Voice And Vision In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

Finding Voice and Vision in Their Eyes Were Watching God

The theme of identity is ever-present in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel in which protagonist Janie Crawford journeys to create her own identity. Janie enables herself to follow her own instincts and finds the god and voice in herself by “seeking confirmation of the voice and vision” of certain identities and by “[finding] and [acknowledging] answers” that ultimately lead her to accept the love she desires (Hurston 16). Thus, both Janie’s rebellion against the identities others force on her and Janie’s acceptance of the identity she creates for herself demonstrate how this novel emphasizes the importance of creating one’s own identity.

Janie rebels against

As Janie flings away her old identity, she visualizes finding fulfillment in the “flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” in her new life with Joe Starks (46). However, because of his misogynistic view of women as objects who “don’t think none theirselves,” Joe sees Janie as an extension of his possessions and does not consider her desires important (99). Instead, Joe believes that Janie’s worth lies in her beauty as a “pretty doll-baby” (41) whose purpose as his trophy is to “sit in [a high chair] and overlook the world” (87). Consequently, he bans Janie from speaking for herself because he believes that Janie’s “place is in de home,” indicating that Joe values Janie only because of her status as his wife (60). This suppression of Janie’s voice shatters Janie’s self-confidence, causing her to stay in an unhealthy relationship she finds no truth in and views as “a waste of life and time” (76) because the trophy identity Joe forces on Janie convinces her that “[all the fight] was gone from her soul” (106). When Joe is on his deathbed, Janie reclaims her voice by rebelling against her forced identity, berating Joe for treating her as an object and for being “[t]oo busy listening tuh [his] own big voice” to be “satisfied wid [her] de way [she] was”

By rejecting identities to create her own, Janie is able to find truth in her romantic love and companionship with Tea Cake, and she reveals that she wants to spend her life with him despite other people’s objections, admitting, “Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine” (158). Janie also finds self-confidence in her new identity when she makes the decision to be with Tea Cake despite her friend’s objections, confessing that she would “rather be wid Tea Cake” than adhere to someone else’s plan for her life (158). By the end of the novel, Janie is fulfilled with her choices and is “satisfied tuh be [back home again]” (266) because she has found in her relationship with Tea Cake the “self-crushing love” (178) that she has been searching for. In her new role, Janie is not a child, a trophy, or an extension of someone else but is the god of her life. She finds this identity by killing Tea Cake, prioritizing her own life over her husband’s and proving that she will no longer accept the position of second best or silence her own voice to pacify others. Unfortunately, Janie seems to lose this resolve in the courtroom when “a strange man from Palm Beach” speaks on Janie’s behalf, deciding her fate for her (257). This man does not steal Janie’s voice, however. Instead, as she is fighting to keep her life and to dispel the “lying thoughts”