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Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora neale hurston.
- Study Guide
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Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel by Zora Neale Hurston that was first published in 1937 .
Read our full plot summary and analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God , chapter by chapter break-downs, and more.
Summary & Analysis
- Chapters 1–2
- Chapters 3-4
- Chapters 7-8
- Chapters 9-10
- Chapters 11–12
- Chapters 13–14
- Chapters 15–16
- Chapters 17–18
- Full Book Summary
- Full Book Analysis
See a complete list of the characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God and in-depth analyses of Janie Mae Crawford, Tea Cake, Jody Starks, Nanny Crawford, and Mrs. Turner.
- Character List
- Janie Mae Crawford
- Jody Starks
- Nanny Crawford
- Mrs. Turner
- Logan Killicks
- Pheoby Watson
Literary Devices
Here's where you'll find analysis of the literary devices in Their Eyes Were Watching God , from the major themes to motifs, symbols, and more.
- Protagonist
- Point of View
- Foreshadowing
- Metaphors & Similes
Questions & Answers
Explore our selection of frequently asked questions about Their Eyes Were Watching God and find the answers you need.
- What does the title mean?
- Why does Janie’s grandmother encourage her to get married so young?
- What is “the muck” where Janie and Tea Cake live?
- How does Janie feel about Jody’s death?
- Why is the porch important?
- What are the personal histories of Nanny, Janie’s grandmother, and of Janie’s mother?
- Who were Janie’s three husbands?
- What role does Janie’s physical appearance play in the novel?
- Why is Jody Starks a natural leader?
- Why are people in Eatonville scandalized by the romance between Janie and Tea Cake?
- How do Janie and Tea Cake support themselves while they are in the Everglades?
- How does Janie interact with the women she meets in the Everglades?
- Why does Janie kill Tea Cake?
- After she returns to Eatonville, how does Janie let people know what has happened to her in her absence?
- How does Jody treat Janie?
Find the quotes you need to support your Their Eyes Were Watching God essay, or refresh your memory of the book by reading these key quotes.
- Important Quotes Explained
- Gender Inequality
- Chapters 3–4
- Chapters 7–8
- Chapters 9–10
By Character
- Pear Tree and Horizon
- The Hurricane
- Rural Florida
Quick Quizzes
Test your knowledge of Their Eyes Were Watching God with quizzes about every section, major characters, themes, symbols, and more.
- Full Book Quiz
- Chapter 1—2
- Chapters 3—4
- Chapters 7—8
- Chapters 9—10
- Chapters 11—12
- Chapters 15—16
- Chapters 17—18
- Analysis of Major Characters
- Plot Overview
- Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Get ready to ace your Their Eyes Were Watching God paper with our suggested essay topics, helpful essays about historical and literary context, a sample A+ student essay, and more.
- Historical Context Essay: The Harlem Renaissance
- Literary Context Essay: Black Feminist Literature
- Central Idea Essay: Is Tea Cake a Good or Bad Person?
- Mini Essays
- A+ Student Essay
- Suggested Essay Topics
- What Does the Ending Mean?
Further Study
Go further in your study of Their Eyes Were Watching God with background information, movie adaptations, and links to the best resources around the web.
- Suggestions for Further Reading
- Related Links
- Movie Adaptations
- Zora Neale Hurston and Their Eyes Were Watching God Background
Their Eyes Were Watching God SparkNotes Literature Guide
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Zora Neale Hurston
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- Book Summary
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- Character List
- Summary and Analysis
- Character Analysis
- Janie Crawford Killicks Starks Woods
- Logan Killicks
- Vergible Tea Cake" Woods"
- Pheoby Watson
- The Porch Sitters
- The Migrants
- Character Map
- Zora Neale Hurston Biography
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Critical Essays Major Themes of Their Eyes Were Watching God
The most prevalent themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God involve Janie's search for unconditional, true, and fulfilling love. She experiences different kinds of love throughout her life. As a result of her quest for this love, Janie gains her own independence and personal freedom, which makes her a true heroine in the novel. Because Janie strives for her own independence, others tend to judge her simply because she is daring enough to achieve her own autonomy.
Throughout the novel, Janie searches for the love that she has always desired, the kind of love that is represented by the marriage between a bee and a blossom on the pear tree that stood in Nanny's backyard. Only after feeling other kinds of love does Janie finally gain the love like that between the bee and the blossom.
Janie experiences many types of love throughout her life. With Nanny, her caring grandmother, Janie experiences a love that is protective. Nanny yearns for Janie to have a better life than she did, and she will do anything in her power to make sure that Janie is safe and cared for. This protective love that Nanny bestows on Janie serves as the driving force behind Nanny's plot to arrange Janie's marriage to Logan Killicks.
With Logan, Janie has attained a similarly protective love, much like that provided by Nanny. Logan represents security for Janie, as he owns a 60-acre potato farm. For Janie, however, this protective love does not satisfy her need for the love that she has always desired.
Joe Starks provides Janie with an escape from the protective and unsatisfying love of Logan. Joe is a man with lofty goals and charisma. Janie feels for the first time in her life that she may be able to find true love with this man who wants her to be treated like a lady, rather than as a subservient farmer's wife. After being married just a short time, however, Janie realizes that she is once again lacking the love that she has longed for. The love that Janie experiences with Joe is a possessive love. Joe views Janie as his possession, his trophy wife. He expects Janie to follow his orders, just as the townspeople abide by the laws he creates as mayor. Joe forbids Janie to interact with the porch sitters or to play checkers on the porch of the crossroads store. Janie feels trapped by Joe's love, but she remains with him until his death.
Following Joe's death, Janie meets the man who represents the true love of her life, Tea Cake Woods. He arrives in Eatonville as a fun-loving man who quickly falls for Janie's beauty and charm. Although Janie fears that she is too old for Tea Cake, she cannot help but fall in love with this man. Janie leaves behind everything that she has ever known to embark on a new life with Tea Cake. She adores him, as he adores her. After moving to the Everglades with Tea Cake, she embraces this new life as well as her new friends. Finally, Janie has found the love like that between the bee and its blossom. She declares that Tea Cake could be a "bee to a blossom — a pear tree blossom in the spring."
In her search for love and in the losses that she suffers, Janie gains independence. Janie's independence begins slowly in the novel. She holds a spark of independence when she gains the courage to leave her loveless marriage with Logan in order to run away with Joe Starks. Her independence grows, however, throughout her marriage to Joe. As Joe treats Janie as his possession instead of his wife, Janie gains an inner strength. Her strength builds, and one day she stands up for herself to Joe in the presence of the porch sitters. This act is Janie's first outward sign of her inner strength. Her strength and independence grow as Joe becomes weaker. Although he banishes Janie from his room, she visits him anyway. As Joe lies dying, Janie reveals to him that he is not the man that she ran off with years ago. She tells Joe that he has never been able to accept her for the person that she really is. Ironically, Janie finds strength in Joe's death. Finally, she is free of the man who confined her in a loveless marriage. Janie exhibits her freedom after Joe's death by removing the kerchief from her head to let her long braids drape freely down her back.
Throughout Janie's quest for love and the independence that she gains in her journey, Janie endures the harsh judgment of others. The porch sitters in the novel serve to judge Janie. As the novel opens, they sit and comment about Janie's return and her present lifeless appearance. The theme of judgment continues in Janie's life with Joe. He judges Janie, rather than accepting her for what and who she is. He stifles her independence because he fears that another man may take her away from him. Even Mrs. Turner, the bigoted restaurant owner, judges Janie. She questions Janie's choice of Tea Cake as a husband, because he is "too black." Because Janie endures the harsh judgments of others, she is able to gain independence and strength.
