Their Eyes Were Watching God Thesis

Alex Belenkiy

English 11 Honors

Synthesis Revision Essay: TEWWG

2/6/2023

Beauty and the Beasts: The Mental Growth of a Young Woman Through Three Unpleasant Marriage In the early twentieth century, many women dreamed of living the perfect life with their ideal partner. Unfortunately, this path was not possible for some. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie Crawford, idealizes marriage in a fantastic way. This leads Janie into three romantic relationships with different men that each alter her views on the reality of marriage. Throughout these three marriages, Janie faces and overcomes various challenges while gaining more knowledge about love and romance.

Janie’s relationship with her first husband,

While Janie is at work in her store, Tea Cake happens to stumble across the small shop looking for some cigarettes. Instantly, they both feel a connection between each other. Janie feels as though she has finally found her rightful partner. Hurston describes him as if “he looked like the love thoughts of women” (Hurston 106). Blown away by Tea Cake’s good looks and flirtatious behavior, Janie leaves herself with no choice but to get married to this mysterious, wonderful man. Later in the novel, some faults within their relationship began to form. Tea Cake felt threatened by Mrs. Turner’s idea of setting Janie up with her brother, and so he beats Janie in front of them to assert his dominance and let them know that Janie belongs to him. “Janie is wherever Ah wants tuh be. Dat’s de kind uh wife she is and Ah love her for it. Ah wouldn’t be knockin’ her around” (Hurston 148). Tea Cake does not commit this act out of jealousy, but he does it to ensure that nobody else will try to interfere with his and Janie’s marriage. Luckily, Janie is aware of this and is not affected greatly by Tea Cake’s sudden belligerence. This kind of behavior is also seen towards the resolution of the story when Tea Cake gets bitten by a rabid dog while saving Janie from being swept away in the hurricane. Over a short period of time, he

In Janie’s first relationship, she learns from Logan about the difference between love and marriage, and how specifically, marriage will disintegrate if no compassion is shown between the two partners. In Janie’s marriage with Jody, she learns that some men are overcome by a greed for wealth, power, and popularity. Finally, Janie learned from her relationship with Tea Cake that, while not common, tragedies do occur. Learning to deal with them and move on is one of the most important messages implied by the author. Though she may have started off as a young, immature girl, she endured various harmful relationships and challenges. Janie overcame these and learned from them, which resulted in Janie developing into a stronger, more independent, and wiser woman. In alignment with Lynn Domina’s viewpoint on Their Eyes Were Watching God, the novel serves as a piece of motivation for women today that struggle with finding the right partner while navigating the world of