Beauty In Their Eyes Were Watching God

In Zora Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God, the idea of beauty arose in many different ways. The major way that beauty was portrayed was by Janie’s hair. Janie as we can all gather is absolutely stunning, but the men in her life have different ways of showing her off. Joe wanted to have her all to himself and was very controlling of what Janie could and could not do. Tea Cake however, loved Janie’s appearance and could not wait to show everyone, who he was able to get married too. After her first marriage did not work out Janie decided to get married to Joe who promised her that she would never have to work. That soon changed and Janie had to start working the store. A quote that stood out to me was, “Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn’t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was,” (Hurston 55). I feel like Joe had a right to be jealous of other men walking into the store talking about his wife. However, the way he went about the jealously I do not agree with. As a woman, I think that Janie should be able to show off her beauty to the world. Joe hiding her hair was a sense of
In fact, Tea Cake says, “It’s mine too. Ah ain’t been sleepin’ so good for more’n uh week cause Ah been wishin’ so bad tuh git mah hands in yo’ hair. It’s so pretty,” (Hurston 103). Although Janie did not really enjoy Tea Cake wanting to comb her hair, that gesture made her feel like she was free. She no longer was going to have to put her hair back to hide it from anybody, because Tea Cake loved it so much that he wanted to see it all the time. I feel like Tea Cake gets jealous when he overhears Janie’s talk with Mrs. Turner, however unlike Joe, he does not make her hide her beauty by making her put her hair back. Although he does abuse her, I think he trusts that Janie would not leave