Search for Identity in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Tea Cake, becomes Janie's third husband. In this marriage, Tea Cake presents guidance, support and true love Janie didn't experience with her previous husbands. "He set it up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play." This shows that Tea Cake treats men and women equally. He thinks that both genders are equally intelligent to play the same games. Janie mainly fell in love with Tea Cake because he showed her the love she aspired for. Tea Cake said to Janie, "Ah know it and dat’s why puts de shamery on me. You’se jus’ disgusted wid me. Yo’ face jus’ left here and went off somewhere else. Naw, you ain’t mad wid me. AH be glad if was, ‘cause then Ah might do somethin’ tuh please yuh... " He admits his fears and shows perseverance to do anything to please her. Tea Cake listens to her and reads her expressions, unlike Logan and Joe. "Tea Cake made her shoot at little things just to give her good aim. Pistol and shot gun and rifle. It got so the others stood around and watched them. Some of the men would beg for a shot at the target themselves. It was the most exciting thing on the muck." This is significant because it shows Tea Cake isn't afraid of Janie becoming more independent by learning how to shoot. By handling a gun, Janie can defend herself, unlike average women. Tea Cake represented the love Janie had always been searching for, the love

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston gives the reader the hard life of a black woman during the early twentieth century. The story discusses social issues such as the inequality of women and the social injustice in the black community, but there is a deeper meaning within the story told.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neal Hurston, Janie Starks is a girl who has a hard time finding love through out the novel. Janie marries three very different men in her life. Their names are Logan Killicks, Jody Starks and Tea Cake. Each marriage is very different from the other. Janie learns different lessons from each of her three marriages. Each lesson is very useful to her. She learns that marriage does not lead to love, in order to have a good marriage, both partners must be treated equal, and true love does exist. Through these life experiences she finally learns how to be happy.

First of all, Janie 's grandmother arranged her first marriage for her to a rich farmer, Logan Killicks, because he can provide a home

She mentions how he was quick to spoil her with expensive things and admired his confidence with everything he did. Even when they arrive to a town that seems hopeless, Joe refuses to abandon his visions and proceeds to carry through with his original plans. After a few months, the town begins to flourish and Joe throws a party to celebrate their accomplishments. Janie feels degraded for the first time when she is unable to make her own speech. Her frustration grows when Joe forces her to wear headrags in order to hide her long swinging hair from potential admirers. In the meantime, the women of the town become more resentful of Janie and her rising social status. Janie finds herself feeling very isolated, however, this does not stop the townspeople from talking about her relationship with Joe Starks. They frequently speak about Joe’s harsh criticism towards Janie and her submissive

Zora Neal Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’, was published in 1937 and is often celebrated for it’s realistic use of language and dialect of the black American south. However, as Wright pinpoints, there is a sense of Hurston catering to the white audience in her use of language, and prompts the question of whether ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ should be considered a ‘community text’ or comparable to minstrelsy. This essay will explore the ways in which Hurston creates a community text through her use of vernacular, as well as addressing some of the other points Wright made in regards to the lack of a clear theme or message in the novel.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a famous novel written by Zora Neale Hurston who grew up in the early 20th century during the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston examines the race and gender problems through the view of the main character Janie Crawford. In the novel, Janie is on a mission to find her true love. She narrates the story by providing the experience of three particular marriages. Janie experiences intense sexism in each relationship and deals with many hardships early in the book, but eventually finds her true worth of being more than just the stereotypical woman. Hurston is commonly criticized and referred to as a ‘feminist’ due to exactly what much of her work is about; Woman breaking free of the social norms imposed on them. Feminism is defined as “The advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of equality to men”. It is the belief that men and woman are equal. This novel represents that exact definition. Given the time it was written, It can be easily argued that the book is simply a feminist novel about the strength of woman and the discovery that they do not need men.

Somebody wanted her to play” (Hurston 116) Despite the feeling of empowerment given by Tea Cake with the checker game, Janie did not give herself up to Tea Cake, the same way she gave herself up with Jodie and Logan. Her hesitation is evident in the dialogue she has with Tea Cake, it creates this paradoxical relationship which shows her bitterness from past marriages and her fear to get her emotions hurt once again. “ What do Ah want wit some trashy nigger out de streets?” (Hurston 128). Another layer that adds to Tea Cake that differs him from any other husband is the choice against force feature that he granted Janie.