Janie's quest for love leads her along different paths. She gains strength from the protective love of Nanny and Logan as well as the possessive love of Joe. Janie finds her desired love with Tea Cake. Throughout her life, she also gains an independence and strength from these relationships as well as by enduring the judgments made by others. As a result of her lifelong encounters, Janie gains autonomy and learns the value of true love. As a character, Janie proves herself as a heroine.
Hurston created the character of Janie during a time in which African-American female heroines were uncommon in literature. In 1937 when the novel was originally published, females experienced fewer opportunities than they do today. Hurston chose to portray Janie as a strong, independent woman, unlike most African-American females of the early nineteenth century. Perhaps Hurston characterized Janie as capable and courageous to empower her readers and to show them that opportunities do exist for all women; they just have to embrace them.
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Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God.
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Their Eyes Were Watching God Essays
Tea cake the villain anonymous college, their eyes were watching god.
Zora Neale Hurston’s well-acclaimed novel Their Eyes Were Watching God includes many controversial characters with ambiguous ethics. Janie Crawford’s lovers have been continuously analyzed by literary scholars such as Janice Knudsen and Mesa-El...
The Importance of Dreams Laura Lee
Throughout the history of black American culture, the pursuit of dreams has played a pivotal role in self-fulfillment and internal development. In many ways an individual's reactions to the perceived and real obstacles barring the path to a dream...
Getting in Touch with the Feminine Side Judd Salamat
In 1937, upon the first publication of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the most influential black writer of his time, Richard Wright, stated that the novel ìcarries no theme, no message, [and] no thought.î Wrightís powerful critique epitomized a...
Living for Yourself in Their Eyes Were Watching God Theoderek Wayne
Through Janie's growth from a girl so far removed from any identity that she doesn't know her own race, to a woman strong enough to return to her hometown that wants nothing more than to revel in her miseries, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were...
Their Eyes Were Watching God: Double Consciousness as an Indicator of Growth Meagan Bass
Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, utilizes a struggle W.E.B. Du Bois describes as "double consciousness" to chart the journey of Janie Crawford into selfhood. In "The Souls of Black Folk," Du Bois describes African...
A Voice of Abandonment Emily Flynn
In Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is encouraged to develop her own personality throughout the book, and she is forced into constant movement down roads after being abandoned by her grandmother and her three...
Uses of Metonymy in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses metonymy several times in order to express motifs which appear throughout the novel. For instance, one of the clearest examples of metonymy, the porch, appears as a whole or general entity,...
The Alpha Female Aaron Chan
The Alpha Female
Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God shows the Southern black women not as the weak and submissive slaves of their husbands, but rather, Eyes traces the development of Janie as the independent black woman....
Nature's Role in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous
"It [the tiny bloom] had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously" (13). Zora Neale Hurston, an African-American author,...
Community and Identity Justin Hamilton
Over the course Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie resides in several communities, each of which play an important role in the story, and serve as essential influences on Janie's life. At different stages in her life,...
The Use of Name Significance in Their Eyes Were Watching God Zachary Isaac Goldman
With their significance ranging from one’s place of origin to one’s occupation, last names have been used to distinguish and describe individuals for centuries. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, the author, experiments...
In Search of Voice Abraham G Berhane
As the old adage goes, it is not what one says, but how they say it that matters most. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the novel’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, is immersed in a journey to establish her voice and,...
The Sound of Silence Benjamin Keni Cook Piiru
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston uses language as a tool to show the progression of the story. Throughout the novel, Hurston uses a narrative style that is split between poetic literary prose and the vernacular of Southern...
Finding True Love in Their Eyes Were Watching God Laura Jean Kepko
The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story of one woman’s growth as a person physically, emotionally, and intellectually while on a journey for life fulfillment. Throughout the novel a theme illustrating the value of finding true love and...
Mules in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous
When Nanny tells her young, naïve granddaughter Janie Crawford, “de nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see,” (14) she is merely setting the stage for a number of connections between humans and animals that communicate Hurston’s...
The Multiple Meanings of "Their" in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous 10th Grade
In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Hurston leaves part of the title ambiguous and therefore open to interpretation. Throughout the novel, the characters mention or allude to God, or a “god.” The multiple meanings of the word “...
Love in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous 12th Grade
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the reader sees one character’s journey towards figuring out love. Janie Crawford, the protagonist, deciphers through experience what love actually is. Through her text, Hurston...
Folklore in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous 12th Grade
Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in seven weeks while she was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, researching the country’s major voodoo gods and studying as an initiate under the tutelage of Haiti’s most well-known Voodoo hougans...
Hurston's and Larsen's Commentary on Racial Loyalty Foster Cheng College
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Passing by Nella Larsen both feature black females as their main characters. Hurston’s novel follows a woman named Janie through her life, while Larsen’s follows Clare, a black woman who...
New Voices in the Harlem Renaissance Wei Dai College
Despite disparities in the poetic styles of Sterling Brown and Arna Bontemps, each author was equally effective in conveying the “new voice” of the black American during the Harlem Renaissance. The idea of a more suitable expression for African...
“Hope, Hopelessness and Despair”: An Analysis of Realism, Naturalism and Romanticism in Their Eyes Were Watching God Abbey Crowley 10th Grade
The 1930s: a pivotal point in the birth of literary modernism. After Sigmund Freud’s publication of studies of human emotion through psychoanalysis in the early 1900s, writing was forever changed. Authors added masks of character development...
Women’s Empowerment: Their Eyes Were Watching God and Love Medicine Anonymous College
In the novels Their Eyes Were Watching God and Love Medicine , Hurston and Erdrich (respectively) use the characterization of the women to promote women’s empowerment and self-fulfillment. Lulu can be seen within Erdrich’s work as the...
Nanny, Leafy, and Strength over Slavery in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous College
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God follows Janie Crawford’s journey through three marriages and her search for freedom, independence, and love through black womanhood in the 20th century. In the beginning of the novel, Hurston,...
Hurston and Her Novel's Critics: Racism, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Disputed Merits of The Eyes Were Watching God Rochelle Ann Maloney College
“The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy” – Richard Wright.
Although Zora Neale...
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Their Eyes Were Watching God Essays
Their eyes were watching god: main characters.
