Gender Roles In Their Eyes Were Watching God

In many ways Zora Neal Hurston discusses and uses intertextuality and language to enforce the concept of identity and gender roles within the main characters Janie and Tea Cake in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Zora Neal Hurston an American Author, Anthropologist, and filmmaker wrote and used the struggles of early 1900’s African American to explain and portray what it was like to live back then. During that time identity and gender roles within the African American community were strong topics among the people. With the system in which black people worked for white people with very little to no pay and harsh conditions, it was extremely hard for them to find their identities, and more or less grow with them. Gender roles were also strictly

She didn’t change her mind but she agreed with her mouth. Her heart said, “Even so, you don’t have to cry about it.” This quote uses language in order to instill the idea that not only had Janie begun to find herself as a young woman but she also learned that the best way to speak as a young woman was to say nothing at all. Again, showing the concept of identity and also gender roles. During the time period, women were considered as nothing more than what they could do for a man and their house. If a woman were to step outside the margins of society during that period they were cast out and abused and it never went without a fight. From this quote, Hurston writes to women in society who still succumb to these gender roles forcing them to struggle with their identity by showing Janie’s decisions that what she says doesn’t need to be completely true. This way she could say things she didn’t mean in order to keep the peace in her marriage. This adds to who she is as a person by using language within the text that explains to readers the kind of person Janie has grown to become. This is Janie

For example, in chapter eighteen Hurston writes “The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” In this quote, the intertextuality can be found in the way Zora Neal Hurston writes the description of their eyes and souls. This gives insight into not only the personalities and identities of the characters but also assumes the male role is to seem strong and mighty, similar to that of a protector. However, another interpretation of this could be that Tea Cake is abusing his authority and abusing his role as Janie’s partner by enforcing the concept and idea he is the head and the one in power in their relationship. This, of course, could be seen from the victims' standpoint. There are multiple examples of how Hurston displays these concepts, she enforces the concept of gender roles various amount of times, and those especially sticking out consist of the constant bad talk Janie got while at home and also