Their+Eyes+Were+Watching+God

=**Title:**=

__Their Eyes Were Watching God__
=Author:=

Zora Neale Hurston
=Nationality/Ethnic Background:=

African American
= Genre and Sub-genres: = Novel / Realistic Fiction

=Pertinent Biographical Information:=
 * January 7, 1891, Notasulga, Alabama-Zora Neale Hurston
 * Her father was a Baptist preacher and her mother was a former schoolteacher. Grew up in Eatonville, Florida, the first all-black incorporated town in the United States.
 * Three years after graduating high school, Hurston enrolled into Howard University to begin her writing career. After Earning her associate's degree from the university, she published her first story in a magazine in 1921.
 * She later moved to New York, where she became a significant component in the Harlem Renaissance; Joining Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman, she organized the journal // Fire!, which // was known as one of the most defining publications of the era.
 * Hurston attended Barnard College to study anthropology on rural black folklore.
 * In 1937, after the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston was able to publish // Their Eyes Were Watching God. // Critics proposed // Their Eyes Were Watching God // was not a "serious fiction" and that it "carries no theme, no message, no thought."
 * Although Hurston was able to achieve the Guggenheim Fellowship and published prolifically, she still fell into obscurity for some years. Hurston's work was further ignored during the 1960's because it did not relate to the counterculture revolution literary movement.
 * During the 1950's, Hurston was forced to enter into a welfare home in Florida, after surviving a stroke. Hurston died penniless and was buried in an unmarked grave.

=Literary Historical Period/Movement and Pertinent Background:= __Their Eyes Were Watching God__: published in 1937

=Major Characters, Their Relationships, Their Conflicts:=
 * **Janie**- Janie is the main character who tells the story of her journey to Pheoby. Along her journey, Janie shares her life with three different men. Janie's first marriage with Logan Killicks was arranged by her grandmother, and Logan is often described as a dull, almost elderly person who Janie never could find any real happiness with. The second marriage Janie was in was with Jody Sparks who was more of a dreamer and brought excitement into Janie's life a while. However, Jody's overbearing nature was suffocating Janie, preventing her from becoming her own person. Once Jody became ill and passed away, Janie was able to find her own voice, becoming a more independent woman.Soon after the death of Jody, Janie marries Tea Cake, a significantly younger man, who loved Janie for who she was.
 * **Tea Cake**- Tea Cake is the driving factor who helps Janie discover who she can be in life, thus helping her find her own identity. Instead of silencing her and treating Janie like a pack mule, Tea Cake stimulates her by conversing with her and involving her in his life. This helps Janie by showing her that love exists and the relationship between man and woman can be equal. Tea Cake's ultimate role in the novel was not to make Janie be dependent upon him or any other man to find happiness and security, but to find it on her own.
 * **Jody Sparks**- Jody is the complete opposite of Tea Cake. Jody is cruel and controlling when it comes to power, and he doesn't seem interested in Janie as a human being. Jody relies on the exertion of power to define who he is. Jody only seems to be happy if he believes that he is in control. His whole life has been about: buying, building, bullying, and owning. He did not marry Janie because he loves her, but saw her as an object and away to gain more control over a person. Jody used Janie as a trophy wife, allowing her beauty to be flaunted without displaying her inner self.

=Brief Plot Summary:= __Their Eyes Were Watching God__ tells the life of the young and beautiful Janie Crawford. Janie Crawford returns back home to Eatonville, Florida, where she is greeted by the gossip of the towns people. The only person who Janie can confide in is her friend Phoeby Watson. The novel is based on Janie telling her experience to Phoeby. The novel is the journey of young Janie on the search for enlightenment and self-identity. Janie's journey begins when her grandmother marries her off to Logan Killicks, a farmer who is much older than Janie. When she moves in her life becomes miserable. She is treated like a pack mule and unloved by her new husband. After flirting with man named Jody Sparks, she decides to run off with him and get married. Jody shows himself to be ambitious and controlling by becoming mayor. He also shows Janie that he thinks that he is in charge of this marriage by beating her after she yells at him. This marriage does not end happily. Janie is not able to a quire the "big voice" that she is looking for, but in return is stifled by Jody's chauvinistic attitude. After Jody dies, Janie feels free and alive for the first time, and loves her new independence. However, when Janie meets Tea Cake, a man much younger than she is, she falls in love. Nine months after Jody dies, Janie and Tea Cake get married. At first their marriage is rough, but it soon becomes one that Janie is comfortable with. After the two move down to the Everglades and cultivate their relationship. In the midst of their happy years, a hurricane hits. As they try to escape the torrential waters that are rising, Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog. Unaware of the dog's condition, Tea Cake soon falls ill. Due to an outburst of madness caused by the rabies, Tea Cake begins to assert that Janie had been cheating on him. In this fit of madness, he begins to fire a pistol at Janie, forcing her to kill him to defend herself. She is immediately tried for murder in court, but the jury finds her not guilty. Janie then returns to Eatonville and finds peace within herself.