People are very impressed by the length of time that it took Zora to write the book, because it seems so difficult to do. The author was clearly dedicated in telling this story because she was doing it during constant work and research. Under the impression that this was a story about Janier’s life, it was confusing that the story started off with her being older. The beginning is clearly the end of the story, so she is probably going […]
Their Eyes were Watching God Literary Analysis
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, author Zora Neale Hurston shines light on to the harsh reality of the life of an African American woman during the early 20th century. Women of this time were accustomed to feeling silenced and powerless by their male counterparts. This idea especially pertains to protagonist, Janie Crawford. Janie lived through an arranged marriage with Logan Killicks before meeting Joe Starks. Joe promised the liberating life that Janie was seeking for some time, […]
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Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston: how to Find Happiness Within yourself
Finding one’s self is never easy for an individual. It is easy to say, live life how you want, but if you haven’t figured out what you want, you may feel like you’re lost. But, discovering your personal truth can help you be the person you want to be no matter what life throws at you. “Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh do fuh theyselves.” In Their Eyes […]
Feminism in their Eyes were Watching God
In the 1930r’s, there was a very academic, social, and artistic outbreak that took place in Harlem, New York. During the time the outbreak was called the New Negro Movement named by Alan Locke. Zora Neal Hurston says, But I am not tragically colored (Hurston 2), she is saying that it is not a bad thing that she is colored more like a good thing because she can use that to her advantage. In Their Eyes Were Watching God and […]
Mortality in their Eyes were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston’s takes her audience on a psychological adventure within her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. In her narration, the protagonist, Janie Crawford, goes on a transformational hero’s journey where her innermost thoughts are explored. From being influenced into an arranged marriage to finding the true love of her life, it is through the emotions revealed in Janie’s internal events that leads her to her ultimate awakening at the end of the novel as she reaches her horizon. […]
Symbols in their Eyes were Watching God
In today’s society, head shawls are commonly worn for religious purposes or used as accessories. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, it was used to hide someone’s beauty and identity. Throughout the book, Janie’s hair changes from being let down to tied up due to the forceful request upon her husband at the time, Jody. As Zora Neale Hurston writes in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s hair symbolizes her independence throughout the different times during her lifetime and the […]
Imagery in their Eyes were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God was published in 1937 and to this day is still a notable piece of literature. The novel faced lots of controversy when it was first published from both blacks and whites. African-Americans did not feel that the book accurately portrayed the harsh life and conditions blacks faced at those times, and whites thought it was used as a civil rights movement. Through all the backlash and hate, Hurston was able to power through with her […]
Main Character in their Eyes were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God In a novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Hurston, the main character Janie Crawford was portrayed to be Zora Hurston. Janie was raised by her grandmother and was privilege with some things other African American did not have. She was bullied for these privileges but eventually grew up and found out that she is more than what they say. Her first husband was not by her choice, her grandmothers dying wish was […]
Gender Roles in their Eyes were Watching God
Gender roles are a crucial theme in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston. According to the narrative, women and men play diverse roles. The women are not only thought of as the frailer gender but are also characterized by their affiliation with men. The female counterparts are portrayed as good little wives who are not allowed to speak up or disrespect their men. The women could only acquire power by marrying powerful and rich men. It was […]
Main Message of their Eyes were Watching God
Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” shows a few topics, for example, discourse and quiet, love and marriage, lastly sexual orientation parts. Zora Neale Hurston completes a remarkable activity of establishing what men, for example, Joe Starks accepted were the standard parts for the African American female. Hurston appropriately portrayed Janie through her association with Joe, the figurative estimation of the donkey, and her exchange as a lady of quality, not worried about the goals of her white female partners, […]
American Dream Theme in their Eyes were Watching God
In Hurstonr’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the main character, did not fit into the three communities of North Florida, Eatonville or the Muck. She always seemed to be an outsider in those communities. The quote I choose is Ships at a distance have every manr’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away […]
Comparing Main Persons from Novels Jane Eyre and their Eyes were Watching God
Jane Eyre is in search of something more. She became an orphan at a young age, lived with a family that treated her more like someone off the street, and had an internal issue with how to be due to the situations she lived throughout her life. Jane Eyre has a lot in common with Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God. Throughout both novels, there’s an internal conflict with both Jane and Janie over what type of freedom they […]
Freedom and Societal Pressures in Hurston’s Novel
Their Eyes Were Watching God In Zora Neale Hurston’s contemporary novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she displays the fight between freedom and societal pressures. The author illustrates the struggles black women face growing up in the mid-thirties when discrimination and unequal rights existed. Throughout the novel, Hurston displays to women the importance of gaining self -realization and independence. Hurston shows women’s struggle to gain what they deem important in a controlling marriage. In the novel, Janie notices Joe Starks […]
How Race and Gender Affect on Identity
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston explores the effects of race and gender on developing oner’s identity. There is often a discrepancy between personal identity and the identity formed exogenously by members of society, which makes it difficult to develop a true understanding of oneself. In Hurstonr’s novel, Janie is able to move past the opinions society have of her and become the woman she wants to be after being subjected to the limitations society had placed […]
Differences between Hurston’s Novel and Oprah’s Film
There are differences between characterization written into Hurstonr’s novel and Oprahr’s film. Janier’s character pivots around the men in her life. We do not see her learn to connect with herself. The relationship between her and Nanny is glossed over. In the book, Nanny is strong and loves hard. She imparts wisdom and observations of life. Nanny warns Janie that de white man is de ruler of everything (Hurston 14). In the film, Nanny does not marry Janie off to […]
Comparison of Chopin and Hurston’s Novels
In choosing to compare and contrast the works The Awakening by Kate Chopin and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, both female characters struggle to find what they desire in life throughout both novels, but the experiences of racism are quite different for these two characters. Kate Chopin published The Awakening during Victorian Era of the nineteenth century in America, when gender roles followed a strict set of guidelines. Although when Zora Neale Hurston produced Their Eyes […]
Love in Zora Neale Hurston’s Novel
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, there were many themes represented. One of the major themes in this story was love. This topic affects the characters in many different ways. The author, Zora Neale Hurston, begins this book with the readers being captivated by a glimpse of the present before she jumps into a flashback of the main character’s journey. When the readers read each chapter, they meet different characters who will become important later on in the book. We […]
Love, Marriage and Slavery in Hurston’s Novel
Inflam’d by love, and urg’d by deep despair, he leaves the realms of light, and upper air; daring to tread the dark Tenarian road, and tempt the shades in their obscure abode, wrote the poet Ovid of Orpheus love for Eurydice (10.17-20). His passion for his bride, whose life was cut short by a viper on their wedding day, was so strong he dared to face the perils of the netherworld and stand before Hades and Persephone to request Eurydicer’s […]
Essay on Their Eyes Were Watching
God, by Zora Neale Hurston is a book detailing the life of Janie Crawford. This book takes the audience on a journey of Janie Crawford starting out as a young teenage girl and then turning into a woman. Throughout the novel Janie moves around a lot, but she is brought back to the place she grew up at when tragedy strikes. The book is narrated from Janie’s point of view and her journey starts out when she is sixteen years old, and is going to be married off for money. On her voyage of life, she finds what the true meaning behind love is through her three marriages. Janie narrates the novel of her three marriages to her best friend Pheoby Watson.
Janie’s journey starts out on her grandmother’s plantation shack when she is sixteen years old. Her grandmother raised her after her mother walked out on her when she was a young girl. Janie’s grandmother’s view of the world is different from hers, because she was a slave. Her grandmother wants to marry her off to a husband who has good money and can provide well for her. Her first husband goes by the name Logan Killicks, he is an older farmer. Janie moves in with Logan and after a while she realizes that she will never really be happy with him. Being unhappy in her marriage with Logan forces her hand in flirting with young- and good-looking Joe Starks. Janie has an affair in the shadows with Joe for a few weeks, before she finally decides to runoff and with him and get married.
The newly married couple moves to the town of Eatonville, which turns out to be filled with all African Americans. Janie’s husband Jody becomes the mayor and hopes to have a big voice within the town. Janie was not meant for the rich lifestyle, so things became stagnant in her relationship with her husband. Being apart of Jody’s lifestyle would mean she could not surround herself with the common folk. Jody wants Janie to be his own trophy wife, so she silently obeys what he asks, but on the inside, she secretly still has her own goals set for her life. Being married for almost two decades finally begins to take a toll on Janie.
Their marriage begins to crumble into shambles. Meanwhile, Jody begins to get very sick. Jody later dies after she confronts him about the way he treated her during their marriage on his deathbed.
