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Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's narrative in Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston may be interpreted as both an actual and a symbolic journey. The multi-layered novel tells the story of Janie Crawford, a black woman in her early forties, who is described as the prototypical black woman belonging to the new generation. This is the novel of about self-discover, where the main character of the story in many respects bears a strong resemblance to Zora Neale Hurston herself. What concerns historical context of the novel, there are several similarities that make us believe that the novel is an allegory for the writers own life.
Chapters 3 - 5 reveal cultural influences from Florida and the town of Eatonville, that was, probably, the greatest historical influence from Southern Florida at those times. Hurston's father was a person of consequence in Eatonville (he was even the mayor of the town for a short period of time); besides, in the real Eatonville there was a man Joe Clarke who founded the town and was elected mayor similar to Joe Starks, the character in the novel. The novel describes Joe Starks store porch, the place where people could feel themselves human, where they could sit outsides, tell different stories, and speak about their neighbor and news, similar to the store porch from Zora's life. Besides, the outside of Zora's house was surrounded by fruit trees and beautiful flowers, similar to the pear three described in the novel.
There is another similarity between Janie's and Zora's life. The novel tells us that Janie was brought up by her Nanny. Zora Neale Hurston was also very devoted to her mother, Lucy Ann Hurston. When Zora's mother died, Zora's relationships with her father fall apart, similarly to Janie's relationship with Logan (the man who played the most significant role in her life). Besides, when Zora's mother died, Zora had to move to Jacksonville where she went to school and faced racism and the hostile attitude of white people.
Similarly, the novel tells us Janie's discovery of her black identity. The connections between Janie's and Zora's lives are amazing. The first layer of the novel is an actual Janie's journey through life in the South Florida. Janie was raised by her grandmother. Janie's Nanny wants the very best for her grandchild, and arranges Janie's marriage to Logan Killicks despite Janie's refusal. However, the marriage provides Janie with no happiness.
Her husband makes her work had and do not cares about her opinions and desires. Janie wants to meet the real love and when Joe Starks appears, Janie leaves her husband and marries Joe. Further they move to Eatonville, where Joe is elected a mayor. Yet, again the marriage brings Janie no satisfaction, because her new husband also cares little about her opinions and the woman has no opportunity to speak her mind. After her husbands death Janie falls in love with Tea Cake, the man who takes care of Janie and who loves her not for money but for herself. Tea Cake represents the closest semblance to Janie's ideals concerning marriage and love.
The couple moves to the Everglades where they work on the muck. During the hurricane, Tea Cake tries to protect Janie from the rabid dog and saves Janie's life. The dog manages to bit Tea and Tea falls ill. Further, being ill in his delirium, Tea Cake tries to kill Janie. The woman shoots first and kills Tea. She is accused of a murder, but found innocent.
The woman feels very bad that she had to kill the man she loved, but she is happy that he had the chance to meet the love of her life. This is the first layer of the novel the actual journey. The novel makes us explore the significance of various events, persons and images encountered on Janie's journey. Lets explore them more thoroughly. The second layer of the novel is a symbolic journey of self-discovery based on principles of self-liberation, self-empowerment and self-exploration. Again, three men play crucial role in her life.
The relationships with the men show how Janie obtains a sense of her identity and discovers her need in independence. Janie comes to appreciate her personality. She liberates herself from destructive relations with the men who try to oppress her and whose views of relationships are not based on mutual respect and reciprocal relationships. The symbolic journey explores the concepts of love versus independence.
The major themes of the novel are Janie's sexual awakening, the black power in a white-dominating world, the concept of black autonomy, and gender and race issues. The important characters in the novel are: Janie Crawford (the main character, who is associated with Zora Neale Hurston herself, and embodies the process of self-discovery), Pheoby Watson (the best friend of Janie, who embodied the audience to whom Janie tells her story), Nanny (Janie's grandmother, who embodies the fears and thoughts of the people with slavish way of thinking), Logan Killicks (Janie's first husband, who treats Janie as a thing), whose house (a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where nobody had ever been (Hurston, 21) symbolizes his character, Joe Starks (Janie's second husband, who embodies quest for power the white mans intrinsic essence), Tea Cake (Janie's third husband, who embodies Janie's youthful ideals of reciprocal relationships, love and happy marriage and gives Janie a chance to enjoy the life). The novel introduces motifs and symbols that are mentioned throughout the novel, such as porches where people feel powerful and human, Janie's hair, and the horizon. Janie's hair symbolizes Janie's sexuality and individuality. It is the symbol of Janie's power and strength that reveals Janie's defiance of community standards and her strive for independence (e. g.
Janie's refusal to correspond the community standards that consider undignified for a woman of her age to wear the hair down). The horizon and the pear three symbolize Janie's desire of harmony and hew views of nature. For example, the ships on the horizon in the beginning of the novel symbolize Janie's unattainable dreams, and Janie's hauling in of her horizon like a great fish-net show that Janie achieved her inner balance and the harmony with nature. The pear tree is associated with Janie's sexual maturity, because it blossoms simultaneously with Janie. Besides, the sentence, where the tree is first mentioned, is very important for understanding the symbol: Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches (Chapter 2).
The love scene between Johnny Taylor and Janie where she wonders, Where are the bees singing for me? (Chapter 2) is also important because it shows that Janie has strength to see what she wants to see in contrast to other women in the novel, who simply obey the mens power and accept their condition. Janie tries to find the love of her life, and finally, meets the man who teaches her to enjoy the life. Janie learns love from Tea Cake and loves him so much that her soul crawled out from its hiding place (Hurston 122). At irony of fate, the hurricane comes; the hurricane that symbolizes the force of pure destruction that makes the people answering questions about who they are and what their place in this world is.
It takes Tea Cake away, but brings Janie successful completion of her quest for spiritual fulfillment. Bibliography Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. HarperCollins Publishers, January 2006.
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Research essay sample on Their Eyes Were Watching God
