Were Watching God Sexism

During the early 1900’s in America, women and children had been thought of as lesser than men. Women had also been expected to be housewives and to stay home tending to all of the children and taking care of the chores that are gender specific. A relation that day consisted of a man picking a women that is suitable for himself and the highest ranking family member in the house agreeing to the offer or not. In the story Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character Janie defies what society deems is right for her. The sexism and racism throughout the time period correlates to how Janie is treated within the novel.

The early twentieth century was difficult for African Americans, during that time they faced difficulties

in doing mediocre tasks like living comfortably above the poverty line. The barriers put in front of Africans were large because it was difficult for them to get jobs, to own shops or even land and houses. They had to struggle and fight harder than the average white equivalent to get the same opportunities. A large inspiration for Their Eyes Were Watching God happened to be the Harlem Renaissance which was a movement that spanned from 1918 to around the mid-thirties and though the movement ended the literature and legacies all lived on. The movement consisted of cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York and is referred to as the ‘New Negro Movement’ (Calisphere). It had been thought to be the rebirth of African American arts and was the beginning of the civil rights movements which was the want of equal rights amongst the races. The movements served as great inspirations for novels like Their Eyes Were Watching God.
The author of the novel, Zora Neale Hurston, is considered to be one of the most eminent writers of African literature in the twentieth century.

Since she was closely related to the Harlem Renaissance she stood as an idol to many writers to come. She had, “helped to remind the Renaissance--especially it’s more bourgeois members--of the richness in the racial heritage” (Radek). Hurston had lived in Harlem in the 1920’s and was very involved in the Renaissance itself. It has been said that “Hurston befriended the likes of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, among several others. Her apartment, according to some accounts, was a popular spot for social gatherings” (Radek). She had been an outstanding anthropologist and folklorist who worked to learn the stories and tails of multiple cultures including her own African-American heritage. Zora Neale Hurston had a very modern idea of an egalitarian society which is portrayed in the main character Janie throughout the

novel.
The novel opens up with Janie coming home from the Everglades and telling her life story via an extended flashback to her best friend, Pheoby Watson. While talking to Phoeby, Janie has come back from her third husband and is in her middle to late forties, and the flashback starts when she is 16 so it takes place during the entire first half of her life. During the progression of the novel Janie begins to voice her opinion opposed to the beginning of her flashback where she abides by the ones who have power over her. The formation of her voice comes primarily when she gets her freedom from the men who bound and confine her from really expressing herself to others. Janie struggles with sexism and finding her place in a relationship and within society.
In the early twentieth century in central Florida where the novel takes place in the beginning there had been gender inequality and duties around the house fell upon the women while all the money and external affairs would be the man of the houses job to take care of.

During that time it was likely for Janie to be in the kitchen and house preparing meals or cleaning but when her first husband asks her to work the farm with him she is taken back because women were not expected to work. “Women were for show while the men were for the real tasks in life” (Delany). She agrees, obeying her husband and does whatever task he tells her to fulfill. This is why when a suitor comes and dazzles her with false promises of never having to work again, she eagerly leaves without a second

glance.