Tea Cake a young man, who is twelve years younger Janie comes along and peaks her interest. She is immediately attracted to him. They begin dating very soon after her recent husband’s death, and this causes gossip to spread like wildfire throughout the town. Nine months go by and Tea Cup and Janie get married, they then move to Jacksonville, Florida. While living in the Everglades, a hurricane passes through forcing the couple to have to flee their home. Tea Cake becomes very ill minded when he thinks that Janie is cheating on him and she kills him in self-defense. After Tea Cake’s death she moves back to
Eatonville where she recounts her life story of her three marriages to, he best friend Pheoby.
Overall, throughout Janie’s journey she learns about love through each of her marriages. Her first marriage showed her that love cannot just come with major it is something that you have to learn. Her second marriage taught her patience.
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In Zora Neale Hurston’s contemporary novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she displays the fight between freedom and societal pressures. The author illustrates the struggles black women face growing up in the mid-thirties when discrimination and unequal rights existed. Throughout the novel, Hurston displays to women the importance of gaining self -realization and independence. Hurston shows women’s struggle to gain what they deem important in a controlling marriage. In the novel, Janie notices a stranger, Joe Starks, because he “spoke for far horizon.” The horizon represents hope for ideas Janie sees as unattainable, such as true love. Janie blames her Nanny for pinching the horizon so small it could “choke her.” Janie believes her chances at living happily in an equal partnership have been stripped away from her, leaving her to spend the rest of her years in submission.
Without freedom, females do not gain the independence needed to realize what they value in relationships and life. Janie’s second husband, Joe forces her to hide her hair because it exists “for him to look at.” He uses Janie’s hair as a way to keep her under his control. After Joe’s death, she decides to take down her hair, symbolizing her new found control. The author uses the image of her hair to emphasize the suppression of females in relationships that do not allow for self-reliance. Hurston emphasizes that without securing independence, women will live a life of obedience and will not gain equality. Through the use of emotional manipulation and confinement, Hurston emphasizes women’s struggle for independence.
During Janie’s marriage to Logan, he described her place as “wherever Ah need yuh.” Logan restrains Janie’s freedoms and opportunities: he confines her capabilities to only what he sees of her. Hurston demonstrates that confinement of one’s abilities will keep them in permanent submission. She uses this to emphasize the physical and emotional power men yield over women, depriving females the independence to progress. Towards the end of Janie’s second marriage, Joe started to comment on her aging appearance. Janie “saw he was hurting inside”, so she decided to endure his rude remarks. Hurston uses Janie’s passiveness to show her audience how emotional manipulation can restrict a person from sharing their thoughts of turmoil.
Only when a person freely expresses themselves can they change their situation. Hurston emphasizes that women must realize their self worth in order to see their full potential. After a fight, Janie reveals she’d “rather be dead” than have Joe think she would hurt him. Hurston shows the loss of Janie’s principles and heavy influence on women to put their husband’s feelings first. Hurston stresses the struggle for women to capture power in a manipulative and controlling relationship. The author highlights that independence and self-realization compose the keys to satisfaction with one’s life choices.
Throughout the novel, Hurston uses manipulation and restriction to show the struggle of women to gain self-actualization and utter acceptance. Hurston compares the character’s relationships in order to show the continuous effects of oppression in women. In Janie’s first marriage, Logan complains about her work ethic saying, “You think youse white folks.” Logan forces Janie to do labor work and does not allow her to speak back to him. Hurston uses the character Logan to show discrimination of black women: Logan stereotypes black females as more labor tolerant individuals. Hurston emphasizes that black women are less respected and considered disrespectful if they disagree.
The author shows a lack of independence allows for discrimination and suppression for a group of people. In Janie’s second marriage, the longest one, her husband believes “somebody got to think for women.” Janie’s husband does not allow for her to speak and keeps her working in the store. Hurston uses the second marriage to show the repetition of oppression among women. She uses the marriage to show that men consider women inferior and ignorant. Hurston highlights the need for self-actualization and independence to reach equality. In contrast, Janie’s marriage to Tea Cake allowed her to gain independence and arrive at the horizon. Tea Cake remains thankful for Janie because she came “along and made something’ outta” him. Tea Cake allows Janie to voice her opinions, make decisions, and experience real affection. She found her true love in a marriage that allowed her to exist as her own person and reflect on the past. Hurston compares this marriage to the previous two to show the effects of gaining independence and control. Hurston emphasizes that women must have self-actualization in order to end oppression and establish equality among men and women.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston displays the struggle for independence for women. Hurston displays the life of light-skinned Janie Crawford, who struggles in her life through three marriages and oppression. However, Janie remains appreciative for her life and takes a lesson from each marriage as she evolves to better herself. The author uses the marriages and the characters to show how suppression prevents women from growing and gaining equality. Hurston wrote the novel in order to show women the importance of gaining self-realization and independence.

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- Edited by Michael Awkward
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press
- Online publication date: March 2011
- Print publication year: 1991
- Online ISBN: 9780511570346
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511570346
- Subjects: Literature , Area Studies , American Literature , American Studies
- Series: The American Novel
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Book description
After decades of relegation to the margins of American literary history, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God has recently been rediscovered by American literary and cultural scholars who have begun to explore the novel's thematic, ideological, and aesthetic complexity. In the introduction to this volume Michael Awkward provides an overview of the critical reception of Hurston's novel, from the largely dismissive reviews accompanying the novel's publication in 1937, to factors which helped revive interest in Hurston in the 1960s, to its recent establishment as a central American novel. The other essays in the volume discuss Hurston's sophisticated use of black folklore, the autobiographical resonances in the novel, Hurston's definition of the relationship between black artists and the Afro-American masses, and the usefulness of feminist modes of inquiry. This collection offers fresh insight for approaching Hurston's compelling exploration of a black woman's extended search for self and community.
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Frontmatter pp i-iv
- Get access Check if you have access via personal or institutional login Log in Register
Contents pp v-vi
Series editor's preface pp vii-viii, 1 - introduction pp 1-28.
- By Michael Awkward
2 - The Personal Dimension in Their Eyes Were Watching God pp 29-50
- By Robert Hemenway
3 - “Crayon Enlargements of Life”: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God as Autobiography pp 51-70
- By Nellie McKay
4 - The Politics of Fiction, Anthropology, and the Folk: Zora Neale Hurston pp 71-94
- By Hazel V. Carby
5 - Power, Judgment, and Narrative in a Work of Zora Neale Hurston: Feminist Cultural Studies pp 95-124
- By Rachel Blau Duplessis
Notes on Contributors pp 125-126
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84 Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
🏆 best their eyes were watching god topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 most interesting their eyes were watching god topics to write about, 👍 good research topics about their eyes were watching god, ❓ their eyes were watching god essay questions, 💯 free their eyes were watching god essay topic generator.
- Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God One of the peculiar features of the work is the form chosen by the author. Just like a mule, Janie is forced to work in the field with her husband.
- One Woman’s Search for her Self-Identity. A Review of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Janie’s maturity of voice is a direct indicator of her inner growth, and the activities at the courtroom may be plotted too much as to draw the parallels in her inner self.
- Tea Cake and Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God – an Integral Character The role of Tea Cake remains to be crucial in the story as well as in the whole life of Janie as his passion, creativity, and desire to create the best living conditions promote safety […]
- The Life of Zora Neale Hurston As Hurston later glorifies in her literary works, the town was the first to offer African Americans the chance to live freely and independent of the Whites, as they desired.
