Their Eyes Were Watching God Silence Analysis

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, each relationship that Janie has is defined by the rare silences within it. One sees exactly how a relationship functions from the silences within it. From the characteristics of the silences, one can see the success or the failure of a relationship and of the people within it. In her first relationship with Mr. Killicks, her silences are in solitude, and always at times where she wouldn’t be with him. Her second relationship, Jody, had a constant one-sided silence from Janie. Jody, however, was only silent in the rare occurrences that he was not in the public eye. In contrast with her first two relationships, each silence is shared and comfortable with Tea Cake – so much so that Janie doubts its legitimacy.

The fact that Janie is finally having a relationship where she and her significant other can be together without discomfort or barriers is important – she’s finally in a situation where she feels not only satisfied sexually (107), but content emotionally. Their silence is found on page 103, and is important because it’s a shared and comfortable silence, unlike all previous silences. Tea Cake comes to Janie’s house expectantly and without warning. They cooked dinner together – they both work together within the very domestic process of making dinner. Tea Cake sings and plays piano, and she is able to fall asleep. She feels comfortable enough around him to just fall asleep, even though he came over uninvited. The music was not words to fill space or to send a message – rather, they were purely sound, not syllable. There was no meaning other than Tea Cake wanted to sing and play, and Janie relaxes enough to fall asleep because this is what she wanted: she wanted a husband who didn’t care what others thought, didn’t care what was expected of him, because she wanted to be able to do what she wanted with someone who wouldn’t care what others thought. He did things his way, and Janie marvels at his ability to do so. When she wakes up, Janie is met with Tea Cake combing her hair. The peaceful scene is disrupted only by Janie’s insecurity with herself and her age – to her, this man is meeting every single one of

Hwoever, they give key insights into a fundamental part of a relationship – whether that relationship can stay enjoyable and successful without the eyes of others and without the power of words. Killicks failed because he didn’t care – they both didn’t care to learn about each other because they didn’t care to begin with. Jody failed because he only wanted a submissive wife who would look good to the public eye. Only Tea Cake provided this with his genuine interest in Janie and desire to be in the relationship with her, and not a submissive