Their Eyes Were Watching God Theme Analysis

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).

Society has always thought of racism as a war given to the lowly African American from the supposedly high class white man, but no one thought there would be prejudice within a hierarchical class system inside the black community. However within that class system, history has shown that darker colored women are at the deep trenches of the totem pole. In the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” African American women are put under harm and control exposing the racism and sexism with their community. Through the life of Janie Crawford, Zora Neale Hurston portrays the concept of a woman finding her independence in a black, hierarchical, and racist society.

Richard Wright and Alain Locke’s critique on Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God reveal the common notion held by many of the time, and still today, that there is a right and wrong way for a black person to talk and to act. Wright’s point of view of clearly racially charged and coming from a place of ignorance and intolerance. While, Locke’s point is simply due to a lack of an ability to think out of the box and observe deeper meaning, perhaps due to internalized oppression and a fearful desire to talk and act just like a white man in order to be taken seriously. Wright’s argument that the novel has no central theme and is parallel to minstrel shows, and Locke’s belief that Hurston uses relatable language to avoid diving into mature writing, are inherently wrong and fueled by the very issues Hurston was trying to combat: racism and sexism.

Published in 1937 by author Zora Neale Hurston, the novel ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ chronicles an African American woman's journey to find true love in the Deep South. On one hand, an equal balance of power in a relationship leads to equality, fulfilment, and happiness for both partners - as observed in Janie’s relationship with Vergible Woods (Tea Cake). On the other hand, an unequal distribution of power in a marriage with a dominant partner leads to an overall sense of discontent and unhappiness in the relationship, as observed in Janie’s first two marriages to Logan Killicks and Joe Starks respectively. Thus, an equal balance of power in a relationship built on mutual respect and desire is a vital to a stable and healthy relationship.

In the beginning of the novel, Hurston portrays black people as occupying a lower status than their white counterparts, but through Janie’s growth, Hurston conveys the message that being black should be a positive part of identity. At the distinct start of the novel, a narrative reads, “It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skin felt powerful and human” (1). The inclusion of this narrative indirectly sets the scene for Their Eyes Were Watching God. The “conveniences” being talked about are the black people. The idea that these “conveniences” are “tongueless, earless, and eyeless” all day long insinuates

In the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” by Zora Neale Hurston Tea Cake becomes an unlikely hero because of the way he saves Janie physically and emotionally. Before Janie met Tea Cake she was emotionally abused from Joe Starks treating her terribly for over twenty years. When Janie met Tea Cake it was as if she was seventeen again and was just starting her life with someone she had known forever because their love was so intense. Tea Cake not only saved Janie emotionally, but he actually saved her life during the hurricane twice. First from drowning then when she was about to be bitten by a rabid dog.

Susan B. Anthony once said there is not a women born who desires to eat the bread of dependence. In the novel Their eyes were watching god by Zora Neal Hurston, Janie Crawford depicts the life of a young African women who struggles with male dominance. As well for Mrs. Mallard in The story of an hour by Kate Chopin. Both of these women become independent, share experiences with male dominance and share an appealing perspective toward nature. They also have distinctive outcomes in their lives. Janie and Mrs. Mallard share similarities in their lives and distinctions as well.

This is especially seen in the atrocity of slavery, as African Americans were seen as simply property. Janie's grandmother is an example of this as she was still a slave when she gave birth to Janie's mother. However, Janie's grandmother was impregnated by her white owner prompting his wife to question the origins of Janie’s grandmother’s baby: “‘N----r, whut’s yo’ baby doin’ wid gray eyes and yaller hair?’”(Hurston 17). Because people with darker skin were defined as property anything that was done to them was seen as acceptable. This racial divide led to the very sharp contrast between owner and slave which defined much of Janie's grandmother and mother's

I read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, copyright in 1937 and has a total of 193 pages.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, her symbolic use of the horizon supports the message that demonstrates the desire to meet goals while also addressing that there may be many struggles encountered while striving for one’s dreams. The horizon can be viewed as the process of Janie finding her ‘pear tree love’. It represents the outcome of one’s life and what certain confrontations one must go through to reach what they truly want. For example, when Hurston says, “Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ for theyselves” (Hurston 192). Janie is saying that her journey to reach her horizon, required her to find God in her struggles and not just live for

The story “There Eyes Were Watching God”, by Zora Neale Hurston, is a story that takes place in Florida in the early 1900s. The book is about the struggle of a woman to find true love in life. This woman is named Jane, she is a mixed race of both black and white, she is the protagonist of the story. Her goal in life was to find satisfying love with a man. The story uses race to show people's role, or importance in society. In the early 1900s, it wasn't uncommon to think black people were inferior to white people and held a lower standard of life. This led to many people being segregated and treated differently due to their skin color. The book “There Eyes Were Watching God”, is dominated by race driven thoughts, race in the story measures a person's superiority, leads to people being in different social classes, and shows how people are racist for no justifiable reason.

The famous ogre, Shrek, once explained, “Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers... You get it? We both have layers” when trying convey that “there's a lot more to ogres than people think” (Shrek). This goes the same for complex characters in literature; they are multilayered figures who possess contradictory traits at the same point in time. An exemplary representation would be Janie Starks from Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. As a rare character in the time period, Janie’s complexity is broadcasted through her contrasting characteristics of being opinionated yet malleable.

The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about a woman’s journey of self-discovery. The main character, Janie, believes she will achieve fulfillment if she can find her idea of a perfect love. Only Janie’s final marriage provides her with the love she craves, her first two marriages are unfulfilling and oppressive. Hurston uses the mule symbolically to represent women and their oppression. The oppression of women is evident in Janie’s treatment from her husbands as well as the treatment of Matt Bonner’s mule.

In the novel in comparison to the black character, the white characters are made to seem cold and uninteresting. It also makes the African American girls and women seem less when Hurston associates them with mules, which serve the men. When she describes the women she says that they basically

occurrences. This emphasis of the past works to develop a valid statement: Actions and inequities of the past can have a lasting effect on one’s future. However, the purpose is not geared toward not dwelling in the past, but more so learning from the past. This is what separates the presence of the past in traditional American literary pieces, and the function of the past in African American literature.