Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis Essay

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the hardships of being a young black woman in the 1930’s are conveyed through the experiences of Janie Crawford and her self-growth throughout several relationships in her life. Hurston contributes to the theme “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” by exhibiting how the motifs of power, judgment and sexism morphed Janie into becoming a resilient female character that challenged the societal norms set for her. This theme was also shown within the different towns that Janie lived in during the story and how those cultural settings projected their beliefs about dominance and power on Janie, and how Janie’s character grew immensely from the judgements she overcame in her lifetime.

Janie Crawford,
the protagonist and heroine of the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, struggles throughout the duration of the story to discover unconditional love, both for herself and others. While her third and last marriage was arguably the most healthy, Janie endured sexism and domestic violence in all three relationships with her husbands; Logan Killicks, Jody Starks, and Teacake.
Not only did the men in Janie’s life oppress her self-growth and independence as a women, Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, was also another influential figure in Janie’s life who negatively shaped how she thought about marriage, gender stereotypes, and race. At a young age, Janie was lectured by Nanny when she tried to resist an arranged marriage to an older man, Logan Killicks. Nanny responded to her granddaughter’s refusal by slapping her and then telling her that "Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it's some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don't know nothin' but what we see…De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see" (Hurston 14). This advice, which not only dismissed African-Americans as being equals to people of white decent, but also objectified women, specifically black women like Janie herself, stuck with her for many years of her life. Janie’s hesitation to assert herself sooner in her toxic relationship with Joe Starks can be primarily credited to Nanny’s advice and how that impacted Janie’s character. The cause and effect that Nanny had on her can be shown following the death of
Janie’s second husband, Jody Starks, when Janie has a moment of self-realization that she hates her grandmother and the restrictive ideals that she planted inside her head. Janie discerned that “Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon – for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you – and pinched it into such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter's neck tight enough to choke her” (Hurston 89). By taking away Janie’s “horizon”, or in other words her hopes for a more egalitarian relationship where power was not unfairly used against her, Janie made impulsive decisions like running away with a strangers just because she so deeply desired to be loved and treated as an equal.

Consequently, the rash decisions that Janie made further complicated her life but also provided her with more hurdles to overcome and learn from. Jody Starks, Janie’s second and most disparaging husband, charmed her with his powerful charisma and promise of new horizons and is even said to have always “walked like he knew where he was going” (Hurston 27). Jody immediately displays jealous and overbearing characteristics from the moment Janie meets him, but she almost sweeps them under the rug because of her aspirations for a fulfilling relationship. Unfortunately, Jody failed to provide her with one and instead abused Janie both emotionally and physically. During the time they were together, he controlled the way Janie wore her hair, when she was allowed to talk, and what she did for fun, which was seldom anything at all. When a member of Eatonville asked Janie to speak at the town lamp lighting ceremony, instead of letting his wife talk, Jody replied by saying "Thank yuh fuh yo' compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin' 'bout no speech-makin'. Ah never married her for nothin' lak dat. She's uh woman and her place is in de home. (Hurston 43). Janie was so deeply hurt by Jody’s misogynistic comment and his obvious intentions to stifle her freedom as a woman, that it is probable that this instance in particular fueled Janie’s slow growth to becoming her authentic, independant self.

The oppressive behavior Janie tolerated from the people in her life hindered her progress towards her eventual freedom, but those challenges also made her stronger and more appreciative of all forms of love and power, such as Nanny’s precautious love for her only grandchild and Jody’s possessive, unhealthy love for a naive girl who ran away with him to escape her husband. Even if Janie may have gone through hell and back during the relationships she was in, her constant persistence proved that what doesn’t kill you, truly does make you stronger.