The Different Places in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the town of Eatonville and the Everglades play a very important role in the story. The two settings contrast against each other in a sense of meaning and representation. Eatonville represents a life of not being true to oneself, while the Everglades represents freedom and true love. In the story the main character, Janie, moves to Eatonville with her second husband, Jody Starks, and later to the Everglades with her third husband, Tea Cake. These two settings seem to solidify Zora Hurston’s theme of a search for true love and freedom (Shmoop Editorial Team).

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.

The final stage in Janie’s development as a woman is her marriage with the twelve years younger Tea Cake. Both are totally in love with each other and Janie lives a live she has never lived before. She experienced a big change when she moves from her formal live as “Mrs. Major” (43) in Eatonville to the Everglades where Tea Cakes teaches her how to farm, fish and hunt and introduces a totally new rural life to her. Janie described her lifestyle in these days with "...we ain't got nothin' tuh do but do our work and come home and love" (127).

Janie takes each person she is close to and all the situations her life brings to her forms her own opinions on love. Janie grows from a dreamy child

The story of her life begins to unfold as she sits with Phoebe Watson, her friend for decades that brought her some mullato rice. I think Phoebe shows signs of hypocrisy because although she defended Janie when the other women spoke badly about her, prior to Janie’s arrival she accompanied these women daily as they gossiped about other people. Sheep don’t stay in the presence of wolves for too long. “Well, nobody

Janie shows the issues African Americans faced during this period and the their newfound confidence but also shows differences from the beliefs of this era. Hurston uses these departures and similarities to allow the reader to further understand the novel and the time period in which it takes

Zora Neale Hurston had an intriguing life, from surviving a hurricane in the Bahamas to having an affair with a man twenty years her junior. She used these experiences to write a bildungsroman novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, about the colorful life of Janie Mae Crawford. Though the book is guised as a quest for love, the dialogues between the characters demonstrate that it is actually about Janie’s journey to learn how to not adhere to societal expectation.

All through the novel Janie travels through valuable life experiences allowing her to grow as a woman. Janie at first has a difficult time understanding her needs rather than wants, but as she continues to experience new situations she realizes she values respect. Janie’s first two marriages turned out to be tragic mistakes, but with each marriage Janie gained something valuable. When Janie is disrespected in her second marriage with Joe Starks, he publicly humiliates her, disrespecting her as a wife and woman. This experience forced Janie to come out of her comfort zone and stand up for herself.

It is almost imaginable that Janie has not changed much in the end of the story and will continue her old ways of depending on a person for support and protection.

Working alongside each other and interacting with other people in the Everglades helps put Janie in an equal societal stature as everyone

In chapter one of Their Eyes Were Watching God (TEWWG) Janie is berated and criticized by the people of the community. “What she doin coming back here in dem overalls? Can’t she find no dress to put on?” They castigate only because of her superior looks and individuality. Moreover this example of a community is a community where Janie is detached. When one is not compliant with or part of a community that community will turn on them. Furthermore Janie despise the townspeople and the townspeople envy her making it nearly impossible for them to resolve the conflict.

Janie deals with death, disappointment, and life's unpredictability. Not only did Janie manage to survive these life experiences, but she thrived in them. Her life experiences taught her that she was was worth something, and that there was something worth living for. More importantly, she learns that she has a voice and that she can use it.

Not only because of the fact that it is a shorter novel but also because of its simple reading and engaging plotline. One of the reasons that made this novel so enjoyable for me was because of its simple writing style as a whole. The writing style was simple in a sense that it was not complex to the point it draws away from the storyline. The writing style creates a better focus on the characters and plotline. Another aspect that was very interesting was the dialogue. The author gave the dialogues more layers and depth by using slang and dialect. This aspect allows the characters to be more natural and humanistic. One of the main reasons I enjoyed this book was how the author shaped Janie’s character through her three marriages. The marriages reveal men’s viewpoint on women. Janie went through a series of marriages with different types of men. With her first husband forcing her to do labor and her second husband suppressing her because she is a woman. These different types of experiences represents the dominance men over women. This aspect focuses on a reality of men’s and women’s relationship during the time period this novel was

Throughout the book, there are two major communities that Janie is a part of. Eatonville and Everglades. Sometimes, she longs to be part of the community’s “vibrant social life, which, at its best, offers warmth, safety, connection, and interaction for Janie,” in the wise words of Sparknotes. Nevertheless, sometimes Janie felt discontent with the “pettiness of the gossip and rumors that

The two other characters being John and Jim.Are also very similar with the way there superstitious and they way they are mistreated and misunderstood.Also they both receive a similar ending for their books.Jim is a runaway slave from Huckleberry Finn, he isn't a very smart and educated individual but he is smart enough to ask why people still mistreat everyone if were all the same.”Well it's ablame ridiculous way,en