What Does Hair Symbolize In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hair is such a hard topic when it comes to African Americans. In our culture, it symbolizes our identity of resistance, creative expression, and freedom. In the novel “Their Eyes were watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston is about a young woman named Janie Crawford and her journey toward self- discovery and independence. Janie’s hair is one of the symbols Hurston presents in the novel; this plays a significant role in depicting her strength and independence as a black woman in a male dominated society.
Janie’s hair is first introduced as a symbol of her beauty and youth. Her hair is long and dark, she would wear it in a tight braid down her back (chapter 1). Her Nanny would tell her to keep it braided, she views this style safe and respectable

Joe seen Janie as a trophy wife or someone he could show people off to, but Janie was taken by his charms and believed that he would be the one to give her the love she was looking for. She soon realized that it was nothing like that, “And one night he had caught Walter standing behind Janie and brushing the back of his hand back and forth across the loose end of her braid ever so lightly so as to enjoy the feel of it without Janie knowing what he was doing. Joe was at the back of the store and Walter didn’t see him. He felt like rushing forth with the meat knife and chopping off the offending hand. That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store” (Chapter 5). Joe realizes that Janie’s hair makes her sexually attractive to men, so to his knowledge Janie must cover her hair to claim that her sexuality belongs exclusively to him. Janie’s hair is not only as symbol of her beauty but also for her behavior for immodest attention. Later in the book Joe dies from a fatal liver failure, “Before she slept that night, she burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist. That was the only change people saw in her. So, one of the things Janie does is uncover her hair then she burns her head rags and lets her hair