Their Eyes Were Watching God Irony

Discuss Hurston’s use of irony as it relates to individual characters and as it relates to Janie’s quest for happiness and self-fulfillment.

One of the most prevalent themes in, "Their eyes were watching God" is Janie’s overall quest for love and independence. Janie has a goal throughout the novel to achieve self content and reach the "horizon". She went through several relationships and many imaginary mental thoughts to do this, through her grandmother nanny and her three husbands. While, her third husband, tea cake plays a less substantial role in the novel, he plays significant role in Janie’s quest to reach her dream of love, independency and self security.

In the beginning of the book, Hurston foreshadows the issue of Janie's quest for love. “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the

“Janie held his head tightly to her breast and wept and thanked him wordlessly for giving her the chance for loving service. She had to hug him tight for soon he would be gone, and she had to tell him for the last time” (pg. 184). Tea Cake was the final element tha Janie needed in her life in order to achieve fulfillment. Tea Cake was able to give Janie her dreams of finding true love. “ Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and libe by comparisons. Dis house ain’t so absent of things lak it used tuh be befo’ Tea Cake come along” (pg. 191.). The most important thing that Tea Cake gave Janie was security and happiness within herself. “So Ah’m back home agin and Ah’m satisfied tuh be heah” (pg. 191). Janie is able to come back to Eatonville where she was treated poorly and where she wrongfully left her first husband. She’s able to do this because of the strength that she gained through Tea Cake and the adeptness to be by herself. She has reached the horizon and been fulfilled through her ultimate desire for true love and is now