Their Eyes Were Watching God Identity

As a black, female writer during the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston derives feminist themes of identity and empowerment through representing black women in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (TEWWG). The novel centers on Janie Crawford’s life experiences the search for her sense of identity and self-empowerment in a society that marginalizes black women. Hurston represents black women as part of the lower social class through the women referenced in each of Janie’s marriages: Nanny, Mrs. Robbins, and Annie Tyler. The portrayal of these women as weak and dependent serve in Janie’s development towards finding her identity as she challenges the conventional views around them.

The idea of black women being members of the lowest level of social hierarchy begins with Nanny, Janie’s grandmother. As a former slave, Nanny symbolizes the conservative thought that the “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world”
Robbins. For instance, Jody purchases Matt Bonner’s mule to liberate it from work. His accumulation of wealth, position, and status gives him enough influence to cause the townspeople to throw “a great ceremony over the mule” (60). In contrast, while Jody’s treatment towards the mule seems to be out of compassion, his treatment towards Mrs. Robbins is demeaning. This can be seen when Jody is teasing Mrs. Robbins when she begs him for a piece of meat to feed her children Jody emits a lack of sympathy by giving her a morsel of meat for her and her children. Furthermore, the men criticize Mrs. Robbins for embarrassing her husband’s image. One of the men named Water Thomas makes the comment “If dat wuz mah wife… Ah’d kill her cemetary dead” (74). Thomas's commentary highlights the attitude taken towards women who defile their husbands' image. Through this, Hurston shows that the men value a man’s pride and image more than a woman’s