Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford and her journey to find personal fulfillment and overcome many different struggles that are a result of her race and gender. The book is heavily influenced by the first wave feminist movement, as seen by the way it explores womanhood, race and independence.

Their Eyes Were Watching God focuses on very serious and and personal issues regarding both Janie’s race and womanhood, topics which would not have been socially acceptable for women to write about and likely not have even been published before the first wave feminist movement. Before the early 20th century, women were primarily limited to writing about less serious topics, and weren’t able to get published if they wrote about

personal issues or things relating to woman hood. One of the few areas of literature that was primarily written by women was children’s books, due to the light hearted nature of these books (Snyder). However, as the first wave feminist movement progressed, more women began to use literature as a way to express themselves, and to protest against the patriarchal society they lived in.

Key feminist writers like Louisa May Alcott and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were some of the first to write about their personal struggles against patriarchy in America (Snyder). These writers also included strong female characters in their stories, which was a rare occurrence in American literature, but is also present in Their Eyes Were Watching God. In the book, Janie deals with issues of womanhood and there are very heavy themes touched upon. At one point in the book, Jane comes to the realization that “Marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman”(Hurston, 21). This kind of deep personal revelation for a female character

would not have been seen prior to the first wave feminist movement. Without the push from female authors in the early 20th century write about the struggles women experienced, Their Eyes Were Watching God wouldn’t have been able to feature such a strong female character and focus on topics like death, marriage and even race.
Racism is another theme which is heavily touched upon on in Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Hurston is able to tie together the themes of race and gender in a way which was unprecedented at the time, and largely a result of African American women in the first wave feminist movement who paved the way for her. While black women were often held back from being a part of feminist movements due to racism, this didn’t stop them from campaigning for things like suffrage and other civil rights. “African American women speakers—Sojourner Truth, Maria Stewart and Mary Ann Shadd Cary among them—imagined and established themselves as literary representatives of the African American people, both within black communities and on the national stage” (Ginzberg). These authors were able to discuss discrimination through the lens of both gender and race, something which wouldn’t be done again until Hurston published Their Eye Were Watching God. Movements like the Harlem Renaissance also occured before Hurston published the book, but they were almost solely based around race, and did not touch on gender as much. In fact, Hurston was criticized by Harlem renaissance writers for not going deep enough into her racial struggles when the book came out (Miles). Their Eyes Were Watching God combined issues of race and gender in a way that was very reminiscent of The first wave feminist

movement.
One of the key themes in this story is independence. By the end of the story Janie learns that she does not need a man to be happy and fulfilled. This is an idea that was very important in first wave feminism, especially in the flapper movement. The flapper movement was a subsect of first wave feminism encouraged women to push the limits of social norms created by the patriarchy. “Many women celebrated the age of the flapper as a female declaration of independence. Experimentation with new looks, jobs, and lifestyles seemed liberating compared with the socially silenced woman in the Victorian Age” (Spivack). This idea of not needing to find a man, which had been a cultural norm for all of American history, was questioned in the flapper movement and then explored further in Their Eye Were Watching God. Janie spends the entire book going from man to man, trying to find someone who give her the ideal vision of marriage and stability that was so prevalent in American society. But by the end of the story she realizes she will be fine on her own, stating, “Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons. Dis house ain't so absent of things lak it used tuh be befo' Tea Cake come along” (Hurston, 191). The arc of Janie’s character and moral at the end of Their Eyes Were Watching God is strongly aligned with the views of the flapper movement and first wave feminist movement as a whole.
The first wave feminist movement did not just influence the content of Their Eyes Were Watching God, it paved the way for such a progressive and momentous story to be published without the first wave feminist movement, Huron may have never even been able to write the story. Their Eyes Were Watching God was influenced by first wave feminism through the theme of race, gender and independence.