Florencia Soto Niño-Martínez
August 31, 2001

Their Eyes Were Watching God

    
     The name of the book is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. It was written in 1937, a time when women still weren’t taken much into account in a man’s world. For this reason, her book was not taken seriously. It was not until the 1970’s when this book started to find its own voice through African-American women. Now it is still one of the best African-American novels. It talks about Janie Crawford, a girl raised by her grand mother, who undergoes a lot of situations where she is powerless against men, but gradually finds the strength and courage to stand up for her own thoughts and desires. The central theme is the hard quest of a colored woman searching for self-realization in a time where women still weren’t allowed to speak their minds freely, and African-Americans were still discriminated against in the United States.
     Hurston tells us from the very beginning that Janie does not want an ordinary life, nor an ordinary marriage. First, she lets us know that Janie wants to find real love "Ah want things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think" (Hurston, 1990, p.23). This, she is unable to find in her first marriage with Logan Killicks. Instead she finds their marriage rather dull and unexciting. She’s looking for something, though she doesn’t know exactly what that is. Then, Jody Starks comes along, and she sees in him an opportunity to change. She leaves Logan, though not without making him mad for "telling yuh what yuh already knowed" (Hurston, 1990, p.30). What caused Logan’s anger was the fact that Janie had told him a very simple truth: she did not love him. This deed shows Janie’s first step towards independence, and it shows her defiance towards men’s authority.
     Janie is not comfortable in her second marriage either. Jody gives her all that money can buy, but what she really wants is his attention. He doesn’t let her have an opinion either. This is shown clearly when he’s named Mayor of Eatonville and would not let her give a speech because "mah wife know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. She’s a woman and her place is in de home" (Hurston, 1990, p.40). This is one of many remarks that he made about women being inferior. Janie soon had the desire to make her voice heard in town, but was unable to do so. She learned to keep silent, but this only made her less happy everyday. This stage of her life makes her realize men and women’s inequality in society. When she asks herself "Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time?" (Hurston, 1990, p.77) she’s clearly questioning this inequality that seems so unfair to her. She wants to be able to speak and not be quieted, nor ignored. This is another sign of her inner growth in the story.
     After Jodie Starks dies, Janie has another chance to grow. She learns what it is like to be a woman who’s alone in the world. This gives her more confidence, a new kind of inner peace, and freedom. A desire to do things instead of sitting all day, also awakened in her. We can see this when she tells her friend Phoebe "sittin’ still worries me. Ah wants to utilize mahself all over" (Hurston, 1990, p.107). Her independence had never been stated more clearly.
     Then, she meets Tea Cake who is not like her two former husbands at all. He gives importance to her opinion, does not think she’s unintelligent, and treats her like an equal. It is obvious why she came to like him. Finally, there was a man that seemed to cover all her expectations. She does not care that he doesn’t have half the money that she does, and she leaves her home and marries him. Once more, Janie defies all the rules, cares not about what society might say, and is faithful to her dreams and goals. This was not how women of her time were supposed to behave. This is her way of demonstrating that men were not the only ones who could stand up for themselves.
     Her life with Tea Cake finally gave her the opportunity to live under her own terms. She feels that she has found what she was looking for. They had to face other problems though. They must learn to trust and help each other. At one point they also face racial discrimination. After the hurricane, they must leave Palm Beach because "It’s bad bein’ strange niggers wid white folks. Everybody is aginst yuh" (Hurston, 1990, p.164). This shows that although black people were free, inequality and friction was still clear between these two races. It sure wasn’t easy being a black woman in that time. It wasn’t easy for Janie to face the jury after she killed Tea Cake, and it was no easy task to return home alone and face everyone else. Regardless of this, Janie found the strength to do it, and she returned as a new woman, satisfied with who she was.
     I would definitely recommend this book because through it I could learn more about women’s situation at the beginning of the twentieth century. I also learned a lot about African-American traditions. I really liked the way that Janie gradually makes changes in her life, without losing her customs, and without forgetting her ancestry. It seems to me that the more she discovers her real self, the more she gets closer to her traditions. I would also recommend it because it’s realistic, and has a very good ending. It shows black people’s point of view about whites, and how discrimination exists even among blacks themselves. This surprised me a lot. I also loved the final message where Janie says that we should learn about life for ourselves.
     I can understand now why this book was rejected at first. It was a bold story in the time it was written. After all, it hasn’t been very long since African-Americans and women started to be taken into account by society. I also see why it became so important later. It was one of the first books that had a feminist style in it. I think that a lot of women can relate to the story, not only African-American. For me, Janie represents women’s enthusiastic spirit of wanting to do something significant, of wanting to live life deeply, and of following their dreams and hearts’ true desire. I think this is not exclusive of women, but of humanity in general.