Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Hurston

The Different Shores of Love

Zora Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” depicts the journey of a young woman named Janie Crawford’s journey to finding real love. Her life begins with a romantic and ideal view on love. After Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, soon grows fearful of Janie’s newfound sexuality and quickly marries Janie off to Logan Killicks, an older land owner with his own farm. Janie quickly grows tired of Logan and how he works her like a slave instead of treating her as a wife and runs away with Joe Starks. Joe is older than Janie but younger than Logan and sweet talks Janie into marring him and soon Joe becomes the mayor of an all African American town called Eatonville. Soon Joe begins to force Janie to hide not only her

beauty but her voice and after Janie speaks out against Joe he strikes her.

Janie then leaves Joe and doesn’t speak to him again until he is on his death bed. After Joe’s passing Janie meets a young man called Tea Cake. The town’s people feared that Tea Cake was only with Janie to attempt to steal her money. Janie ignored these warnings and runs away with Tea Cake anyway; Tea Cake soon gambles all of Janie’s money away. Not wanting Janie to provide for the two of them, Tea Cake moves the two of them to the everglades to harvest crops. Tea Cake allows Janie to be his equal and even lets her work in the fields with him. A hurricane rolls into Florida and instead of leaving with everyone else Tea Cake and Janie stay. During the storm while trying to protect Janie, Joe is bitten by a rabid dog and contracts rabies which eventually leads Janie to shoot him in self-defense. After buying an extravagant funeral for Tea Cake Janie returns to Eatonville to tell her story. Throughout Janie’s life her care takers/husbands have played four very different roles in molding Janie into the strong woman she becomes: Nanny wan an overbearing parental figure, Logan was her first husband that treated Janie like his slave, Joe was her second husband who held Janie as a trophy, and Tea Cake her third and final husband was Janie’s

partner and treated her as an equal.
Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, is her first caretaker and Nanny tries desperately to protect Janie from the hardships that both she and Janie’s mother fate. Ann DuCille describes Nanny as “play[ing] a major role in shaping the heroine’s [Janie’s] life, in her article “The Coupling Convention” (116). Both Nanny and Janie’s mother were raped by white men; Nanny feared that Janie would also be rapped and was determined to protect her from that fate. Nanny tells Janie the story of Janie’s conception, “Dat school teacher had done hid her in de woods all night long, and he had done raped mah baby and run off just before day” (Hurston, 72-73). Nanny’s way of protecting Janie was to marry Janie off to Logan Killicks. Nanny tries to reassure Janie by saying, “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection. Ah ain’t gittin’ ole honey. Ah’m done ole. One mornin’ soon, now, de angel wid de sword is gointuh stop by here. De day and de hour is hid from me, but it won’t be long. Ah ast de Lawd when you was uh infant in mah arms to let me stay here till you got grown. He done spared me to see de day. Mah daily prayer now is tuh let dese golden moments rolls on a few days longer till Ah see you safe in life” (Hurston, 52). This quote is best explained by Judie Newman in her article “Dis Ain’t Gimme, Florida’: Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Nanny’s history under slavery dictates her strategic maneuvers in the wars of property and propriety. Having been denides a say in her own fate because she was property, she assumes that only property enables expression” (820). Nanny chooses Logan to be Janie’s husband based on the fact that he owns property; she believes that Logan has land and that he will eventually become the perfect match for Janie.
Logan Killcks, Janie’s first husband, provides for Janie but he treats her as a slave more than a wife.

When Janie marries Logan, her life is changed completely. She was not only forced into a loveless marriage but she was also forced into a slave like position. Logan sees nothing wrong with the marriage and when Janie complains he responds with, “Ah thought you would ‘preciate good treatement. Thought Ah’d take and make somethin’ outa yuh. You think youse white folks by de way you act” (Hurston, 42). Logan sees marriage much the same way that Nanny does; he believes that because he does not abuse her and provides the necessities that Janie should be happy. According to Tracy L. Bealer’s article “The Kiss of Memory: The Problem of Love in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God,” “Though Logan does not abuse or violate Janie, even his money proves no protection from unsatisfying labor, as his ominous purchase of a mule ‘all gentled up so even uh woman kin handle ‘im’’ (26) implies the treat of compulsive labor” (316). The physical labor was only one of the problems that Janie had in her marriage with Logan; Logan looked down on Janie for having grown up with and around white people. He would insult Janie by saying, “Considerin’ youse born in a carriage ‘thout no top to it, and yo’ mama and you bein’ born and raised in de white folks back-yard” (Hurston, 40). Logan resented that Janie did not identify with other blacks as a child and saw Janie as his lesser because of this.

