Their Eyes Were Watching God Thesis

Colton Tripp
Mr. Harris
English 102-70321
3 February 2016
Essay #2: Their Eyes Were Watching God In Their Eyes Are Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie is the main character. She is lighter skinned then most of her black community. “What she doin coming back here in dem overhalls? Can’t she find no dress to put on? —Where’s dat blue dress she left here in? —Where all dat money her husband took and died and left her? —What dat ole forty year ole ‘oman doin’ wid her hair swingin’ down her back lak some young gal?......why she don’t stay in her class? —” (Hurston 2). Janie resists being classed off from her community; although Janie’s community classifies her at a higher class than she really wants to be viewed as. She is viewed this
The people in the community chose Joe Stark to be mayor because when he first came to Eatonville he bought one hundred acres of land to make the town bigger. He was hoping more people would come to the town. The people of Eatonville called Janie Mrs. Mayor Stark. Janie does not like being placed up on a throne and considered better than anyone else. “Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge.” (Hurston 53). Janie did not see any problem with going to shoot the breeze with the town people that were her friends. Joe did not permit Janie to interact with the town people after this. He held her up to a higher standard than the rest of the town because he was the mayor of Eatonville. “He didn’t want her talking after such trashy people. ‘You’se Mrs. Mayor Starks, Janie. I god, Ah can’t see what uh woman uh yo’ stability would want tuh be treasurin’ all dat gum-grease from folks dat don’t even own de house dey sleep in. ‘Tain’t no earthly use. They’s jus’ some puny humans playin’ round de toes uh time.’” (Hurston
By the people of Eatonville, where she was only seen as Mrs. Mayor Starks to the people in the Everglades where she was seen as Tea Cakes’ mixed race wife. Janie was classed off for how she held her head up high and didn’t let anybody get in her way of the things she wanted to do in her life. The people in these towns viewed her as better than them when she really just wanted to be normal. Janie was not trying to be better than everybody else, she was just being herself. She did good for herself. Because of that, she was considered middle class when most of the people in the towns she lived were not middle class they were lower class workers. They lived day to day. They didn’t have money saved up in the bank like Janie did. She just tried her hardest to resist the efforts of being classed off by the people in her