- Their Eyes Were Watching God: Summary, Main Themes, and Evaluation In this essay, the summary of the narrative and description of the main characters and themes will be provided. The protagonist of the story, Janie Crawford, is a very na ve and dreamy girl who […]
- “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora N. Hurston When Janie decides to move in with Tea Cake, she secretly conceals two hundred dollars in her shirt pocket, and fears to reveal the secret to Tea Cake. Tea Cake’s role in the novel is […]
- Jody Sparks in Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Joe’s entry into Janie’s life is at an appropriate moment, since Janie is on the verge of breaking up with her former husband due to mistreatment, and Joe creates the opportunity that Janie has been […]
- African American Studies. “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Hurston Janie’s appreciation of her independence is depicted when she refuses to be bound to Logan for the rest of her life because of material things.
- Janie’s Search for Her Freedom and Independence in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Z. N. Hurston Though Janie does not feel her duty to clear out herself, she explains the story of her life to her friend. The reader observes the development of Janie’s character and the changes in her attitude […]
- Identity in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God In the story, the author offered a comprehensive discussion of identity, its elements, importance, and relation to modernism. These two elements contribute to the fact that a person has a particular position in society, and […]
- Review of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Book The paper will discuss how Hurston exemplifies the Harlem movement in her book.’Their Eyes Were Watching God is an award-winning novel first published in the late 1930s and is considered one of the classics of […]
- The Use of Symbolism and Metaphors in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston
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- The Discrimination of Blacks by Whites in the Novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
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- The Maturity of Janie Through Her Marriage to Logan Killicks in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a Novel by Zora Neale Hurston
- The Use of Clothing in the Novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- The Theme of Friendship in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God As A Creation Story
- Universal Themes Of Womanhood Nora Zeale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Women’s Inferiority to Men in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Use of Metaphors in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston
- The Effects of Attitudes in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- The Human Nature’s Quest for Happiness in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- The Need for Power and Recognition of Joe in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a Novel by Zora Neale Hurston
- The Imagery of Creation Myths in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a Novel by Zora Neale Hurston
- Using Vernacular to Reflect Self Image in Jean Toomer’s Cane and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Wright’s Critiques on Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
- In What Ways Does Janie Violate Typical Gender Boundaries in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- How Does Janie Develop Her Ideas of Love in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- Why Do People Today Love Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- How Does Love Influence Our Lives in the Story of Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- What Are Traditional Stereotypes of Men and Women in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- In What Ways Does Janie Fit the Typical Feminine Stereotype in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- Is Their Eyes Were Watching God Primarily an Anti-racism Novel?
- How Does Janie’s Identity Vacillate Between White and Black Factions in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- To What Extent Is Janie’s Life Already Determined at Birth in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- How Did Slaves’ Positions as a Sub-Class, Those Not Considered Human at All, Affect Nanny’s Outlook on Life?
- Does Joe Succeed in Achieving His Goals in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- Why Does Janie Feel So Trapped in Her First Two Marriages in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- How Is Race Generally Linked to Class in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- Why Is Janie Happy Living With the Lowest of the Low Social Classes – The Migrant Workers in the Everglades?
- What Is the Significance of the Title Their Eyes Were Watching God to the Novel?
- Does Tea Cake Free Janie or Is It Just the Escape From Her First Two Husbands in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- How Is Death Associated With Freedom, Especially in Janie’s Last Two Marriages in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- What Does the Idea of the Horizon Symbolize for Janie?
- How Does Janie’s Experience Under the Pear Tree Set Up Her Dreams and Expectations for the Future?
- What Role Does Mrs. Turner Play in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- How Do Janie’s Visions and Hopes for Her Future Differ From the Hopes of Her Peers?
- What Is the Role of the Porch Sitters in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- How Does the Mule’s Treatment in Eatonville Reflect the Condition of the Black Female?
- Does This Novel Have a Moral in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- How Does the Porch Work as a Personified Symbol in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- Is Nanny a Sympathetic Character in Their Eyes Were Watching God? Is Janie’s Abandonment of Her Justified?
- At What Point Does the Division Between Men’s Activities and Women’s Activities Break Down?
- Why Did Hurston Include Mrs. Turner in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- Who Does the Pronoun in the Title Refer To in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- Is Hurston’s Vision of God Religious or Secular?
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
Using quotes from Their Eyes Were Watching God for evidence, explain what kind of God the eyes of Hurston's characters are watching. What is the nature of that God and of their watching? Do any of them question God?
Cite this page as follows:.
"Using quotes from Their Eyes Were Watching God for evidence, explain what kind of God the eyes of Hurston's characters are watching. What is the nature of that God and of their watching? Do any of them question God?" eNotes Editorial , 8 Mar. 2023, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/using-quotes-from-their-eyes-were-watching-god-3103477. Accessed 16 Mar. 2023.
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In Zora Neale Hurston 's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God , the characters' perception of God varies, and some of them do question God.
One character who has a particular view of God is Janie. She believes that God is present in nature and sees Him as a powerful force. She says:
Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons. Dis house ain't so absent-minded as you is. It don't hold nothin' old, worn-out and useless. You been given a break from worry and strain. Yes, child, you got yo' feet set on de right road now. You got yo' mind set on de right thing. You ain't got nothin' to 'fraid of. God got us in His hand. ( Chapter 18 )
However, some characters, such as Tea Cake , do question God. He says:
All dis bowin' and scrapin' ain't got nothin' to do wid nothin'. Praise God from whom all blessings flow—what good is dat when we needs mo' guns, mo' men, and mo' money? (Chapter 18)
In conclusion, the characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God have different perceptions of God, and some of them do question His existence and His role in their lives.
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Latest answer posted May 04, 2021 at 6:00:36 PM
What does the pear tree symbolize in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
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In Chapter 16 of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Mrs. Turner is very clearly prejudiced. How does Janie react to her? Why doesn't Mrs. Turner like Tea Cake? How is Turner characterized? Why does...
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What is the significance and meaning behind Zora Neale Hurston’s famous quote “So her soul crawled out from its hiding place”?
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In Their Eyes Were Watching God,what does Nanny mean when she says "ah'm a cracked plate?"
Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Their Eyes Were Watching God — Gender Roles In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Gender Roles in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Subject: Literature
- Category: Books , Writers
- Essay Topic: Their Eyes Were Watching God , Zora Neale Hurston
- Words: 1378
- Published: 16 December 2021
- Downloads: 49
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1) Janie, on her gossiping neighbors, stressing the importance of storytelling and oral tradition: “Ah don’t mean to bother wid tellin’ ’em nothin’, Pheoby. ‘Tain’t worth de trouble. You can tell ’em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat’s just de same as me ’cause mah tongue is in mah friend’s mouf” (6).
2) Janie, to the men of Eatonville: “Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business. He told me.how surprised y’all is goin’ tuh be if you ever find out you don’t know half as much ’bout us as you think yo do.
It’s so easy to make yo’self out God Almighty when you ain’t got nothin’ tuh strain against but women and chickens” (70-71).
3) On Janie: “She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels” (72).
4) Janie, after Joe’s death: “To my thinkin’ mourning oughtn’t tuh last no longer’n grief” (89).

Proficient in: Quote
“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”
5) Eatonville habitants, on Janie: “It was hard to love a woman that always made you feel so wishful” (111).
6) On Tea Cake: “Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place” (122).
7) On waiting for the mighty hurricane : “They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (151).
