by Katy
Michel
The Use of Appearance Imagery to Illustrate Internal Conflict Imagery in the Main Character of Their Eyes Were Watching God
The complex relationship between appearance imagery and
internal conflict imagery in Their Eyes Were Watching God shows very careful planning on
the part of the author, Zora Neale Hurston. Like many carefully executed devices, the full
impact of the relationship is subtle, capturing the reader's subconscious in order to
effect the mood of the particular event or chapter. The relationship is not static, but
changes as the character changes. The best example of this is, of course, the main
character Janie, who holds a near monopoly of soul-searching within this novel. By
analyzing the relationship of appearance imagery and Janie's internal conflict, one can
better understand both the mood of the novel and the effect of Janie's environment upon
her growth as a woman.
To show the stark contrast between the moods affected by
the aforesaid relationship in this novel, it is convenient to begin in media
res. That is, it is convenient to begin with Janie's marriage to Joe Starks, also
known as Jody, and work from there. It is convenient,
because it is here Hurston uses this relationship most blatantly to show the mood of the
story at that particular point; and she uses this
relationship so effectively by virtually dissolving it. There is a near complete breakdown
in the communication between thoughts and face, one might say. This breakdown is best
expressed by Janie when she tells her friend Pheoby, "Ah'm stone dead from standin'
still and tryin' tuh smile" (83). This quote very effectively shows the difference
between how Janie feels and how Janie acts. Janie knows what is expected of her and what
Jody needs of her, and does it, hating it all the while. Jody expected her to be a
brainless centerpiece in the great spread of his power, and of course, to always be
grateful. Janie occasionally tries to tell him differently. "Ah knows a few things,
and women folks thinks sometimes too!" (71). But Jody never fails to put her right
back into place, "Aw naw they don't. They just think they's thinkin'. When Ah see one
thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don't understand one" (71).
Of course, such struggle cannot take place without some
change in Janie's appearance and outside attitude... "The years took all the fight
out of Janie's face" (76). What is important to know is that no one knows the full
extent of the struggle within Janie's soul, as is evident in the very next sentence,
"For a while she thought it was gone from her soul" (76). Despite this, Janie is
remarkably in tune with her own emotions and opinions for one who suppresses so much. The
best example of this is, of course, Janie's final acceptance of the fact that Jody is not
the fulfillment of her dream of love. This occurs after he hits her.
Instead of having Janie cry and wail, and pitying herself,
Hurston takes a deeply personal perspective, exclusively using symbolism to show directly
what is occurring in Janie's heart. "Janie stood where he left her for unmeasured
time and thought. She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she
went inside to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But
looking at it she saw that it was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams..." (72).
Hurston uses this moment not to garishly evoke pity from
the reader, but as a moment of deep revelation, and leaves it to the reader to decide how
she feels about what Janie has discovered, as well as about Janie's situation. The very
next paragraph shows Janie's outward response to her own revelation. "She bathed and
put on a fresh dress and head kerchief and went on to the store before Jody had time to
send for her. That was a bow to the outside of things" (972). When Jody dies she sits
there thinking for a long time before going to get the townspeople, suitably bereaved. She
is still under obligation. Her obligation to Jody is dissolved, but she still must deal
with the townspeople. "...she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what
people wanted to see..." She does similarly at the funeral... "Janie starched
and ironed her face and came set in the funeral behind her veil. It was like a wall of
stone and steel" (88). The purpose of showing such stark contrast between Janie's
appearance and Janie's internal conflict is to emphasize Janie's suppression of her own
personality under this adversity. Although Janie did not always exist exclusively between
head and heels, this suppression has its roots in Janie's past. Janie's first show of
projecting her deepest emotions to the outside world was her kiss with Johnny Taylor.
"So she extended herself outside of her dream..."
Janie's grandmother wanted very much to very quickly put
an end to it. She had seen too much of what a kiss could do. Her grandmother shows
on the outside what her heart tells her. Ironically, this leads her to suppress the
feelings of her own granddaughter. "Nanny's head and face looked like the standing
roots of some old tree that had been torn away by storm" (12). Nanny forces Janie to
conform her (Nanny's) own dreams because she can't stand to see another of her children
hurt. In doing, Nanny, forces her child to become what she is not. Janie makes a habit of
it, because Jody does the exact same thing to her! When Janie has her fill of Logan (the
man her Grandmother forced her to marry)... "She turned wrong side out just standing
there and feeling. When the throbbing calmed a little she gave Logan's speech a hard
thought and placed it beside the other things she had seen and heard" (32). Then she
continues cooking. Hurston does not tell the reader what Janie's expression is, but her
actions indicate that her face did not fully
illustrate her turmoil. Although Janie has had her beginning of standing there and taking
it with her marriage to Logan, the need to suppress is not as all powerful as it was with
Jody. Janie's suppression of self that she underwent during her time of marriage to Jody
carries strong imagery to show the severity of it, however, the suppression of self that
began in her marriage to Logan does not carry with it such a dark mood.
It ought to carry as dark a mood, if not darker, simply
looking at the plot. One would assume that a forced marriage would carry with it a more
severe form of suppression than even a bad marriage one went willingly into. But, because
of the lack of appearance imagery to contrast with her internal thoughts, the hope for
love and happiness that Janie still treasures is evident not only in what she says to her
grandmother ( "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage".... page 24) but in her
attitude.
Janie learns to trust again with the advent of Tea Cake.
Learning to trust is naturally accompanied by fear. Pages 104 and 105 are crucial to
understanding this. Tea Cake is the first person to truly see all the treasure inside of
her not just as jewels to own (he's not a very materialistic man), but as heavenly grace
to spend one's entire life with. "You'se got de world in uh jug and make out like you
don't know it" (104). Tea Cake is the first character to tie her insides in with her
outsides. When she does not believe him, he says, "Yo' face jus' left here and went
off somewhere else" (104). She's been doing this for a good third of the book and
he's the first to notice. The struggle inside of her shows on the outside, which Hurston
illustrates with quiet, simple terms of glory. "At the newel post Janie whirled
around and for the space of a thought she was lit up like a transfiguration. Her next
thought brought her crashing down" (105). She is not fully convinced, however, until
Tea Cake completes the last act of proving himself by winning back, at risk to his own
life, the money he childishly took.
"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). The reader finally, if subconsciously, knows that Janie is at one with her own
self, when the need for appearance imagery and internal emotion imagery is eradicated. The
reader begins to see this after Tea Cake contracts rabies. Janie asks the heavens why Tea
Cake must die for loving her. She is not looking to herself but to outside powers and is
not simply feeling, but thinking what she feels. Tea Cake's funeral lets the reader know,
once and for all, that Janie has reached maturity by allowing things to come around full
circle. When Jody died, Janie very carefully dressed in respectable black clothes for the
funeral. When Tea Cake dies... "She was too busy feeling grief to dress like
grief." In the last third of her life, Janie's looks are no longer a focal point, and
the inwardness of her dreams are no longer an issue. This shows her maturation and
self-knowledge. As Henish Pulickal states, "Tea Cake is the catalyst for the final
stage of development of Janie as a woman."
The complex relationship between appearance imagery and
internal conflict imagery artistically augment the progression of self-knowledge that
Janie undergoes. The relationship, though subtle, allows the book not simply to grab the
immediate attention of the reader (such as a TV show might), but to grab the unconscious
as well, holding onto the reader on all levels. The analysis of this very successful
technique serves to bring this progression to a more lucid light, so that the reader may
benefit from a clearer understanding and more involved discussion of the ideas and
principles hidden therein.
Bibliography