hurston analysis

At the turn of the 20th century, black men in the southern United States regarded women as property. Women took the role of slaves in marital relationships and men typically ruled as the masters. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story of such repression and possession in these black Southern communities. Taking place mainly in Etonville, Florida, Hurston’s book details the life of one such young woman, Janie. This novel is the tale of Janie’s escape from this oppression into her own self-awareness and personal identity. However, Janie’s path to awakening is fraught with hardships. She must journey through the wasteland of being a possession before she may enter the garden of her self-actualized dreams of love.

Abandoned by her mother, and raised by her grandmother, the beginning of both her slavery and awakening begin when she is quite young. While marveling at a blooming pear tree in her grandmother’s backyard, she experienced a sexual awakening. The tiny blossoms on the tree and the pollen dusty bees that buzz around it tremendously move Janie. “Oh to be a pear tree – any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. Where were the singing bees for her?” (Hurston, 11). This is her first step toward self-awareness, and a plunge into sexual awakening. Janie abandons the prudish advice of her grandmother, Nanny, and kisses a neighbor boy. Frightened by this act of youthful sexuality, Janie’s grandmother determines to marry her off as quickly as possible. Nanny believes that Janie needs the support of a man, preferably one with wealth. She is married to a man dec...

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...e’s kissing bee to the end.

Returning to Etonville, Janie recounts the story to an old friend. She arrives at her final stage of awakening. She understood that she had fulfilled her dreams, lived them, and still keeps them in her heart. Tea Cake’s memories would stay alive in her heart, as long as she was alive to remember. “He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace” (Hurston, 193). Janie discovers herself through attaining her dream of love, also uncovering a joy that she can carry the rest of her life. She finally found peace in knowing who she was, and being strong enough to fight for her individuality. Over the course of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie unearths what love truly means to her, and how far she is willing to go to obtain it.