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8) Tea Cake, on Janie: “.don’t say you’se ole. You’se uh lil girl baby all de time. God made it so you spent yo’ ole age first wid somebody else, and saved up yo’ young girl days to spend wid me” (172).
9) Janie, on love: “.love ain’t somethin’ lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore” (182).
10) Janie: “It’s uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there..Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (183).
Put me down easy Janie Ah’m a cracked plate.” -20-
In this quote Janie’s grandmother “Nanny” is talking to Janie about letting her the rest of life easy. Janie’s grandmother is planning to send Janie off to get married because she is no longer able to care for her. Before this quote you learn that Janie was raised by her nanny and never really knew her parents. Janie’s nanny was a hard working woman that worked her whole life to right the wrong she did raising Janie’s mother. Janie’s nanny worked hard to provide for Janie and once she found Janie outside flirting with Johnny Taylor she was sure that it was time to marry Janie off. I felt this quote was important because it shows one of the aspects of the relationship between Janie and her nanny. It plays a role in the book because the after facts of this quote starts Janie on a search for true love. “What need has death for a cover, and winds can blow against him.”
-84- At this point in the book when you come across this quote Janie’s second husband Joe Starks is very sick and dying. Even though Janie knows he is dying Joe thinks that he will get better. Joe is an insecure man who refuses to let Janie come into his sick room and visit him. I thought this quote was important because it comes from Janie. It shows how she feels about death. Death, a topic that no one wants to discuss yet Janie sums up what we all want to say in this one quote. To me this quote says that no one has protection from death and no one can stop death. I think it is important to the book because later on the book it shows a relationship between poeple connected to Janie and how no matter how she feels about the death will come. ”
They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” -161- This quote comes into play while Janie and Tea Cake are in the Glades getting ready to leave because of a hurricane. At this point Janie and Tea Cake have waited to late to leave and are trying to decide if they want to try and beat the water or just stay there. I found this quote important because it ties the title of the book in with the situations that occur in the book. They are sitting there and despite the situation around them they can still find security within each other and God. “So Ah’m back home agin and Ah’m satisfied tuh be heah. Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah Kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons.”
-191- As you read this quote Janie is talking to Phoeby after she has returned from the Glades. Jane has been acquitted of Tea Cakes murder, because it was self defense. In this quote Janie says that she has lived her life to her satisfication. By her saying she has been to the horizon and back and she can live by comparisons now I thought she meant that she had lived to one extreme to another.
By the time she got with Tea Cake she had, had two husbands. One who felt she could work just as anybody else and another who put her up so high on a pedestal that her hair couldn’t even be worn down. But then she found Tea Cake the man who was the median between them both. This quote is important because it tells how Janie felt after going through she had been through throughout her life and she felt that with it all she had accomplished what she wanted to and that was all that counted. “She called in her soul to come and see.”
-193- Once you finish this quote you have finished the book! To me this quote is deeper that it reads, because you read it, then you have to think about what it means. Some quotes are self explanatory while others require more thought. As i read the words around this quote I thought she was reflecting on the day her love died and the day she was in court yet that day in court her lover was very much alive within her. And he flew around her ans carried away the pain. However, she called herself in, her inner self to see everything she had become. “She called in her soul to come and see”, she reflected on her life and realized how life could change a person without even knowing.
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Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

Their Eyes Were Watching God Theme
worst— thing a human being can experience. In Zora Neale Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she tells of a young girl named Janie Crawford and her adventurous love life. She reflects the views of the Harlem Renaissance through Nanny, Logan Killicks, and Jody Starks, but separates herself from those ideals through Janie and Tea Cake. Power, specifically black power, was an issue of great importance to the Harlem Renaissance writers. Various characters in Their Eyes were Watching God have different notions about the best way to gain power in a white-dominated world. Nanny's idea is that her granddaughter should marry a wealthy man so that she doesn't have to worry about her financial security. When Janie…
Their Eyes Were Watching God: An Analysis
Men can come in all shapes and forms. They can turn your life around in a positive way or a negative way. Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a story about a women name Janie Crawford who is on a mission to find love. She has three different marriages in her lifetime and felt differently about each one. In “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Janie’s Three husbands have differences concerning Janie’s treatment, physical appearance, and true love One of the first differences Logan…
Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford lives a life that encompasses three different marriages as she seeks to find her purpose, independence, and freedom. She wants to avoid living in sorrow, bitterness, and fear. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie would have never found her true voice without Joe Starks. Joe was a scurrilous and controlling man towards Janie in their relationship. Janie did not always feel like she could speak up for herself, but as their…
Their Eyes Were Watching God Love
“Love is so elusive that it can seem like the quest to find it will never end.” —Anonymous. As humans, we know it exists because our surroundings displays it, but although the journey may be gloomy, we fall into the temptation of scrutinizing every corner of the earth in search of Love until one has reached a sense of contentment of what Love is about. Whether it is forced, a deceptive or authentic Love, it is still desired to feel the idea of the reputation of Love. The yearn of affection,…
Quest In Their Eyes Were Watching God
quester’s ability to carry forward with the journey and other times, tangible rewards and benefits are not reaped. Regardless, Mr. Foster wants us to keep in mind that such circumstances are not necessarily negative. Every quest is important whether you fail or succeed. Even if the protagonist fails to discover or complete their mission, they can still learn from his or her mistakes and tweak them. If all else fails, they still have that experience― a part of them that they can never forget and…
Darnell Martin is the director of the film and Zora Neale Hurston is the author of the book Their eyes were watching God. Each portray Janie in many different likes to fit the setting of their own time. This article will do a comparison and contrasted between both the director, author, and the charter Janie. Love, female pride, and social view are a few of the many points that both the director and the author are hitting on but with their own twist. Love through Janie in theory is suppose to…
Their Eyes Were Watching God Reflection
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a novel about Janie Crawford, an African American girl with white heritage, recalling her life since she left Eatonville, Florida. The book begins with Janie telling her story to her friend Phoebe. Starting at her childhood, Janie explains how she was raised by her grandmother and fills Phoebe in on the most defining events during that time. She explains how she found out she was not white like the other children she was around and recalls…
Their Eyes Were Watching God is Zora Neale Hurston’s most most praised enthusiastically work.This story in it's settings shows a tradition and gives a community its roots. The story starts out with Janie coming into Eatonville (after being gone two years) alone and in dirty overalls. The porch sitters all talk trash about why she is back in such a condition. She left when she married Tea Cake and went with him to pick beans. Janie is in her forties when she comes back but the story…
Their Eyes Were Watching God Language Analysis
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” (Zora Neale Hurston) In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is searching for new beginnings. Because of her multiple marriages throughout the book, she has many questions about herself and who she is, even if she doesn’t directly notice it. It is not until the death of her last husband, Tea Cakes, that she has found the answers and is satisfied with being her own person. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, and “How it…
Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Hurston
Mary Helen Washington critics the feminist opinions on Hurston’s writing in Their Eyes Were Watching God. The article discusses the feminist viewpoint on the main character, Janie. In the book, Janie is portrayed as being forced into the “female” role by her male counterparts. The feminist opinion, however, is that Janie isn’t the Leave It to Beaver wife, but instead a strong female character who knows what she wants in life. Washington analyzes Hurston’s words and believes that Janie isn’t the…
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A Gorgeous List of Their Eyes Were Watching God Topics

Zora Neale Hurston wrote the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” in 1931. The themes and plot of the novel were far from the common understanding of society in those days and were unfairly criticized. Today she is considered one of the most controversial and influential authors.
