Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: An Analysis

Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, interestingly begins her novel by starting at the end. In class we talked that maybe this took some of the mystery out of the novel and this would allow the reader to focus more the smaller details of the text. The main character, Janie Crawford, returns to a southern town and reconnects with a woman named Phoeby. Janie begins to tell Pheoby the story of where she has been, but begins it with when she is younger. He story is explaining to Pheoby why she can not be happy where she is returning from anymore. As we read her story we can see how not only women were treated during this time period, but also how African-Americans were treated as well. In the novel Hurston shows that people believed women should sacrifice their passions for stability, social status, and respectability, and African-Americans were seen below white Americans.

This becomes problematic when her grandmother catches her kissing Johnny Taylor, a young man that Nanny describes as a “trashy nigger” (chapter 2, page 13). This prompts Nanny to promise Janie’s hand in marriage to a man by the name of Logan Killicks. She begs Nanny not to make her get married to Killicks but Nanny does not change her mind. “Ain't Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it's protection (chapter 2, page 15). Nanny’s life experiences have left her with a strong concern for financial security and she believes that Killicks can give that to Janie. Janie is forced to accept that she has to marry Killicks even though she does not love him. Hurston is showing us here that women of this time period were expected to make sacrifices to do what was expected of