Their Eyes Were Watching God Critical Analysis

Jovito Chase
Honors Lit.
Mr.Liepa
Block 2
TEWWG Essay Before Zora Neale Hurston received praise by Alice Walker in her “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston” article, very little was known about the works of this African American author. In 1937, Hurston wrote and published her most famous novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, a story about the hardships of Janie Crawford as she matures and discovers new horizons. During a time when racial strains in the United States were rising and the Harlem Renaissance motivated blacks to honor their culture, Their Eyes Were Watching God was not well-greeted in the black community and subsequently was put among other amateur pieces of literature throughout the years. Although
In the beginning of the story, Janie’s visualization of love and passion is one of sexual fulfillment and pleasure. “She saw a dust-beating bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!” (13). Hurston utilizes the imagery of nature in this excerpt to not only show the beauty of Janie’s conception of love, but also to reveal how her idea is immature and juvenile, shown through the image of the young blossom. This conception is short-lived though, when Janie is soon coerced into marrying Logan, an old, yet, wealthy farmer, and thus desecrates her innocent vision of love. As Logan’s wife, she is treated no better than an animal and even finds herself believing that the black woman is “the mule of the world” (23). When Janie runs off with Jody (Joe) Starks, a businessman and leader of Eatonville, her vision of passion and love becomes one of stability and reliability. Her love with Joe, though, just like with Logan, is not meant to be. Joe is controlling and has a power-hungry ego that eventually leads Janie to hate and despise him.
“She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit
After the death of Joe, Janie becomes free once again to find true love and is finally able to find her true self. “She had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of people; it was important to all the world that she should find them and they find her. But she had been whipped like a cur dog, and run off down a back road after things” (106). Her whole life Janie has been controlled and owned by her previous husbands, Logan and Joe, but now free from their firm grip Janie becomes “ready for her great journey to the horizons” in search of truth and to discover self-actualization in order to find her voice. After Tea Cake, Janie is finally able to find herself and reach complete self-actualization. “Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see” (227). Just like the horizon in the beginning of the story that started Janie’s journey, so does the one at the end conclude her journey. Throughout her journey, Janie is able to find her voice and even discover true love through Tea Cake. Moreover, the simile of Janie pulling in her horizon with a great fish-net symbolizes her experiences that she earned throughout her