Being the mayor’s wife he wanted her to stand out from the other woman in the town, so he bought her all the nice and expensive clothes to wear. Even though she wore the clothes she was already beautiful because of her skin color and long hair. Janie’s hair started to get noticed and Joe started to get jealous. So he makes her tie her hair up while she works in the town store. In the book she did not argue with Joe about the head rag she just went along with it. Janie had her thoughts but she dared not to speak them out loud to Joe. Oprah gave her the strength that she did not have in the book and made her argue with Joe about the head rag. “What wrap my head up like an old woman? How Come” (Their)? Janie storms off after she says this to Joe in the movie. She did not have that type of boldness to say that to any of her husband's. Joe’s jealousy towards Janie was so obvious nothing about their relationship came out to a love story. “Janie does find love, but a love story, the novel is not” (Ceptus).  The only part that could have made their relationship a love story would have showed that he just wanted the best for and did everything he thought that could put Janie on a higher level than the rest of the town

When the town Eatonville was built Jodie makes Janie work in the local store but when Jodie sees that other men are flirting with her because of her hair Jody “[o]rders Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others” (55). This scene emphasizes how Jody wants Janie to be in his life for him to look at and only needs her for her beauty. Janie is also described to be forced into putting her hair up which allows no freedom.

In a time period which covers the era that saw the first generation African-Americans come of age without any memory of being slaves to just shortly before American women could stand up alongside Soviet women and say they had the right of self-determination through the acquisition of suffrage, the history of colored women was one distinctly different from everyone else. If African-Americans could honestly and accurately be said to hold any particular type of freedom or even a particular right in the American society inhabited by the characters of Zora Neale Hurston’s, “Their Eyes were Watching God,” it might well be true to suggest that they had the right to decide which method of domination they preferred at the hands of their black husbands.

Many times when I read a piece of literature, I immediately look for the first signs of symbolism. I analyze that particular symbol and how I believe it is to be presented throughout the narrative. In the case of Their Eyes Were Watching God, I recognized that Janie’s hair would have a significant place in the themes of the novel. Within the opening paragraphs, Janie stares at herself in a picture and her identity arises from her hair “seen it was mah dress and mah hair” Her identity then shifts to the color of her skin “Aw, aw! Ah’m colored!” (9), however the symbolism of her hair would be more powerful than the color of her skin. After this particular passage, I realized that this is not a novel so much about race as it is what it means to be a woman. Zora Neale Hurston is writing to an audience of women who will identify with Janie the definition of femininity wrapped up in the hair. Even after her marriage to Logan, she still has a thread of the passion for life and yearns for adventure. Logan reinforces the beauty of her flowing hair because he runs his fingers through it and only after he stops she begin to dream of flight. Many women enjoy having their beauty adored and when the adoration ceases they might begin to question the sense of self. Janie begins to question her place in life and her freedom comes in the form of a whistle from Joe Starks. She notices Joe Starks walking down the road and runs to the water pump to gain his attention. Her “heavy hair” falls down

“He wanted her submission and he’d keep on fighting until he felt he had it.” The consistent women oppression and need to make less of women is just one of the motifs in the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston have been sought as non-significant to how they relate to real-world issues and topics. The novel however, contains many values that are important to study in schools, as they show the true struggles of women, more specifically black women, in the United States directly after the freeing of slaves, many of which are also very applicable to life today. Hurston displays the hardships of this time period for a young black women through the life of Janie by addressing her struggles with gender equality, love, and

An effective and personable author resolves to construct a realistic cast of characters, rather than a company filled with pigeonholed characters, each serving a specific purpose. In the fashion of the compelling writer, Zora Neale Hurston refused to put her people down and victimize them, a controversial move at the time when African-American authors seeked to raise awareness to the blatant discrimination against their communities. Instead of simply making her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, a story about the continual presence of racism against black people in America, she creates a dynamic cast of characters that are human, rather than vehicles for an agenda. At the heart of this group of people is Janie, a biracial woman, who goes on a journey to find herself. Through each of her three romantic relationships, she further unpeels the layers of her identity. At the end of the novel, she meets Vergible Woods, who goes by Tea Cake, with whom she settles down to a simple but fulfilling life. However, when Tea Cake gets rabies from a dog and threatens Janie’s safety, she kills him out of self-defense. Knowing Hurston’s realistic views of the world, she made Janie racially mixed for a purpose — to demonstrate how abstract and undefinable race and racial issues are. Instead of simply using the trope of the victimized black woman to further her message, she humanizes her characters by giving them complex personalities and identities. In the same way, at other moments in the

The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston presents the theme of typical gender boundaries and their impact in African American culture during the 1930’s. Women at that time were thought to be inferior to men and considered to be the property of them, they had no voice. Realistic gender issues are shown through the main character, Janie’s and her struggling love life. Janie has to face many limitations as a result of being a black women in the 1930s. In order for Janie to have the life she wants to have, she has to face the obstacles of gender inequality. Hurston portrays typical gender boundaries by using Janie as a victim and showing what she went through.