actualization is demonstrated through Janie leaving stability with Logan to marry Joe,

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston describes the horizon as possibilities and opportunities. When the story starts out Janie’s perception of the horizon changes first from desire for love to the need of love, and ultimately the feeling of contentment towards love to show Janie maturing throughout the novel.

Janie’s horizon epitomized her land of the possibility, to bring change and to open her eyes to the world around her. Although her relationships with Logan and Joe obstructed her for half of her life, her time with Tea Cake illuminated her to a world where she could explore and enjoy herself. Moreover, her delight in the thoughts of the pear tree expressed her desire to find pleasure in life and to pursue that in the marriages she had experienced. Although, spending her life with Logan and Joe had impeded her from earning the love she deserved, Tea Cake’s presence blessed her with the bliss that life brings in one’s journey. Consequently, her bee and blossom dream being undermined many times due to dismal relationships and neglected feelings finally brought her to Tea Cake, her true love. He cherished every moment with her and motivated her to carry on her life with the same happiness, joy and affection she once received from him. Janie’s life-long experiences and sufferings have brought her to a place where she can connect her memories, her future ambitions and be herself. Despite her past, she will continue to cherish it as her life has ripened from the spirited yet restricted teenager she once was, into a woman who has fulfilled her own destiny and one who will not

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel by Zora Neale Hurston about Janie, who relates her life story of three marriages to her friend Phoeby. Throughout the novel, Janie embarks on a journey to find the limits of her personal horizons and expand them. Janie’s clothing varies from wealthy to poor, and from traditionally masculine to feminine, enriching the narrative with symbolism and supplementary information. Her femininity, actualized in her hair and clothing, is an integral part of her identity. The changing images of clothing throughout the novel exemplify Janie’s developing maturity and gradually show Janie creating a personal identity.

Feminism and gender equality is one of the most important issues of society today, and the debate dates back much farther than Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. To analyze Janie’s existence as a feminist or anti-feminist character requires a potential critic to look at her relationships and her reactions to those relationships throughout the novel. Trudier Harris claims that Janie is “questing after a kind of worship.” This statement is accurate only up until a certain point in her life, until Janie’s “quest” becomes her seeking equality with her partner. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s main goal pertaining to her romantic relationships undergoes multiple changes from her original goal of a type of worship to a goal to maintain an equal relationship with her husband.

All novels contain symbolism in one shape or form, masking a deeper meaning beneath the words that are written on the page. Usually, there is an assortment of symbols disguised by a literal meaning that blend in with the scene. Symbols frequently come in the form of nature. Nature, generally being in the background of a scene, becomes more prominent when it is meant to be identified as a symbol. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the symbolism in nature is recurrent throughout the novel. It is used to indicate turning points and track the growth of the main character, Janie’s, coming-of-age. This is portrayed through the changing of the seasons and various correspondents. In this way, it can be seen that not all events affect Janie in the same way, leading her in one direction. In Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, seasonal symbols are used to target experiences in Janie’s life and how they affect her overall development into adulthood.

Janie endures her final marriage with Vergible Woods, better known as Tea Cake. Tea Cake is twelve years younger than Janie. Despite the age difference, Janie finds an interest in Tea Cake. However, initially, Janie is afraid of being disappointed for a third time which causes her to be hesitant in building a relationship with Tea Cake. Eventually, Janie overcomes her fear of being hurt and decides to marry Tea Cake. Although Tea Cake ultimately becomes the love of Janie’s life, soon into the marriage, Janie begins to realize Tea Cake’s flaws. Tea Cake has a

Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God follows protagonist Janie Mae Crawford’s journey into womanhood and her ultimate quest for self-discovery. Having to abruptly transition from childhood to adulthood at the age of sixteen, the story demonstrates Janie’s eternal struggle to find her own voice and realize her dreams through three marriages and a lifetime of hardships that come about from being a black woman in America in the early 20th century. Throughout the novel, Hurston uses powerful metaphors helping to “unify” (as Henry Louis Gates Jr. puts it) the novel’s themes and narrative; thus providing a greater understanding of Janie’s quest for selfhood. There are three significant metaphors in the novel that achieve this unity: the

Nanny’s idea of a marriage is “a haven from indiscriminate sexual exploitation and as a shelter from financial instability” (Jordan). Janie’s marriage to her first husband, Logan Killicks, is an unexpected grief and he disgusts her sexually. She tries to love him but their relationship lacks intimacy, romance, and fun. Throughout the novel, Janie is on a mission and she soon finds out “that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (24). Killicks think Janie is spoiled and “counts Janie among the livestock on his farm, estimating her value by her ability to produce greater surplus value” (Ha 33). It is when Janie realizes Killicks plans to put her to work on a mule because she does not bore him any heir that she runs off with Joe Starks.

Nanny makes Janie believe that marriage makes love and forces her to wed a much older man, Logan Killicks. Jones believes that Janie?s first efforts at marriage show her as an ?enslaved and semi-literate? figure restrained to Nanny?s traditional beliefs about money, happiness and love (372). Unfortunately Janie?s dream of escasty does not involve Killicks. Her first dream is dead. Janie utters, ?Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think? (Hurston 23). Logan began to slap Janie for control over

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses symbols and metaphors to enrich the characters in the novel. Through Janie, the main character, the use of the pear tree, the horizon and the road, and the storm help cultivate her romantic journey. Her dream under the pear tree helps set the standard and expectation for her three marriages. The horizon represents unknown things that are to come in her journey. The road symbolizes the bridge between Janie’s reality and her dreams. The storm represents the ever present chaos that is in nature. In addition, the symbolism is strengthened as it is depicted through Janie’s point of view.

She looks out the window just in time to see Johnny and Janie in a lip-lock. Nanny pronounces that Janie is now a woman and tells her to get married as soon as possible. Janie resents the idea; she doesn’t feel like she’s really a woman yet. Nanny’s worried that Janie will naively end up being used and treated like garbage by some man without her grandmother’s guidance. And granny is getting on in age. A man named Logan Killicks is interested in marrying Janie, but Janie is disgusted because of the huge age difference and because he "look like som ole skullhead in de grave yard." Definitely unappealing. And Nanny accuses Janie of not wanting to be an honest wife and slaps Janie for her insolence. When Janie begins to cry, Nanny immediately repents and rocks her granddaughter in her arms. Nanny explains that she doesn’t want Janie to suffer as she has and as Janie’s mother did. She says that the black woman is "de mule uh de world" and her only motive behind suggesting reliable old Logan Killicks is to help Janie avoid a terrible fate. Nanny feels her days on earth are numbered, and she wants to see Janie "protected" before she

The times in which “Their Eyes Were Watching God” took place were extremely difficult for a black woman to live in let alone find her voice. Zora Neale Hurston uses symbols throughout “Their Eyes Were Watching God” to explain events, rather than sating them. She interprets many important aspects of life and turns these events into symbols throughout the novel. Hurston uses the horizon and the pear tree as symbols to illustrate, clarify, and intensify abstract concepts in the novel such as Janie’s general ambitions and her specific dreams respectively.