Summary: Their Eyes Were Watching God

In a way, it seems as if Janie was always in competition with someone, whether it be with her grandmother, Logan, Joe, or Teacake. “Naw, Jody, jus’looks lak it keeps us in some way we ain’t natural wid one ‘nother. You’se always off talkin and fixin’ things, and Ah feels lak Ah’m jus’markin time. Hope it soon gits over” (Hurston 46). “But Nanny, Ah wants to want him sometimes. Ah don’t want him to do all de wantin’” (Hurston 23) . “But anyhow, watch yo’self, Janie, and don’t be taken advantage of. You know how dese young men is wid older women. Most of de time dey’s after whut dey kin git, then dey’s gone lak uh turkey through de corn” (Hurston 113). There was never any separation between the initial problem between Janie and the other characters and the motivation behind the problem. “One
question, however, is whether we can separate the motivational element in a challenge-style competition from the problematic desire to dominate or outdo one’s competitors. If we cannot, we haven’t resolved the tension” (Cawston 8). There was no separation between these two things throughout the novel because no one really knew how to separate the two situations and problems. Janie didn’t know how to separate the fact that she wanted her independence and freedom while also being loved by someone. Teacake didn’t know how to separate the fact that he wanted to love and give freedom and also maintain his male dominance in a healthy way.
While nature, geography and feminism are all different things, they closely relate and work hand in hand throughout this novel. Janie being so into nature and closely connecting to nature drastically affected her relationships, friendships and her inner thoughts. Janie’s true nature brought out her acts of feminism within her relationships and her inner self, and affected how the geography affected her actions The geography was affected by nature because Janie was affected by the new scenery and lifestyle whenever she moved.
The journey that Janie took with Logan, Joe, Teacake, and finally herself changed her outlook on things in life like love and life. “Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up from other times. So they chewed up the back parts of their minds and swallowed relish. They made burning statements with questions, and killing tools out of laughs. It was mass cruelty. A mood come alive. Words walking without masters; walking altogether like harmony in a song” (Hurston 2). Even when returning from her journey people expected for Janie to conform to a“normal” woman of Eatonville.The aspect of male dominance was used when Janie returned home when she was being noticed by the men, but the aspect of freedom and feminism is also shown but soon taken away from her in hopes that she would conform like the rest of the women in the town. “The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grape fruits in her hip pockets; the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume; then her pugnacious breasts trying to bore holes in her shirt. They, the men, were saving with the mind what they lost with the
eye. The women took the faded shirt and muddy overhalls and laid them away for remeberance. It was a weapon against her strength and if it turned out of no significance, still it was a hope that she might fall to their level some day” (Hurston 2). She was criticized for her clothing, her hair swinging from her head and people even made assumptions about her relationship with Teacake and what happened between them that made her return home alone. “What she doin coming back here in dem overhalls? Can’t she find no dress to put on?-Where’s dat blue satin dress she left here in?-Where all dat money her husband took and died and left her?- What dat ole forty year ole ‘oman doin’ wid her hair swingin’ down her back lak some young gal?- Where she left dat young lad of a boy she was going to marry?-Where he left her?- What he done wid all her money?- Betcha he off wid some gal so young she ain’t even got no hairs-why she don’t stay in her class” (Hurston 2). Freedom and feminism is also shown when Janie tells Pheoby that Teacake is gone. Although Janie loved Teacake, she was free from the slightest interaction of male dominance,but still longed for happiness from a man. “Pheoby dilated all over with eagerness, ‘Teacake gone?’ ‘Yeah, Pheoby, Teacake is gone. And dat’s de only reason you see me back here- cause Ah ain’t got nothing to make me happy no more where Ah was at. Down in the Everglades there, down in the muck’” (Hurston 7).