Their Eyes Were Watching God is a book that provides themes like love, racism, gender roles, and judgement. If we are to look at Zora Neale Hurston’s work under a magnifying glass, we could find, that a story based in the 1930’s is not so different to our world today.
Janie Crawford, our heroine for this story, tells her story in her own account of how she defied the expectations of those around her. It all starts with a wonderful display of symbolism by Hurston, the pear tree and the sweet nectar that Janie reveals to believe is how marriage must be. A clear representation of Janie’s first experience with her changes into womanhood. Her grandma, some how one of the antagonists to Janie’s freedom, sees puberty as a chance to find a husband for Janie. She decides that education is no longer a need, if she were to get Janie married, it would solve all future troubles for Janie.
The innocent Janie sees this as a wonderful possibility of replacing her loneliness with love. She is young and naïve to think that marriage and love are one in the same. Upon marrying Logan Killicks, a man once divorced and much older than Janie, refers to her as ‘spoilt’ for not doing more in the home. Drown in disappointment, Janie looks for a way out and finds a fine gentleman by the name of Jody Starks. He offers her a chance for change and a way out of a loveless marriage. Only to find herself on another plain marriage with no love but only economic gains.
Janie finally finds freedom once Jody dies. Now a woman that knows herself, finds that she has no need for a man in order to feel loved. She is now at peace with herself. Enters, Tea Cake, a younger man that is both smooth and good looking but also with a much lower economic status than Jane. She finds his manners to be refreshing, he wants to play checkers with her, he wants to talk about his feelings, and many more things that she hadn’t experienced before. Janie had never encountered such a man.
Without giving the ending of the book away or any key moments you might enjoy, in Hurston’s fantastic dialect dialogue you will find yourself reading as if you are Janie herself. You will, in a sense, be wearing Janie Crawford’s shoes and muttering her words out loud. The misogynistic traits of her two husbands will have you rolling your eyes and pursing your lips with disgust. You will feel that Janie’s grandma structured Janie’s future with thoughts of a better future. It will leave you thinking and wondering if you would do the same?
It is a common occurrence that as a young woman, you will receive words of wisdom of those older with more experience. Unfortunately, some of those words of wisdom are often projections from their broken experiences to avoid us the pain. This often stops women from being able to create a life all of their own. In today’s world, women find their own way, even if its unconventional; that is exactly what Janie did. Zora Neil Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is way ahead of its time (maybe our society is stuck in time).
Go to your local library or bookstore and pick-up this book. You won’t regret it. The story is based on America’s first all-black community, Eatonville, Florida. Hurston lived there for some part of her life. She addresses issues that are still alive today within the racism in our communities. It explores colorism and looks into the dark history of this country and how it shapes those that have survived it. With such important messages is why this book was my pick for book of the month.
Isabel Machuca-Morales
Isabel Morales was born in Chile, and lived as a child immigrant in Long Island, New York. She is currently working towards her BA in English and Creative Nonfiction Writing at Southern New Hampshire University.