Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

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Critics have analysed his death with respect to Janie’s search for an authentic self. Diane Sadoff remarks that while Janie had killed Jody metaphorically through her verbal lashing, she kills Tea Cake literally (qtd. in Jordan 110). According to Alice Walker, Janie kills Tea Cake as he forced her into a position where she had to pretend to enjoy the role of a battered wife (qtd. in Pryse 14). Mary Helen Washington notes that the ending subverts the romantic trope of a married happily ever after and locates the journey for self-awareness outside the rubric of patriarchy (18). Kaplan remarks that though tragic, his death makes sense at the narrative level as the novel’s “erotic justice” and it liberates Janie to continue her quest and satisfy …show more content…

However, there is a tension in their fiction between the bourgeois-inspired femininity and the “contrary instinct” of hardiness, as their very survival was dependent on their resourcefulness and strength (235-36).

She singles out Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God as an exception to this trend as it portrays the growth of Janie as a self—aware and empowered being. Though contemporary literature emphasised on femininity and financial stability, this novel critiques both these goals. The novel is structured in a way that Janie moves through three phases that represent different opinions of what a Black woman should be. While marriage with Killick represented her status as a mule, with Jody she was the “lady” and the “Queen of the Porch” who in reality was merely ornamental, isolated from her community and had as little rights as the mule. Hurston critiques the attainment of stability through submission in a marriage that leads to the suppression of natural desires. Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake, though not ideal, offers us a glimpse of the possibility of parity in a marriage that is not based on economics but emotions and thought (236). The circular journey leads us back to her telling her story to the representative of the society, Phoeby (237). Thus we see a transformed self that now seeks to change the community through its

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