Their Eyes Were Watching God

Using quotes from the text, chart Janie's character growth through the course of the novel. Show how her character changes over time.


“It’s uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there. Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh themselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (183). The character, Janie, from Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is often referred to in literature as a character that makes dramatic discoveries while embarking on a personal journey to find spiritual enlightenment and a strong sense of identity. She is credited for disrupting gender roles and developing an astonishing sense of independence. Not only can a reader chart her growth throughout the novel through her three husbands which act as pillars in the backbone of this novel, but her use of language and discovery of her own voice.

In the beginning of this novel, Janie is skeptical of who she is as a person and woman of the world. She is also unsure of what she wants to make of herself. Her personal journey begins when she has a revelation under the blossoming pear tree. The pear tree symbolizes a harmony within nature, which Janie longs to be a part of. She often refers to the perfect type of love as a harmony of both souls and the nature that surrounds them. “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree…She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid” (32). This marriage of nature initiates her desire to unearth this harmony and begin growing as a woman.

The first growth the reader sees in Janie is after another perfect day with Joe Sparks. He tells her how fond he is of her and that he wishes she would leave Logan and run away with him. That evening, Janie reveals that she will never worship Logan the way that he wishes. She leaves their home and sets off to meet Sparks to begin their life together. “The morning road air was like a new dress…she came to where Joe Sparks was waiting for her with a hired rig. He was very solemn and helped her to the seat beside him. With him on it, it sat like some high, ruling chair. From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything. A bee for her bloom” (61). She has opened a new chapter of her life, moved on to the second landmark of the novel – her marriage to Jody. She immediately celebrates her freedom and hopefulness to experience love just as she imagined, which is why she describes her new life sprinkled with flower dust and springtime, a perfect description of harmony with nature.

Unfortunately, Janie once again, finds herself restricted. Jody forces her to wear her beautiful hair in a wrap while she works in the shop, a symbol of her free will clouded and smothered. When Joe Sparks is near death, Janie uses her reserved power to verbally lash out at him, a sign of finding her voice. Once Joe passes, Janie “[tears] off the kerchief from her head and let[s] down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there” (104). Even though she found herself halted by a male obstacle, she continues to grow through her voice and free will.

When Janie meets Tea Cake, the reader feels Janie has found the man who is able to harmonize with her and nature. "Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place" (122). It becomes apparent that Janie progresses further with her inner voice. She is now able to control her speech and able to be silent when she chooses. When Janie is talking to Pheoby, she tells her that talking doesn’t amount to anything unless it is connected to actual experience. She has not only discovered who she is and what she wants to do with her life but what part of her voice is most important to share. After Tea Cake passes, Janie returns to Eatonville, prepared for the gossip and rejection of her own community. In the beginning of the novel, the negative opinions of the women on the porches would have greatly affected her but instead she pities them. Janie tells Pheoby that she has been to the horizon and back and has experienced true love, something that none of the woman can claim. The story of her journey has been told, through her voice of independence, experience, and new found harmony; harmony not between a man and herself, but between herself and nature.


WORK CITED
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. Book.