Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


1. What kind of God are the eyes of Hurston's characters watching? What is the nature of that God and of their watching? Do any of them question God?

I had to add this question for discussion; because it is the title of the book and obviously they Hurston thinks it is the most important theme of the book. When this phrase is used in the book, Tea Cake and Janie are looking up into the hurricane. I think this means that Hurston wanted them to have a sense of an angry or unfeeling God. Also the characters could sense that God did as He pleased to them and they were at the will and whim of God. Hopefully, but the end of the book, Janie realized that God sent Tea Cake to her and his love was so great that it was enough to give her peace for the rest of her life.


2. What is the importance of the concept of horizon? How do Janie and each of her men widen her horizons? What is the significance of the novel's final sentences in this regard?

“He (Tea Cake) could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. 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.”

I think this is a great way to end the book. I think that the horizon represented what Janie was looking for. Janie was always looking for something that was in the future. First, under the pear tree, she wanted to be kissed and she started talking about marriage, but then she got that and learned it wasn’t was great.

Later, Jody filled her head about visions of an all-black town and him as mayor, and Janie got that, but that also wasn’t so great in the end.
Finally, Janie got Tea Cake and the Everglades, which is not something I think she ever would have dreamed about, but Tea Cake showed her what she really wanted (even if she didn’t know). She learned that the “horizon” didn’t have to be something mystical in the future; she could pull it toward her because she finally found love.

Maybe the horizon is love.

3. How does Janie's journey--from West Florida, to Eatonville, to the Everglades--represent her, and the novel's increasing immersion in black culture and traditions? What elements of individual action and communal life characterize that immersion?

I am so glad that I found this question, because I didn’t pay attention to this trend as I was reading the book, but I now see how important this is.

In West Florida, first she lived in the white family’s backyard and even though Janie and her grandmother moved because the girls in her school were making fun of her for being too white, she still lived in a very white community. There wasn’t much talk in this part of the book with her interactions with other people or community life, probably because she wasn’t involved in any. Honestly white people aren’t as good as other ethnic groups about community living.

Next, Janie moves to Eatonville, where black people are trying to create their own town, but they are trying to create it to be like other American (or white) towns. Here the community living was based around the store. Janie was a passive observer of the community life. She learned that she loved it, but was unable to participate because of Jody’s restrictions. Community life was in a community place (the store), but their personal lives stayed in the home.

Finally, Janie moves to the Everglades. Now she can participate in the community life at last! Thanks to Tea Cake and his love (for her and community life), but now community life has moved right up to Janie and Tea Cake’s front porch. Everybody was hanging out at their house at night. Everybody knew everybody’s busy, communal or private. Like when that one girl was flirting with Tea Cake and Janie was mad about it, all their other friends knew about it. In this phase of the story the black people weren’t trying to be white, they were trying to be their selves.

I love how the story shows this progression. I really didn’t like Mrs. Turner. I thought it was sad for a black person to want to be white. I am glad that the book maybe shows that the more “black” Janie’s life was the happier she was.

4. In what ways does Janie conform to or diverge from the assumptions that underlie the men's attitudes toward women? How would you explain Hurston's depiction of violence toward women? Does the novel substantiate Janie's statement that "Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business"?

I think that Janie diverges from both Logan’s and Jody’s attitudes toward women. Logan thought that if he brought in the wood for a while that would win Janie’s heart, but it didn’t. Logan thought that she cared about the farm and it succeeding, but she didn’t; she cared about love. Also Logan didn’t think that Janie would ever have the courage to leave him and run off with someone else, but she did. Logan and Janie didn’t understand each other at all.

Jody thought that Janie would enjoy being put up on a pedestal; he thought that she was enjoying life with the prestige of being the mayor’s wife and being special. Yet, Janie wanted to be just like everybody else; she wanted to be ordinary and resented Jody for treating her as such. Jody also thought that she couldn’t or didn’t want to make speeches or talk for herself. This is also untrue. Janie just held her feeling instead and grew to resent Jody more and more all the time.

I didn’t like the parts in the book that talked about men beating their wives. I tend to think, however, that this talk was realistic, especially among the black community during this time. I think that Hurston had a low opinion of men, she was very feministic, and she was trying to show how men thought they were better than women.

In the end of the novel, Janie was able to stand up to Jody, although on his deathbed, and she was able to stand up to the court and Tea Cake’s friends when Tea Cake was sick; finally she was able to walk back through Eatonville with her head up high. I think she could have only done these things because she received strength inside, mostly from coming to know that God could talk to her too.