Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was a well-known and admired writer and anthropologist. Hurston’s narratives, short stories, and plays often times depict African-American life in the South. Hurston influenced many writers, forever securing her place in history as one of the leading female writers of the 20th century. Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 15, 1891.

Throughout her life, Hurston, dedicated herself to studying and promoting black culture. She traveled to both Haiti and Jamaica to study the religions of the African emigration.

Several of her findings are included in newspapers throughout the United States, hurston often incorporated her research into her fictional writing as well. As an author Hurston, started publishing short stories as early as 1920. Unfortunately, her work was overlooked by the conventional literary audience for years. However, she gained a mass following among African Americans. After years of writing, Hurston became unable to take care of herself, she eventually died of heart disease on January 28, 1960. Initially, her remains were placed in an unmarked grave but in 1972, Alice Walker (author of the color purple) located her grave and created a marker.

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Although, Hurston’s work was not widely known during her lifespan, in death she ranks among the best writers of the 20th century. Her work continues to influence writers throughout the world.

Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie’s passage from repression to spiritual fulfillment as she collides with the expectations thrust upon her by others. Janie elevates marriage and love in her mind as the highest achievement, but this ideal is defiled when she marries Logan and Jody, two men whom she does not love and who prolong her “cosmic loneliness.

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” As Logan and Jody both cease to “make speeches with rhymes to her,” Janie’s hope for self-fulfillment through sexual and romantic fulfillment struggles to survive.

Upon Jody’s death, Janie abandons the materialistic desires of her first two husbands (and ultimately, her Nanny, who urged Janie to marry for money in the first place), and permits herself to fall in love with Tea Cake, a man considerably younger and poorer. Tea Cake acts as a catalyst who drives Janie toward a stronger sense of self. He allows Janie to partake in experiences once relegated as “for-men-only,” and introduces her to the enjoyment of a loving relationship, one in which they make “lots of laughter out of nothing.” Janie learns to speak up for herself when Tea Cake disappears for days at a time or flirts with other women, an act that is not met with silence from Tea Cake, but rather, apology and conversation.

The climax of the novel and resolution of Janie’s ultimate search for “self”comes after the hurricane, when Tea Cake succumbs to insanity as a result of the mad dog biting him in the storm. Caught between her love for her husband and the fear she feels that Tea Cake will kill her, Janie chooses to shoot him dead, marking the moment in which she asserts herself in the face of her most difficult circumstance yet. Beforehand, Janie believed Tea Cake’s death would be “too much to bear,” but in choosing to save her life, Janie affirms what she has been searching for since her revelation under the pear tree: self-actualization born from true love. Not long after Janie clutches dead Tea Cake to her bosom and thanks “him wordlessly for giving her the chance for loving service,” Janie must defend herself in court where the jury “all leaned over to listen while she talked.”

This conclusion to Janie’s story greatly contrasts with her beginning, in which she strains to have her voice heard by Nanny, Logan, Jody, and many of her gossiping neighbors. The novel ends with Janie finally achieving what she always hoped for: “Here was peace.”

Updated: Feb 15, 2024
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Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston. (2024, Feb 15). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/their-eyes-were-watching-god-by-zora-neale-hurston-essay

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