Their Eyes Were Watching God Trauma

Shannon Higgins

Broadening Her Horizon: Generational Trauma in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

According to the Center of Addiction and Mental Health, “Trauma is the challenging emotional consequences that living through a distressing event can have for an individual.” In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Nanny, Janie’s grandmother, is a woman who was born into slavery, and what she went through shapes her into the person that she is. The trauma from her past affects Janie throughout the novel and is projected onto her at an extremely young age. Nanny’s experience as a former slave influences her views on love, marriage, society, and a woman’s freedom. Specifically, she believes that a woman should be in a relationship based

Nanny is never able to fulfill her dreams because of the confinement and abuse she suffered as a slave. “Ah was born back due in slavery so it wasn't for me to fulfill my dreams of what a woman oughta be and to do. Dat's one of de hold-backs of slavery” (Hurston 16). Hurstons depiction of Nannny as being unable to achieve her ambitions illustrates why she cant understand how Janie doesnt see the opportunities shes being presented with. In contrast, Janie does not want to live the life that Nanny has deemed ideal. Inevitably, she wanted someone that she would enjoy spending the rest of her life with “Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think. Ah…” (Hurston, 24). This was a major difference between Nanny and Janie. She wanted to shield Janie, rather than let her make her own decisions, “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, its protection”, (Hurston 15). Since Janie and Nanny were born into different generations, Nanny doesn’t suffer the same generational trauma that Janie does, she does not feel the same effects which is why she pushes Janie to

When a man named Logan Killicks comes into Janie’s life, Nanny proposes that they get married and start a life together. Janies hesitation comes from the fear of ending up in a marriage that she does not enjoy. Nanny’s forceful way of transferring the mindset that she has on marriage, as a result of the trauma that she has endured, hinders Janie from being happy and at peace with the marriage. In Janie suggesting that she doesn’t stay in a marriage with logan, Nanny illustrates the gastlighting that she puts Janie through, “If you don’t want him, you sho oughta. Heah you is wid de onliest organ in town, amongst colored folks, in yo’ parlor. Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road and… Lawd have mussy! Dat’s de very prong all us black women gits hung on. Dis love!” (Hurston 23). Hurston uses Nanny’s dialect to shut down and invalidate Janie’s feelings of regret about her marriage, resulting in the emphasis on the effect that Nanny’s ideals have on