What is the significance of the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”? First, the story takes place at the very beginning of the 20th century. Despite the fact that slavery was already abolished, life for African-American people was still incredibly different from white people. The book is brightly enriched with vernacular of the regional dialect. Zora Hurston has created one of the first female characters to have defined herself through a man, and many American women were pleased to identify themselves with Janie Crawford.
Analytical “Their Eyes Were Watching God” topics
- Analyze one of the main characters. What actions and thoughts characterize them? How does the character contribute to the main idea of the story?
- What is the main idea of the story? Discuss the author’s purpose of the story and the central idea.
- Analyze the main themes of the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Consider destiny, God, faith, and sight. How does it benefit the overall plot?
- Analyze one symbol from the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Explain its meaning to the plot, setting, and relationship between characters.
- Analyze “Their Eyes Were Watching God” in the context of racism in the modern criminal justice system.
- Analyze “Their Eyes Were Watching God” in the context of the double-consciousness theory.
- Analyze the tone and literary style of Nora Hurston. Discuss how it influences the reader’s perception of the plot.
Essay topics for “Their Eyes Were Watching God” – about women characters
- Analyze Janie’s character from the context of freedom and detention. What are her motives?
- Explain how Janie’s experiences influence her development as a woman. Analyze her life from the very beginning.
- Compare and evaluate Janie’s three marriages: Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. How have these people influenced her understanding of herself?
- Can “Their Eyes Were Watching God” be considered a feminist novel?
- Describe gender stereotypes (both for men and women) presented in “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Does Janie meet those standards or not? Why?
- Analyze the text of the novel in the context of the identification of African-American women in the 20s and 30s.
- Explain why Janie hates Nanny. What has Nanny done to deserve her ire?
- Does Janie Crawford deserve to be admired for her accomplishments?
- Explain whether “Their Eyes Were Watching God” can be considered anti-feminist.
- Can Janie be regarded as an independent person? Why?
Compare and contrast topics in “Their Eyes Were Watching God”
- Compare and contrast “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “Good Kings Bad Kings.”
- Compare and contrast “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
- Compare and contrast “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple.”
- Compare and contrast the book and film adaptation of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (2005).
- Compare the characters of Daisy Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby” and Janie Crawford in “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
- Compare and contrast Janie’s three husbands.
- Compare and contrast the novels “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “Native Son.”
- Compare and contrast life stories of the author Zora Neale Hurston and the character Janie Crawford.
- Compare and contrast Chopin’s “The Awakening” and Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
- Compare and contrast the characters Jane Eyre and Janie Crawford.
- Compare and contrast the novels “Beloved” and “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” essay topics about plot
- Describe the central conflict in the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” How does conflict help the reader understand the story?
- What insights into societal issues does “Their Eyes Were Watching God” address? Describe the current problems at the time the novel was written.
- Describe how silence presents additional meaning to the story.
- Explain how race is explained in the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and whether it fits today’s society.
- Explain the motif of a mule in the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
- How does “Their Eyes Were Watching God” relate to the Harlem Renaissance?
- Explain the significance of the horizon, trees, and bees in the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
- What is the moral of “Their Eyes Were Watching God”? Explain.
Topics on “Their Eyes Were Watching God” about literary devices
- Explain how the setting helps develop the central idea of the story. How does setting affect the story?
- What language devices does the author use in the story? Pick two or three devices and analyze them.
- Define the role of dialog and questioning in the novel. Is the book addressed to the current or future audience?
- Explain the meaning of confrontational dialogues for the overall context of “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
- Explain the difference between narration and dialect used in “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
- Explain the meaning of the title. How does title relate to main themes of “Their Eyes Were Watching God”?
- Define and analyze folkloric elements in “Their Eye Were Watching God.”
- How does the author use the feeling of shame in “Their Eye Were Watching God”? How does this feeling help to explain the character’s experience?
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” analysis writing help
Even if you have read the book and highly appreciated the story, it may be tricky to find a good topic to write about. We hope that this list of topics on “Their Eyes Were Watching God” will inspire you with writing and your essay will positively impress your teacher. However, sometimes students face difficulties with arranging thoughts into a well-structured text. Get rid of your assignments with help from the writers at EssayShark. Just place an order on our page and receive a completed paper by the due date.
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- Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
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Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay
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Top 100 List of Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay Topics for Students
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Sep 15, 2021 | Topics | 0 comments
Zora Neale Hurston’s “ Their Eyes Were Watching God ,” tells the story of Janie Crawford, who rejects bitterness and fear in favor of love. The novel teaches readers lessons like those about marriage and other life experiences. However, some students have difficulty coming up with essay topics for their school assignments because they find it easy to read but difficult to get ideas from reading this book. You are here for one of two reasons. You either want to know what Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay Topics you could write about, or this is your third time reading the novel and now need help organizing ideas in a paper on it. What does Zora Neale Hurston intend by her story? One thing that has been made clear through careful analysis was how much she wanted readers to think critically while also being entertained with their Eyes Watched God theme song (The Ties That Bind). Some interesting Their Eyes Were Watching God essay titles include “Eroticism as Culture,” “Education’s Power Over Women Vs. Men,” or even “Zora’s Contributions To African American Literature.” As you read these various options, make sure to learn from them.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay Topics
- An intriguing Search in Their Eyes Was Watching God
- Contrasting setting in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Puzzling Symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Janie’s journey in Finding Her Voice and using it in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Essay on personification in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Their Eyes Were Watching God: is silence a thing to Be Valued or questioned?
- Their Eyes Were Watching God: The tenacious Power of Will
- Universal Themes of Manhood in Nora Zeale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God”
- Voice and Language style in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Partiality in Their Eyes Was Watching God
- Freedom Through the Pursuit of longings in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Essay on Gender Inequality in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- The jurisdiction of Possibility in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston
- Finding Hope to cope in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Janie and the Pear Tree’s significance in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Themes in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Analysis Of The characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- The significance of clothing in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Janie’s Self worth in Their Eyes Was Watching God
- Searching for one’s true Self in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.
- Dynamism in Their Eyes Was Watching God
- The use of personification in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Seraph on the Suwanee.
- Janie’s Search for Identity and self-acceptance in Their Eyes Were Watching God.
- Essay on subtle racism in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Independency in Their Eyes Was Watching God
- Unveiling identity in Hurston’s Their Eyes Was Watching God
- Janie’s Courageous stance in Their Eyes Was Watching God
- The Different settings in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
- The imagery of the tree in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Seraph on the Suwannee
- Use of Litotes in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston
- The painful Growth of Janie in Their Eyes Was Watching God
- The obstacles in Self-Realization in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Love and its consequences in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God: Whose eyes were Watching God according to the novel?
- Their Eyes Were Watching God, and its comparison to Oliver Goldsmith’s she stop to conquer
- Janie’s Epic Journey Of Love in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Fulfilling responsibilities in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Slavery and Marriage similarity in Their Eyes were Watching God
- Awakening And Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Janie’s terrible life Experiences in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.
