In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Janie is held back from growing to her full potential. Janie is married three times and in each marriage there is one item that restrains her. In her marriage with Joe she was forced to wear a head rag to cover her hair because it is so long and beautiful. The red rag resembled the restraint Joe put on Janie.
The main character Janie of the book Their eyes were watching God, is facing the conflict of a loveless and abusive marriage. Through the chapters, five and the first part of chapter seven Janie is submissive to her husband’s words and does what he says. However, at the end of chapter seven Janie talks back to Joe while working in the store and humiliates him in front of the townspeople. In result of Janie’s actions Joe makes it clear to Janie and the customers in the store Joe is still the dominant figure in the relationship, to show his dominance Joe smacked Janie in the face. Although Joe hit Janie it was not the first time, and Janie knew the first time Joe had hit her that the love she has longed for is not in this marriage.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s flaws about love continuously brought her to the same ending with all of her husbands, no matter how long the marriage lasted. In The Odyssey, Calypso was trapped on an island to fall in love with men who washed ashore. The fatality of her faults was her over affection and her need for love while being so alone on her island, Ogygia. Their weaknesses are exact opposites, specifically in their relationships with men. The flaws are role in relationship, attachment to men, and lastly, their submissiveness to men.
In her epiphany from Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie realizes her intrinsic capacity as an individual, and frees herself from Jody’s covetous ways in the act of letting down her hair. In the quote, “She tore off the kerchief from her plentiful hair... the glory was there,” Janie’s hair symbolizes her power and strength because it holds glory. By Janie releasing her hair, she finally notices the greatness that she has, which allows her to now view herself as eminent individual whom has independence. Because Jody made her tie her hair up as a device to hinder her individuality and identity in their marriage, he is intimidated by her reluctance to comply with his controlling demands.
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. The novel portrays Janie, a middle aged black woman who tells her friend Pheoby Watson what has happened to her husband Tea Cake and her adventure. The resulting telling of her story portrays most of the novel. Throughout the novel, Zora Neale Hurston presents the theme of love, or being in a relationship versus freedom and independence, that being in a relationship may hinder one’s freedom and independence. Janie loves to be outgoing and to be able to do what she wants, but throughout the book the relationships that she is in with Logan,Jody and Tea Cake, does not allow her to do that.
Hair is an important way for people to express themselves and their individuality. It can also serve as a tool of oppression by restricting how women can wear their hair and when they can wear it down. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, many different men attempt to control Janie by either covering her hair or using it to objectify her. Janie learns to push back against the expectations of other people by embracing her hair, therefore embracing herself. Janie’s hair symbolizes men’s attraction to her and her defiance against society.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses multiple voices throughout the story to show all the parts that come together to fully understand Janie’s story. It seems important to acknowledge that there are two narrators: Janie and the anonymous speaker that helps Janie tell her story. Although Janie is the main narrator, the anonymous narrator speaks every now and then about Janie. The main example is at the very beginning of the story when the anonymous narrator is telling of Janie walking back into Eatonville and describing the scene.
In “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Janie is forced to marry a man she does not love and later, that forces her to do fieldwork. In her second marriage, she is constantly belittled because her husband does not believe that women are capable of many jobs. When Joe Starks, her second husband, is elected mayor, the town wants Janie to make a speech for Joe. But Joe jealously says, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ’bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat.
Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of how one man, Tea Cake, changes how a grown woman named Janie views life, opportunity, and happiness. Zora Neale Hurston employs parallelism in order to reveal the dynamic of this relationship between Janie and Tea Cake and writes, “He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place” (Hurston 128). At the very end of the book, Hurston writes again, “Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net.
She also tells her that all love does is make one sweat and work, as well as “wait a while, baby, Yo’ mind will change” (24). All Janie wants is someone she can love, and “things sweet wid mah marriage” (24), yet she is told that she cannot have that. The end of paragraph three the line “Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25), shows that Janie internalizes what she has heard. After Janie meets Joe “Jody” Starks, the man she would marry next, she still does not act for a while, “the memory of Nanny was still powerful and strong” (29). Jody to Janie “spoke for far horizon” (29) and “spoke for a change and a chance” (29).
but it didn’t do her any good” as Jody kept on fighting for her “submission” (71). As Jody continues to make Janie submit, less of her individuality is present as she is reduced to the ideal wife in Jody’s eyes. He does this by covering her hair, confining her to the store, and insults her. Again, In one scene,
With each marriage, Janie grows more self-aware and realizes what her true desires are. She wants to be with a man who makes her happy, but also treats her with the respect and dignity she deserves. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s independence grows as she yearns for true love through her three marriages. Janie’s willingness to do what others ask, leads to her being pressured into marriage at sixteen years old by her grandmother.
Jody controlled major aspects of Janie’s life, such as her appearance, when he forces her to keep her hair up. Janie does not like that Jody feels the need to control her: “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it... that was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was” (Hurston 55).
The stories Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin all center around three different women and their different life experiences. Each story also tells how the lives of these three women are affected by their husbands. The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” along with Janie and Mrs. Mallard each have different relationships with their husbands, but they each feel they are being controlled or oppressed by them. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s story is told through her three marriages, all three with their own problems.
Power dynamics and control are prominent themes in the book "Their Eyes Were Watching God," affecting Janie's relationships and the overall story. The first poem demonstrates the control and ownership in Janie and Jody's relationship, Jody makes her tie her hair up and keep it hidden from others, out of jealousy and to constrain Jaine. Janie's hair is a symbol of her freedom and something she loved about herself, but Jody forces her to keep it hidden allowing him to assert his power over her and take away something he sees as a threat to his control. In the second poem, it is evident that Jody has effectively utilized his power to establish authority over the town and exercise his power over the residents. Becoming Mayor allows him to elevate
