Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

Often, during the time period of the early 1900’s, the voice of women was disregarded and treated as a less important force in the community. The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God exemplifies this in the form of a frame narrative. The story began with the main character, Janie walking in to town looking distraught and exhausted. Janie’s image is symbolic of the idea that she does not have a voice in the community, and is tired of fighting for her right to have a say. Janie then began to tell her story. Janie’s grandmother, Nanny married Janie to a much older man for security and a fruitful life. Janie was very resistant to this marriage, but it happened in the end depicting the absence of her voice in her own life. Janie married a second
man, Jody who forces her to live under conditions she disagrees with. Janie decides to stay with Jody despite his dominant way of living, showing Janie has no voice in her way of life. In her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses characters controlling Janie’s life to portray the absence of Janie’s voice in her own life. The use of Janie’s description in the community is essential to the symbolic depiction of her voice. Janie was treated as a lesser person because she was a woman, and was ridiculed further when she did not coincide with the socially acceptable standards. When men and women sitting on the porch, saw Janie walking through Eatonville, they began to gossip asking each other, “’What she doin coming back here in dem overhalls? Can’t she find no dress to put on,’” (Hurston 1). The women believe that because she is not dressed properly, she is hurting her image in the eyes of other men, and in general, the eyes of the public. Janie’s physical description shows how tired she has become from trying to acquire a voice in the community. Her exhausted look is symbolic of the fact that her journey has made her lose the motivation to fight for her right to have a say in her own life and her small faction of Eatonsville. Janie’s goal when she left her grandmother was to avoid the superficial ideals of life, and create a life of her own. She achieved that, and the men and women noticed it when they said to eachother, “’Where all dat money her husband took and died and left her,’” (1). Janie had avoided the temptation of money and selfishness, but it left her without a husband, any wealth, and most importantly to her, a voice in the community. Ultimately, the men Janie married were the most influential reasons to the development of her voice, and shaping her own life. Marrying a man out of love was not the top priority when marriage came around for most.
Janie however believed in marrying because she loved the man, not because of his wealth and material possessions. Nanny believed the exact opposite. She voiced her opinion to Janie in an argument about marrying Logan Killicks when she said, “’If you don’t want him [Logan], you sho oughta. Heah you is wid de onliest organ in town, amongst colored folks, in yo’ parlor. Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road,’” (18). Janie resisted the marriage, but Nanny forced her to marry. The arranged marriage continued to reveal Janie’s failed attempt to acquire her own voice and have a say in her life. Nanny could not believe the way Janie thought and continually tried to convince her. After listing off the possessions of Logan Killicks, Nanny said that the possessions are the “’very prong all us black women gits hung on. Dis love,’” (18). Nanny believed that marrying a wealthy man is the right thing to do, even if love for the man is not immediate. Nanny’s forceful actions of marrying Janie to Logan Killicks reveals the controlling nature of others that leads to the absence of a voice for Janie. The absence of a voice for Janie is partly due to the controlling nature of Nanny, and Janie’s second husband,
Jody. Janie’s decision to stay with Jody despite the social conditions he sets is crucial to why Janie struggled to acquire a voice. Jody was a wealthy man who at first treated Janie like she thought a man should treat a woman. Her view quickly changed with the purchase of the store in the new town. Janie worked at the store and, “loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge,” (41). Jody, believing he was high class, thought talking to those on the porch of the store was bad, especially for Janie. The social condition he set on her was controlling, and restricting her from having a voice in very small faction of the town. Jody would also control the events Janie would have interest in. When Janie wanted to go to the Mule’s funeral, “Joe was struck speechless for a moment. ‘Why, Janie! You wouldn’t be seen at uh draggin’-out, wouldja,’”(45). Joe believes that the two of them are both higher class citizens than the rest of the community, and if are seen with lower class citizens than it will change their reputation. Jody set another social living condition on Janie that made her struggle to acquire a voice in her life and a say of what she gets to do with her life. Zora Neale Hurston, in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, portrays the absence of Janie’s voice by using different characters to control Janie’s life. In the beginning, Janie’s exhausted physical description is a symbol for the long and enduring journey she went through to try and acquire a voice of her own. This journey included multiple marriages that were failed attempts in finding her voice in the community. These failed attempts occurred because she let others control her life and make decisions for her. Despite not acquiring a true voice in her life, Janie learned that making your own decisions and controlling your own life is one of the major keys to happiness.