Zora Neale Hurston’s Their
Eyes Were Watching God is a poetic novel depicting one African-American woman’s
tender tale of love and loss on her journey to human flourishing. Set against
the backdrop of rural Florida during early the 1900s, the story follows Janie’s
blossoming desire for love and purpose from her first kiss through three
different marriages, finally concluding in widowhood. Janie undergoes a dynamic
transformation from a naïve young girl full of innocent dreams to a stoic aging
woman whose weathered face documents the triumph and tragedy she endured. As
Janie strives to learn the art of flourishing, she specifically wrestles with
establishing a balanced relationship with others, herself, and God. Throughout
this process of discovery, Janie finally unearths her true identity due to the
rich love of a man named Tea Cake.
A
central theme of the novel is the human need for prospering, uplifting
relationships. In chapter two, Janie is awakened to this longing for
connectedness when she observes a bumblebee pollinating a pear tree in her
yard. After witnessing the harmonious, dependent bond between the bee and its
flower, Janie too longs to experience this same intimacy with another human being.
This desire never escapes Janie’s heart as she enters womanhood. Janie first
marries Logan Killicks upon her grandmother’s insistence. Sadly, Logan is a
lazy man who thrives off of ordering Janie around, never satisfied with the
amount of work she does. He incessantly hurls insults a Janie and suppresses
her growth, even though Janie wants to learn how to love Logan despite his
selfish behavior.
The marriage ends abruptly in
chapter four when Janie meets Joe Starks, a suave man with high ambitions and
lofty promises. They run away together, marry, and move to Eatonville, where
Joe raises up a town and becomes the mayor. Even though Janie sits in a
position of prominence as mayor’s wife, her voice is muffled due to Joe’s
obsessive desire for unmitigated control. He dictates what Janie should and
should not do, insisting that she hide her beautiful hair in a headscarf and
remain in her proper, respectable place at all times. Janie admits that, “she
got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what
she didn’t value” (pg. 76). She is stripped of her freedom and suffocated by
Joe’s unreasonable demands. She gradually withers under his oppressive hand.
When Joe dies from illness,
Janie rests contentedly in her reclaimed freedom and independence. Though Janie
is relentlessly surrounded by townspeople criticizing the brevity of her grief
over Joe’s death, she clings to her newfound courage, looks beyond other’s
expectations, and finally begins to follow the desires of her heart. Not long
after Joe’s passing, a quick-witted younger man named “Tea Cake” with smiling
eyes and a playful grin sweeps Janie off her feet. Tea Cake is far beneath
Janie in social status, yet his passionate love and spontaneous nature make up
for his lacking wealth. Unlike Janie’s past husbands, Tea Cake encourages Janie
to speak her mind and includes her in activities typically deemed unfit for a
woman, such as fishing, shooting, and playing checkers. For the first time,
Janie feels desired, respected, and fully human.
Beginning in chapter ten,
Tea Cake’s behavior is contrasted drastically with the behavior of both Logan
and Joe. While Joe demands that Janie hide her hair because he greedily wants
to hoard its beauty to himself, Tea Cake lavishes Janie in compliments and
longs for her to see her own exquisite features. While Janie’s past husbands treated
her like child by demanding submission and insulting her intelligence, Tea Cake
evokes a child-like, carefree spirit within Janie. In chapters fourteen and
twenty, Tea Cake is symbolically connected to seeds and prospering plants. He
is the fertile soil in which Janie plants her roots, blossoming and flourishing
in his presence. Janie summarizes her journey to a flourishing existence with
these simple, yet poignant words of advice: “Two things everybody’s got tuh do
fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’
fuh theyselves” (pg. 192).
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