Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 1 Analysis

When Joe “Jody” Starks appears out of nowhere, Janie feels like her dreams have finally come true. But after a while, the marriage turns out to be little more than the stint with Killicks. Starks, like Killicks, treats her as property and not as someone he actually loves. One example is how Jody makes Janie put her hair up in a wrap while working in the store, rather than leave it down. Another is when he publicly criticizes her appearance, saying she is starting to show her age, when he is clearly at least ten years older: “’ You ain’t no young courtin’ gal. You’se uh old woman, nearly fourty’” (Hurston 79). Joe feels the need to tear down Janie, in order to make himself feel more important, which was an important part of being a man during this time.

Hurston uses the narrative consciousness in Their Eyes, to characterize those who are silent and lack their own voice, by doing this Hurston gives depth, to those whose voices, are heard. Throughout the entire novel, the development of the male voice seems to parallel the development of Janie's. The men in Janie's life have voices, and it is by her relationships with these men, that Janie's voice gets stronger. Janie becomes more self confident with each relationship she endures. Hurston, by using the consciousness narrative, is actually speaking for Janie; the narrator and Janie are like one. This might be the reason that Hurston gives little voice to Janie's character. Janie is not silenced in the novel, she is expressed through the narrative. Which if the reader does not close read, the reader will not comprehend this aspect of Hurston's novel.

In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the protagonist, tells the story of her ascension to adulthood and several of the lessons she learned along the way. Though married three times, her second marriage to Joe Starks had the most formative impact on her transition to maturity. Given that Joe played such a crucial role in this affair, we can classify him as a type of parent to Janie. Later, after her final marriage, Janie reflects on her life and is at peace. By that point, she came to realize how to be truly happy.

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.

Therefore, both Joe and Janie are looked up to by the townspeople. To some extent, this could be considered a form of equality. Unfortunately, this is about where the equality stops. While Joe gains prominence through his own actions and words, Janie gains some prominence by doing what she is told to do. She is not permitted to voice her own opinions or join in the lighthearted gossiping which occurs outside of their store. Janie is expected to be the dutiful wife. If she makes a mistake, then she should have known better and therefore should accept her punishment quietly. Joe holds the obvious upper hand in the relationship until his death whereupon Janie inherits a large amount of money and learns to enjoy the freedom of living as her own person.

He claims she is aging and losing her power when he is the one who is truly getting older (Hurston 79). The reader is able to see Jody’s aging quickly as he gets sick and begins to die. When Janie comes to his death bed to confront him, Joe dies (Hurston 86). This shows how Janie gaining power causes Joe to lose his power. This power shift ultimately leads to Joe’s death. After his death, Janie has a newfound freedom. She takes off the kerchief Joe made her wear and burns it (Hurston 89). This symbolizes Janie burning patriarchy and taking control of her life. Janie is now able to live the life that she wants. She “jus’ loves dis freedom” (Hurston 93). The patriarchal woman inside of Janie is dead. Janie no longer wears her hair up when she works in the store (Hurston 89) and participates in activities Joe would have never approved of, such as fishing (Hurston 93). Janie knows that she does not need a man in order to protect her and in order to feel

Joe constantly felt the need to make Janie feel horrible about herself. He would take control of everything she would do and Janie couldn’t do anything but feel sad. Hurston says, “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did she said nothing” Saying nothing showed her husband that she let this mistreatment happen to her without speaking up for her rights. Being gone from her sole shows that Janie didn’t even know who she was anymore because she couldn’t even make simple choices for herself. This becomes a problem because Janie couldn’t even find happiness in her relationship, which is far from self-actualizing. These two quotes both show Janie’s passivity through silence and the feeling of worthlessness. This may be an example from Janie’s life, but this became a problem for many women whose husbands follow gender hierarchies to feel like they have more power over their wife. Society always views men to have more power and to be a more powerful figure than women which causes uncomfort in relationships. This strive of power stops people from reaching self-actualization because they are always looking for others to be better than instead of looking to reach their fullest potential. Reaching self-actualization is a big goal for many people because you

