Their Eyes Were Watching God Symbolism

In “Their eyes were watching god” by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s hair is a symbolic expression that holds experience and meaning about her life with her past loved ones. Janie’s hair is a crucial part in demonstrating the influence that Joe and Tea Cake has on her character; Janie’s hair being down represents her freedom, while being tied up shows how restrained she is. Throughout the book, Janie's development from feeling unsure and anxious to becoming confident and self-reliant is demonstrated through the change in her hair. In the beginning, Janie’s hair was down, conveying that she was free at first, but after marrying Joe Starks, he became superior over her, making her put her hair up and ultimately feeling controlled. When Janie meets

At the beginning of the story, Janie always wants to discover the outside world and has an ambitious attitude towards chasing her goals in life, and she often would “search as much of the world as she could”(11), showing how curious and confident Janie is to put herself out there. Additionally, enthusiastic and lively attributes are embodied by Janie’s character at first, as well as her aspirations because she has “glossy leaves and bursting buds”(11), wanting to achieve the chance to live life. Lastly, before Janie met Joe, she was happy and eager to get out and know the outside world and often “looked up the road towards way off”(25), longing for the adventure of that long road and not feeling discouraged or controlled to stay in one place. Although Janie was free and optimistic at first, when Joe came into the picture that attitude changed as he was restraining and controlling over Janie. With Joe wanting to be a big voice it ended up restraining Janie to just staying in the market place and having no value, which further lead her to putting “up a drape over her dreams”(72), showing how shattered and invaluable she felt in the position Joe gave her, not even

With Joe’s death also came Janie’s freedom, although Joe’s lasting influence on her made it hard to let loose and show her beauty again as she “had tried to show her shine”(90), but she is so unconfident with herself from the impact of Joe. Additionally with Joe gone, it leaves Janie alone with a huge fortune and in a vulnerable position with many people wanting to take advantage of her, causing men to question her as a woman if she can do it “by herself”(90) or if she “needs aid”(90). Lastly, Janie shows to still be affected by Joe’s efforts to keep Janie’s life mostly revolving around the marketplace, as Tea Cake brings up that she still doesn’t go watch baseball games or learn new things because she's in “uh jug”(104), that's constrained her from living. With Joe leaving Janie in a state of vulnerability, Tea Cake offered her new opportunities and made her feel wanted which led her out of Joe’s jug and into becoming an independent and willful character. In the early relationship of Janie and Tea Cake, he asks her to play checkers with him and she starts “glowing inside”(96), after the realization that she is wanted, and learns that it's okay and “natural”(96) to try something new and