Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

A caterpillar is born from a cocoon. With fuzzy legs, it crawls from its silky case and ventures into the world. At the first hint of Spring, a flower unfurls its lustrous petals. Father and daughter amble down the street hand in hand. Grandma strokes her granddaughters hair. Somewhere a girl wants to love and wonders how. Zora Neale Hurston examines and identifies the complexities of such relationships throughout her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). With intertwining but individual stories, she explores the worlds of social class, race, and gender. Eloquently and poetically, she reveals the multifacetedness of connections, illustrating the many layers that constitute a relationship.

Parents present themselves in a multitude of forms.

Sometimes there are no parents, or perhaps parent is simply the wrong word. Sometimes no one else plays a parental role. Whatever the case may be, an older figure usually resides in one life as a mature guide. They may take on the role of parenting or simply act as a mentor. For Hurston’s protagonist, Janie, her Nanny has always been everything. She has acted as her mother and father and sister and brother. As season melts into season and Janie blossoms into a young woman, their relationship seems to evolve: “She slapped the girl's face violently, and forced her head back so that their eyes met in struggle. With her hand uplifted for the second blow she saw the huge tear that welled up from Janie’s heart and stood in each eye. She saw the terrible agony and the lips tightened down to hold back the cry and desisted. Instead she brushed back the heavy hair from Janie’s face and stood there suffering and loving and weeping internally for both of them… For a long time she sat rocking with the girl held tightly to her sunken breast” (14). Hurston’s use of imagery in her repeated reference to eyes alludes to their significance as they are often seen as the window to the soul. Consequently, it is assumed that Janie’s emotions reach from deep within and Nanny’s searching fingers grasp on tight to these feelings. Beyond this, when Nanny “forced her head back so that their eyes met,” Janie must unwillingly bare her soul. Further, the deliberate use of alliteration in the phrase “heavy hair,” reveals the relevance of its weight. In a moment filled with tension, Janie’s hair weighs just as much as her soul. Because Nanny then casually “brushed back” this dense curtain of hair, the depth of their relationship becomes obvious. She continues on to “rock with the girl held tightly to her sunken breast,” shedding light as to how she perceives Janie. Babies are commonly rocked by their mothers when breastfeeding or being lulled to sleep. Here, Nanny rocks Janie as if she were her own child and not a young woman. She holds her as if she were to lose her. She droops with the additional pressure but continues with her soothing motion. Love preserves and prevails.
After learning that marriage is not necessarily equatable with love, Janie decides to find love elsewhere. She has lost faith in her Grandma’s ideals and hopes. She has found that a partner does not always entail love and that love does not always require a partner. Her marriage to Logan Killicks subsequently reveals this to her and so she embarks on her new life with Joe Starks. He encompasses her pear tree and her bees. He is everything she believes love is. However, this image soon crumbles and joins her preconceived notions: “She wasn’t petal-open anymore with him. She was twenty-four and seven years married when she knew. She found that out one day when he slapped her face in the kitchen… her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered… it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams… She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be” (71-2). Hurston’s comparison of Janie’s love towards Jody to a “petal,” discloses the initial purity and happiness of the relationship. Petals are often plucked off in desperation of he loves me, he loves me not, and it seems that Janie has lost all regard for these petals even being “open.” Further, the simultaneous actions of Jody “slapping her face in the kitchen” and Janie’s “image tumbling down and shattering” only reinforce the gravity of her revelation. It is also important to note that Jody slaps Janie in the “kitchen,” somewhere a woman would stereotypically be found. When Hurston writes, “dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit,” she insinuates that any lingering innocence is gone. Any traces of fresh love have vanished and in their place lay broken glass. Janie has arrived somewhere with no boundaries or rules. All previous ideas of love have tumbled down to leave her vulnerable.
Often it seems that one will find what they want when they least expect it.

Often it seems one may not even know they have wanted something until they have found it. In the aftermath of Janie and Jody’s debilitating relationship, she finds this something on a sweltering summer day. He struts into Janie’s store with an air of indifference and an intoxicating presence. His name is Tea Cake and Janie falls instantly in love: “He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place” (128). Janie’s action of “looking down on him,” alludes to the nature of their relationship. She wants to gaze tenderly at Tea Cake while he sleeps. She also has the ability to “look down” upon a man. Further, this action is followed by her feeling a “self-crushing love.” A love that inches inside of her veins and corrodes her arteries. A love that awakens her soul and probes it to “crawl out from its hiding place.” This display of vulnerability exhibits Janie’s undeniable and unequivocal love for Tea Cake. Also, as her soul “crawls,” like a baby or young child, the fresh sweetness of their love becomes apparent. It pokes its head out from hiding and ventures out into a new world. A world where love crushes Janie’s body and heart. A world where this pain is brilliant and

beautiful.
Dreams brim with subconscious thoughts. Every inch of that somewhere else world is a somewhere else memory. Myth says that each person who appears in a dream is a person one has seen. Strangers upon strangers. Face upon face. Noses and freckles and fingers. A profusion of people and relationships each with their own stories and complexities. Hurston amplifies and examines such connections with stubbornness and fire. She provides insight and introspection. Janie discovers and rediscovers her sexuality, femininity, and soul through journeys of love. Each journey leads to different relationships and connections. Each journey becomes another layer. Soon a quilt of hardship, redemption, and discovery is woven. Stars grant a wish to every girl that dares.