- Language and style in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- The reality in Their Eyes Was Watching God
- Consequences of Betrayal in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Janie’s imperfect Marriage in Their Eyes Was Watching God
- Ships at a Distance: Dreams and longings in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- The analysis of Janie’s Life in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Perceptions of Relationships in Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Deadly risks in Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Free Literature Review On Their Eyes Were Watching God
Type of paper: Literature Review
Topic: Love , Relationships , Social Issues , Marriage , Women , Family , Experience , Tea
Published: 02/20/2023
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In “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Zora Neale Hurston explores the theme of love through her main character, Janie. An attractive African American woman, Janie is the object of desire of men around her and she becomes physically involved, through marital relationships, with three of her pursuers. Along her journey as a woman married with three different men, Janie experiences two failures and one success in love. She learns the absence of romance, from her first marriage, the emptiness and frustration of a façade relationship, from her second marriage, and the passion and intensity of true love, from her third marriage. In her first marriage, Janie was forced by her grandmother Nanny to espouse Logan Killiks, an older man seeking a wife to help him around his farm, rather than a romantic relationship. Before marriage, Janie had an idealistic vision of love, inspired from the relationship of bees with the pear tree. “the thousand sister – calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight” (Neale – Hurston 15). Although these expectations seem to reflect Janie’s naivety, they nevertheless last across all her three marriages, as she seeks to experience the ecstatic experience of love. The second marriage is where Janie experiences the psychological abuses of dominating husband who wants to change her personality, making her the product of his imagination, while aiming to squeeze out her real individuality. From this relationship Janie learns that love is more important than a social status or financial security, because she was not happy as the wife of Joe Starks, the mayor of Eatonville, but on the contrary, gathered frustrations for being an obedient wife. She understood from her failed marriage with Starks that she should not put aside her expectations about romantic love for the accommodating the projection of a selfish man who wanted to show off with her, as her grandmother would consider appropriate (Neale Houston 109). Looking at Janie’s third marriage, with Tea Cake, there can be visible a maturity in terms of perceiving love. She finally feels the shivers of the ecstatic love that bees share with the pear tree are finally, as she allows herself to fall in love with the young man. But this time she was the one experiencing love, not observing it from the manifestation of nature. From her marriage with Tea Cake she learned that love was not only honey and sweet nectar, as she had imagined when she was younger. She understood that love was a mix of intense feelings, comprising jealousy and commitment, possession and trust. “He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self – crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place” (Neale Huston 155). After Janie’s third husband and first real love dies, the woman becomes independent and defines love in a more experienced way. “Love is lak the sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets” (Neale – Houston 230). Her failures and success in love makes her aware of the true nature of love, beyond idealization. Despite two failed, without love marriages, she feels the thrills of real love with Tea Cake, feeling more alive than ever. The fact that she experienced true love makes her self – confident and strong, feeling self – sufficient even in the absence of a man to love.
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Janie, the protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, is often identified as a feminist character. While she is certainly an independent woman who believes in the equality of the sexes, Janie does not lead a typically feminist existence throughout the novel.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel by Zora Neale Hurston that was first published in 1937 . Summary Read our full plot summary and analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God, chapter by chapter break-downs, and more. Summary & Analysis Chapters 1-2 Chapters 3-4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapters 7-8 Chapters 9-10 Chapters 11-12 Chapters 13-14
Critical Essays Major Themes of Their Eyes Were Watching God. The most prevalent themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God involve Janie's search for unconditional, true, and fulfilling love. She experiences different kinds of love throughout her life. As a result of her quest for this love, Janie gains her own independence and personal freedom ...
Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God shows the Southern black women not as the weak and submissive slaves of their husbands, but rather, Eyes traces the development of Janie as the independent black woman.... Nature's Role in Their Eyes Were Watching God Anonymous Their Eyes Were Watching God
The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story of one woman's growth as a person physically, emotionally, and intellectually while on a journey for life fulfillment. Throughout the novel a theme illustrating the value of finding true love and friendships rather than material... Their Eyes Were Watching God Topics:
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, author Zora Neale Hurston shines light on to the harsh reality of the life of an African American woman during the early 20th century. Women of this time were accustomed to feeling silenced and powerless by their male counterparts. This idea especially pertains to protagonist, Janie Crawford.
"Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, is a tale about a woman who finds her true self all while living amongst men in her life. This book while very educational in the ways of racism and feminism, it is also rich with symbolism.
In Zora Neale Hurston's contemporary novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she displays the fight between freedom and societal pressures. The author illustrates the struggles black women face growing up in the mid-thirties when discrimination and unequal rights existed.
Their Eyes Were Watching God I. Major Characters: A. Janie Crawford: persistent, resentful, dreamer Janie Crawford is the character whom the book revolves around. She is a strong young black women with long straight hair. She is 16 years old at the beginning of the book.
English 1010 10:10 Their Eyes Were Watching God (15) In the movie Their Eyes Were Watching God, there was a statement "The woman is the mule of the world." This statement means that women are overlooked, and overshadowed by their husbands and other men. They work just as hard, and contribute a lot to what they work on; however, the men are always given the credit.
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New Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God. Search within full text. Get access. Cited by 2. Edited by Michael Awkward. Publisher: Cambridge University Press. Online publication date: March 2011. Print publication year: 1991. Online ISBN: 9780511570346.
The Imagery of Creation Myths in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a Novel by Zora Neale Hurston Using Vernacular to Reflect Self Image in Jean Toomer's Cane and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God Wright's Critiques on Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay Questions
In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, included historic messages that she lived through. Zora was born in Florida in 1891 and was a daughter of two former slaves. Her dad became a pastor for their local church. In the 1920s, Zora found herself in Harlem, New York, where her art became successful.
In Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the characters' perception of God varies, and some of them do question God.. One character who has a particular view of God is Janie ...
In "Their Eyes Were Watching God", Zora Neale Hurston reveals the importance of gender roles and their place in African American culture during the 1930's. In Chapter 6, Hurston displays the importance males exhibiting superiority their female partners and their attempts to force them into roles of subservience.
1) Janie, on her gossiping neighbors, stressing the importance of storytelling and oral tradition: "Ah don't mean to bother wid tellin' 'em nothin', Pheoby. 'Tain't worth de trouble. You can tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf" (6). 2) Janie, to the men ...
In Zora Neale Hurston's book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she tells of a young girl named Janie Crawford and her adventurous love life. She reflects the views of the Harlem Renaissance through Nanny, Logan Killicks, and Jody Starks, but separates herself from those ideals through Janie and Tea Cake. Power, specifically black power, was an ...
When the experience under the pear tree is reconciled with her family history and story, it becomes a moment of freedom, a moment that she discovered peace and happiness. Works Cited Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print. Larsen, Nella and Carla Kaplan. Passing. Print. Cite this page
1 Analytical "Their Eyes Were Watching God" topics. 2 Essay topics for "Their Eyes Were Watching God" - about women characters. 3 Compare and contrast topics in "Their Eyes Were Watching God". 4 "Their Eyes Were Watching God" essay topics about plot. 5 Topics on "Their Eyes Were Watching God" about literary devices.
Starting an essay on Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God? Organize your thoughts and more at our handy-dandy Shmoop Writing Lab. Menu. Log In. Their Eyes Were Watching God ... Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay. BACK; NEXT ; Writer's block can be painful, but we'll help get you over the hump and build a great outline for your ...
Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God," tells the story of Janie Crawford, who rejects bitterness and fear in favor of love. The novel teaches readers lessons like those about marriage and other life experiences. However, some students have difficulty coming up with essay topics for their school assignments because they find it easy to read but difficult to get ideas from ...
In "Their Eyes Were Watching God", Zora Neale Hurston explores the theme of love through her main character, Janie. An attractive African American woman, Janie is the object of desire of men around her and she becomes physically involved, through marital relationships, with three of her pursuers.