Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is not a novel that focuses on Janie’s quest for self-identity, but rather a journey towards freedom to be herself and to accept responsibility. The protagonist of the novel, Janie, is seen as a symbol for the movements of African Americans asserting themselves and earning their rights through confrontation after the Civil War. Janie in the story represents not only African American women, but also the African American population itself as a whole and their journey of being able to fully earn their rights and freedom.
Although the slave culture of the southern part of United States was terminated by Janie’s time, it still has a profound effect on the book. Nanny, Janie’s grandmother,

was a former slave who can only see Janie’s emotional and psychological maturity through her own experiences as a slave controlled by white men. According to Nanny, a black woman should have the standards of wanting a man with property and the ability to provide everything that is needed in life for her, which explains the arranged marriage of Janie and Logan Killicks by Nanny. One would think that after the ending of slavery, everyone would be treated equally; however, gender equality was rare in which women are still being oppressed by men and unable to earn their rights while being abused daily by their husbands or significant other. Women are often confined by men’s domesticity and are treated as their “slaves”. Men impose standards on women by silencing their voices and limiting their actions with notions of propriety. Example of these can be seen through Janie’s first and second husband, Logan and Joe respectively. Logan presents himself in behavior and words like a slave master towards Janie with insults and threats of violence when she does not obey his demands and commands. After working like a work animal and field hand, Janie no longer was able to handle staying with Logan and decided to elope with Joe, thinking that he would be a better husband than Logan was. Just like how African Americans thought that they are able to be completely free after slavery, there were still restraints that they had to face parallel to Janie’s restraints given from Joe. Marriage to Joe brings Janie to the all-black community of Eatonville and into the lofty position of a mayor’s wife. Since Janie’s hair is so attractive to men, Joe Starks forces her to wear a head-rag, which symbolizes Janie’s restraints as a Janie chafes under Joe's iron rule for about twenty years until his merciless insults make her lash out and publicly insult his manhood. The symbolism of the head-rag can be seen as African Americans being tyrannized by society even after the Civil War when slavery was already ceased. The head-rag is a restraint for Janie but is also a representation of restraints imposed on blacks after slavery. These restraints include rules such as not being able to use the same water fountain as whites, having to sit in the “blacks only” section of the bus, etc. Furthermore, as seen in the film The Butler, members of the Ku Klux Klan attacked African Americans like Louis after the inauguration of John F. Kennedy showing how African Americans were still not welcomed at the time during the Civil Rights Movement. Janie’s public insults to Joe can be compared to African Americans in organizations such as the Black Panthers Outraged, telling the world of how they are still not earning their rights and freedom after the Civil War along with many boycotts and peaceful protests lead by Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders.
After dealing with the public humiliation from Janie, Joe is devastated by this blow to his pride and takes to his deathbed. At his death scene, Janie finally works up the courage to speak, telling Joe that he is nothing but a big voice and has sinned against her. Joe Starks’s death symbolizes Janie's emergence into freedom as a mature woman while resembling the success of the boycotts and protests that allowed African Americans to be rightfully freed without restraints from anyone. Freedom for Janie means the same as freedom for former slaves since the husbands in the story were treating Janie as if she is their own personal slave and they were the slave owner. In the novel, Nanny said, “So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule ud de world so fur as Ah can see” (Hurston 80). This quote from Nanny shows the class system within the slavery time that Nanny was in, which Nanny also believes is still relevant in Janie’s time. Nanny believes that Black women gets the worst lot in life in which white men look down on black men, and the black men in turn would drop the burden on their women. This then explains why the freedom of Janie as an African American woman means the same as freedom for former slaves. Since the system goes in an order that eventually leads to African American women doing most if not all of the work, freedom of black women also means freedom of black men and slaves in general.
Janie faces subjectivity when she left Eatonville with Tea Cake, thinking that their relationship will end happily, unlike her past two marriages.

Though Tea Cake liberates Janie, he also continues a pattern of domination, which becomes evident in his jealousy and physical abuse. However, Janie was deeply in love with Tea Cake and trusted that his abuse was simply because he truly cares about her and their relationship together. Due to Tea Cake’s sickness, it made him more malevolent compared to Joe and Logan, and it is this domination that Janie is trying to escape when she shoots him. The relationship with Tea Cake shows how Janie achieved subjectivity after meeting him. The struggles of African Americans in a post-emancipation and post-civil rights era slightly parallel the subjectivity that Janie achieved in the novel. Joe and Logan can both be seen as slave owners in the novel by the way they treat Janie. Tea Cake on the other hand, can be seen as white people during the post-emancipation and post-civil rights era. Janie represents former slaves trying to figure out their lives and situation that they are in after no longer being a slave. Just like Janie, the African American population thought that after the Civil War, they are able to thoroughly earn their freedom. However, the South saw Reconstruction as a humiliating and vengeful imposition and did not welcome it. With that fact, because of the subjectivity that African Americans are able to fully earn their rights after the war, many ended up being hurt, just like Janie, when certain rules were not

followed.
The novel gives a new perception to the idea that African American women are being enslaved themselves by their husbands or significant other even after slavery. This does not exclude black women themselves as it can seen that Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, was enslaving Janie by forcing her into a marriage that did not give her happiness. Just like how the movements developed to allow blacks to assert themselves, Janie was able to do the same through the different movements and experiences that she dealt with in her life. Through this novel, the African American community is also exposed in a darker side in which people, especially women, are creating a very judgmental community. In the beginning of the novel, Janie faced the gossips and badmouthing of the porch sitters. The porch sitters also can be seen as a representation of white people in the post-civil era in which many of them had unpleasant ideas and perceptions towards the African American population that lead to the separation of freedom and rights. It also shows the mob mentality of the human race proving that things are more effective when done in a group with positive results, as many of the protests after the Civil War were successful because groups carried it out. Social class was also a factor in the novel in which the poorer working classes are often depicted as more honest and decent than the wealthier and upper classes. Although Janie had more power and her rank was higher as the mayor’s wife when she was still living with Joe Starks, she was still unhappy. However, when Janie moved away with Tea Cake to a smaller town, she was very happy despite the social ranking that she had. Although higher social ranking may come with power and the ability to manipulate less powerful people, many people with higher ranking are despondent. Through the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, readers are able to have a better understand of not only the African American community, but also the struggles and difficulties of the community wanting to achieve freedom.