=**Motifs (Recurring Images, Ideas, Figures of Speech, Symbols, Colors) & Their Thematic Significance:**=
 * **Race and Racism:** In the novel, Janie and Tea Cake face experiences of prejudice from both whites and blacks.One moment occurs between Janie and Mrs. Turner, a black woman with a racist view about black people. Another occurrence, the court room scene, after the trial Janie is comforted by white women, but is pushed aside by her black friends. In the novel the motif of race and racism is seen to affect everyone who is weak enough to fall into its trap. In the novel, racism presents itself as a cultural force. A person can either struggle with it or yield to it. It challenges Janie in her quest for peace and her identity.
 * **Community:** In both Eatonville, and the Everglades, Janie constantly interacts with the community around her. In Eatonville, the novel focuses on the people sitting on the porch gossiping. In the Everglades, Janie wishes to be part of the social life where at times it offers comfort, warmth, and security Then at other times, Janie finds the gossip that the community does is petty because it is often about her due to jealously because of her independence and strong will.
 * **Religion:** God is an important factor in the novel as Janie tries to find herself. Organized religion is not emphasized in the novel, but the characters find themselves relying on God in crises. The novel seems to look at God to be an all powerful force. This is shown through the way Janie and Tea Cake react to the hurricane in the Everglades.

=Other Significant Thematic Elements (Significant Character's Names, Significant Quotations, Significant Actions/Events):=
 * **Hair:** Janie's hair symbolizes her strength and identity in two ways. First, it shows her independence and defiance over the community's standards. Secondly, since Janie's hair is long and straight, it symbolizes whiteness. Mrs. Turner loves Janie because of her hair and the other white qualities that she has. Janie's hair disrupts the normal traditional power (males over females,and whites over blacks).
 * **The Hurricane:** It symbolizes the destructiveness of nature. The hurricane represents how chaotic and unpredictable the world can be. It forces the characters to question who they are and how do they function in the universe. It also shows how in their distress people turn to God.
 * **The Pear Tree and The Horizon:** The Pear Tree and The Horizon symbolizes Janie's ideal views about nature. Janie is able to witness a perfect moment of life, full of energy, passion, and harmony. The horizon symbolizes the far off mysterious world that she wants to interact and connect with.

=Major Themes:=
 * **Language: Speech and Silence:** The use of southern black dialect is often celebrated by people. Hurston's use of language parallels Janie's quest to find her voice. Jody goes to stifle Janie's speech; her hatred towards him comes from this suppression of her individuality. The opposite is found when she is with Tea Cake. Janie's love for him comes from the respect he shows her towards her becoming an individual. When Janie is able to define her speech, she also learns that silence too can be just as powerful. In the novel, Language becomes the source for empowerment and identity.
 * **Love and relationships vs. Independence:** The novel is ultimately Janie's quest to find herself, but she does not find it alone. Hurston shows that men and women need each other to provide each other with things that they do not possess. Janie's view about relationships is that they should be equal; illustrated by her relationship with Tea Cake. Relationships are implied to be necessary to have a fulfilling life, but Janie's journey for independence is a spiritual quest that is self-centered. Janie is able to find independence, empowerment, and herself at the end of the novel and seems to be content of who and where she is at the moment.
 * **Power and Conquest as a means of fulfillment:** In the novel, Janie struggles to find herself by taking a spiritual quest towards love and self-awareness. On the other hand, Jody Sparks tries to gain fulfillment through power. He believes he will be happy and fulfilled in life if he has control over everything and everyone. When he becomes sick, the illusion that he can control the world around him is lost. Tea Cake also has difficulties when trying to fulfill life. He believes that he can survive the storm through his mastery of the muck. In the end, Tea Cake is forced to flee the storm and then struggles to survive the flooding. The world around them raises the fact that human power is limited.