Logan never paid a compliment to Janie as expressed by Sally L. Kitch in her article “Gender and Language: Dialect, Silence and the Disruption of Discourse,” “Logan who ‘don’t even ever mention nothing pretty’ (46). With Logan, she is also inundated by Laws of the Father, which equate her worth with physical labor on the farm” (72). This neglect and hard labor all led to Janie wanting to leave Logan, and not long into their marriage she does.
Joe, Janie’s second husband, presents Janie to his public has a trophy and does not her the freedom and glamor he originally promises. Joe makes many promises to Janie in the early days of their relationship, none of which he actually fulfills. When Joe first meets Janie he says to her, “You behind a plow! You ain’t got no mo’ business wid uh plow than uh hog is got wid uh holiday! You ain’t got no business cuttin’ up no seed p’taters neither. A pretty doll-baby lak you is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan yo’self and eat p’taters dat other folks plant just special for you” (Hurston, 24). Joe sees that Janie is unhappy with Logan and takes advantage of this by sweet talking Janie into a labor free life of simply being his “pretty baby doll.” After Joe and Janie move to Eatonville Joe, Joe begins to restrict Janie’s interactions with the town’s people more and more. Joe’s reasoning for this is, “…but Ah’m uh man even if Ah is de Mayor. But de mayor’s wife is somethin’ different again. Anyhow they’s liable tuh need me tuh say uh few words over de carcass, dis bein’ uh special case. But you ain’t goin’ off in all dat mess uh commonness” (Hurston, 74). Shawn E. Miller writes in his article “Some Other Way to Try: From Defiance to Creative Submission in Their Eyes Where Watching God,” “Joe’s motive for silencing Janie seems to be… noted to his ‘sexual jealousy’” (78). After Janie confronts Joe about this treatment, Joe grows angry and strikes Janie. This is the final straw that brings Janie to leave. Joe then falls ill after Janie leaves him and eventually dies; Joe’s death gives Janie a sense of freedom that she had in many years. Julie A. Haurykiewicz describes Janie after Joe’s death in her article “From Mules to Muliebrity: Speech and Silence in Their Eyes Were Watching God,” “She is free, and she is born again as a new woman and a speaking subject” (58). Although her marriage to Joe was abusive and binding, Janie ultimately starts her true transformation into a strong woman.
Tea Cake is Janie’s third and final husband; unlike any of Janie’s other caretakers he treats her as an equal. Tea Cake’s given name is Vergible Woods; he entered Janie’s life soon after Joe’s death. Janie was reluctant to trust Tea Cake; however, he eventually wins her over by not only sweet talking her but spending time with her. Janie still did not fully trust Tea Cake, so in an effort to try to win her over he professed his love to her, “Twasn’t ‘cause Ah wanted tuh stay off lak day, and it sho Lawd, wuzn’t no woman. If you didn’t have de power tuh hold me and hold me tight, Ah wouldn’t be callin’ yuh Mis’ Woods. Ah met plenty women before Ah knowed you tuh talk tuh. You’se de onliest woman in de world Ah ever even mentioned gittin married tuh. You bein’ older don’t make no difference. Don’t never consider dat no mo’. If Ah ever gits tuh messin’ round another woman it won’t be on account of her age. It’ll be because she got me in de same way you got me – so Ah can’t help mahself” (Hurston, 26-27). Tea Cake not only professed his love for Janie, but he also said that he would remain faithful to her and that their twelve year age difference did not mean anything to him. Janie eventually falls in love with Tea Cake and they get married and run away together. Meta G. Carstarphen dissects Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship in his analysis “Fantasy and Reality in the Novel,” “… the desire to be a couple never overcame a shared inability to unite over life goals” (92). Tea Cake truly sees Janie as his equal and allows her to follow him into the fields to work. Tea Cake tells Janie, “Dem wuzn’t no high mucky mucks. Dem wuz railroad hands and dey womenfolks. You ain’t usetuh folks lak dat and Ah wuz skeered you might git all mad and quit me for takin’ you ‘mongst ‘em. But Ah wanted yuh wid me jus’ de same. Befo’ us got married Ah made up mah mind not tuh let you see no commonness in me. When Ah git mad habits on, Ah’d go off and keep it out yo’ sight. ‘Tain’t mah notion tuh drag you down wid me” (Hurston, 54-57). Janie wants to go and work the fields with Tea Cake; however, Tea Cake wants to keep Janine from people he sees as her lesser but Tea Cake ultimately wants her to be happy and allows her to work with him. Lynn Domina discusses the change Janie undergoes while working with Tea Cake in her criticism of Their Eyes Were Watching God For “Novels for Students,” “She also begins to work in the fields after she and Tea Cake move to the Everglades, not because Tea Cake decides to treat her like a mule… because she enjoys Tea Cake’s company and the social interaction that occurs amount the other workers” (314). During a hurricane Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog while trying to protect Janie; Tea Cake eventually is overcome by rabies and is driven mad. Janie is forced to defend herself from him and shoots him. After paying for an elaborate funeral and facing trial for murdering Tea Cake, Janie returns home to Eatonville. Tea Cake provided the “real love” that Janie had been searching for since she first began her journey into womanhood.
Throughout Janie’s life is shaped by the people that she has loved and who have loved her. Janie refers to love while telling her story, “Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore” (chap 20, par 7). Janie compares love to the sea and like the sea love is shaped by the shore or people it meets. The four shores that shape Janie’s perception of love are her four care takers: Nanny, and over protective parental figure; Logan, a slave driving husband; Joe, and abusive and controlling husband; and Tea Cake a loving equal. Without Nanny, Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake Janie would never have becomea strong independent woman.