Defense Mechanisms In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Defense Mechanisms: No Alternative
“People are so quick to judge others faults, but never quick to point out their own”. Although the author is unknown, this quote is consistently applicable to a majority of the characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston. This novel consists of a young woman named Janie and her problematic odyssey through three unique marital relationships. Although each relationship varies greatly from each of the others, one thing remains identical: defense mechanisms are evident through their attempts to cope in the flawed relationships. After all, the only viable way Janie, the wife, Joe, the second husband, and Tea Cake, the final husband, can adequately cope with these profound differences
He progressively makes use of more and more defense mechanisms as he ages. One of his common defenses is to displace his anger on Janie. At one point, he aggressively slaps her, supposedly because she overcooked his dinner. But clearly that is not the root cause: the root cause of being so aggressive and unkind is he wants to control her, and he needs that rush of power he gets by abusing her. Joe’s displacement runs rampant throughout the novel. Another unfortunate defense mechanism he feels obliged to use is projection. He often projects many of his insecurities upon Janie, because she is his wife, and he doesn’t think she will retaliate; he is trying to attack a weak target. One of the strongest projections Joe place upon her was the following: “A woman stay round uh store till she get old as Methusalem and still can’t cut a little ting like a plug of tobacco! Don’t stand dere rollin’ yo’ pop eyes at me wid yo’ rump hangin’ nearly to yo’ knees!” (Hurston 78) He, because he feels this way about himself, projects this upon Janie, as if that will cause the fact that he looks like that to disappear. Also, he wants the other men in the shop to not think of him as old, but Janie as old. This distasteful character displays one more defense mechanism: acting out. On his deathbed, he says the cruelest possible statement he could to his wife. To her face, he gasps, “Shut up! Ah wish
This does not mean that he didn’t have his moments, but simply that it worked out better overall. One of the unfortunate incidences that occurred was Mrs. Turner talking to Janie about how she shouldn’t be lowering herself to the level of marrying Tea Cake because of how much darker he is than she is. She instead recommends that she marry her brother, because he is lighter skinned. Because Tea Cake is in an adjacent room, he can hear every word she said. Being afraid that Janie will leave him for Mrs. Turner’s brother for unfounded reason, Tea Cake “slapped her around a bit to show he was boss.” (Hurston 147) This is displacement: he is really angry at Mrs. Turner and afraid of what her brother will do to Janie, but he can’t beat them, so he beats fear into the only person he can, Janie. Another low point in their marriage occurred in their starting days. Catching sight of the money Janie brought as an emergency stash in her dress, he ran off with it and spent all but fifteen dollars. Because he doesn’t want to face the facts, he questions her accurate feelings regarding the situation, saying, “Thought Ah had done took it and gone.” (Hurston 121) Disregarding her correct feeling that he ran away with her money and spent it all, he implies ‘Oh, you may have thought I took all your cash, but that isn’t the case.' His denial can be attributed to the terrible feeling he has about