Joe doesn't like this so he criticizes Janie daily about how she looks he makes her put her hair up. In the store Janie cuts tobacco for Steve Mixon but she cuts it wrong and Joe gets angry, and he yells at her “I god amighty! A woman stay round uh store till she get old as Methusalem and still can’t cut a little thing like a plug of tobacco! Don’t stand dere rollin’ yo’ pop eyes at me wid yo’ rump hangin’ nearly to yo’ knees!” (Hurston 92-93). Janie gets mad also and replies, “Stop mixin’ up mah doings wid mah looks, Jody. When you git through tellin’ me how tuh cut uh plug uh tobacco, then you kin tell me whether mah behind is on straight or not”(Hurston 86). Janie sticks up for herself after years of Joe controlling her and beating her. Janie waxes stronger and learns that the way she feels is just as important as the way Joe feels or anyone else. While Joe is dying Janie goes into his room and tells him that he isn't the same person that she ran away with that he changed for worse. After he dies she does something for herself, Hurston writes “The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there. She took careful stock of herself, then combed her hair and tied it back up again”(103-104). Janie letting her hair down is symbolic of her freedom and independence she is done with Joe

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.

Janie’s outward appearance and her inward thoughts contrast following Joe’s death. She finally frees herself from his control only after he dies as she, “…tore off the kerchief…and let down her plentiful hair” (87). In freeing her hair, Janie begins to free herself from others’ control and social norms. However, she chooses to keep it tied up until after Jody’s funeral in order to keep appearances that she is grieving his passing in front of the townspeople. However, on the inside, Janie doesn’t really feel any sorrow and “sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world” (88). It is only after Joe’s elaborate funeral that Janie shows her first act of freedom by burning “every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist” (89). She chose to let her hair be free from his domination, thus freeing herself from him overall and allowing herself to move onto the next journey in her life.

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.

Instead of treating Janie like the beautiful woman that she is, he uses her as an object. Joe was a man who “treasured [Janie] as a posession” (Berridge). Joe’s demanding nature suppresses Janie’s urge to grow and develop, thus causing her journey to self-realization to take steps backward rather than forward. In Janie’s opinion, “he needs to “have [his] way all [his] life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh let [him]self heah 'bout it” (Hurston 122). It is almost as if Janie loses sense of her own self-consciousness due to the fact that she becomes like a puppy being told what to do by her master. The death of Jody is actually a positive thing. Joe’s controlling nature stifles Janie’s inner voice. While married to Jody, Janie became closer to others, however, she did not become closer to herself. Being on her own again gave her another chance to embark on her journey and realize who Janie Crawford really is.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston revolves around the struggles of Janie Starks to find a certain form of love in a still much divided time in society. This essential theme of love is not actually brought out in full effect until the death of Janie’s second husband, Joe Starks. This death brings about the discovery of Tea Cake, a man who fulfills Janie’s views on love, via the compositions of springtime: bright skies, sunny days, and bugs flying around. It took Janie a constant search for this type of love, and after the death of Joe, she finally found it.

Hurston’s main way of inspiring a sense of feminism in her novel, is through the relationships of Janie including her Nanny, Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. She addresses Janie’s role differently in each of these relationships using motifs and stereotypes. Janie begins her journey of self-discovery following the dreams of her Nanny to becoming a strong, independent woman who makes her own decisions. All of the roles that Janie obtains stem from the distinct

Janie Crawford has dealt with a lot in Their Eyes Were Watching God, but the worst aspect Janie has had to deal with is the way that Joe Starks treats her. As her husband, Joe has an obligation to love and support her, but this is the opposite of what he actually does. This relationship that Janie has to put up with is terrible for her, but it does showcase her true character in the fact that she is able to show how she deals with terrible situations such as her marriage to Joe. Janie Crawford is able to truly showcase her character because of her unhappy marriage, therefore the reader is able to see into her mind instead of just witnessing what she chooses to show.