Mules In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Women are the mules of the world. In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston uses the metaphor of the mule and women to convey the idea of the superiority of men and inferiority of women and mules. In the metaphor of mules and women Hurston tries to send a message to the reader that women are the mule of the world. Hurston best does this through her descriptions of the mules and their role in the world comparing them to the character Janie in relation to her marriages. Hurston writes about Janie marrying three men, but the only two relationships where Janie encounters a mule and a mule is being mentioned are in her first two marriages. Hurston writes about Janie first marrying Logan Killicks. Hurston writes that Logan is a
A person considered to be superior to another must be male and wealthy. Logan is a male over Janie and he is the provider of the relationship because their money comes from his business. Later on in chapter 4 Janie comes across Joe Starks. He is a man and a male, and according to descriptions of him compared to descriptions of Logan, Joe makes more money than Logan. In society this makes Joe the superior of Logan. In the chapter the ideas that Joe shares with Janie are enticing Janie. If Janie, who is inferior to both Joe and Logan, wants to express herself to Logan without their being any repercussions, the best time to do it is when she has Joe, who is the superior of Logan, on her side, and she does exactly that. Janie says, “ You don’t need mah help out dere, Logan. Youse in yo’ place and Ah’m in mine.”(page 31) This statement leads to a bunch of disagreement between Janie and Logan, but this is something that Janie was afraid to mention prior to the meeting of Joe. If it was not for the placement of power and superiority in the text by Hurston, Janie would not have ever been confident enough to speak against what Logan has to say while knowing what he is capable
The mules and women are the things inferior to the superior men. The same man superior to the mule is superior to the women. Hurston intended for the mules and women to be as similar as they were in the text to signify that the same gruesome work mules do was expected of the women. Also the idea of being naive was expected by women. By using the metaphor throughout the text Hurston is successful in proving that women are the mule of the