Novel
Summary
By: Kelsi Stephenson
Their
Eyes Were Watching God is a novel by Zora Neale Hurston from 1937 about a young
black woman on a search for her own independence and freedom. Hurston begins in
the present, portraying a little Floridian town in the early 20th century at
dusk, while a group of women talk on a front porch. A woman, in a demeanor far
different from there’s, approaches and moves on to their house and they
instantly begin gossiping about her. They slander how she wears overalls now,
and how she run off with a young man, and how different she is now. A woman
from the group, Phoeby grabs some food and goes over to this woman’s house and
begins to talk with her. The woman’s name is Janie and she is a close friend of
Phoeby. From here, the bulk of the novel begins, as Janie reveals her life
story to Phoeby.
After
Janie was born, her mother ran off and abandoned her to be raised by her
grandma. Her grandmother and her lived with a white family and were treated
well. Janie didn’t understand her skin difference as a little black girl until
kids later on pointed it out to her and made fun of her for living with the
white folk. Because of this, her grandmother moved out into their own home. Her
grandma pounded the ideals that she believed in, about God and about a woman’s
role in the world, into Janie’s life. Right off the bat, as Janie was only in
her teens, she was married to a well – off man who she didn’t love and couldn’t
love. She had the expected household duties and she felt overworked and
limited. One day, a man walks by her house and sees her and they begin talking.
They start seeing each other more and eventually, Janie runs off with this man
– Joe Starks. They move to a town called Eatonville, one of the first all –
black communities in Florida. Joe Starks is a man who gets what he wants and
has the power to do so. He becomes the mayor of Eatonville and holds a highly
respected status in the town. He also wants Janie to be known as a highly
respected woman, so she is supposed to hold a status of a proper woman. Besides
helping run the store that her and Joe own, she isn’t supposed to participate
in any of the town activities. Joe says that the common people are below her
and she has to maintain her reputation. Janie feels more and more limited in
her relationship and in life. Her soul longs for a freedom and an independence
that she never felt in her first marriage, and that she expected to feel in her
second marriage. But no, with Joe, she is just as limited. Although she has a
position of respect as the mayor’s wife in Eatonville, she doesn’t get to
experience life in all its fullness. Her and Joe’s relationship deteriorates
even more as Joe grows old and sick fast, losing his physical power. He
projects his negative feelings about himself and his appearance onto Janie. As
time goes on, she speaks out for herself a bit more, only yielding even more
negative consequences from Joe. When Joe finally gets to his deathbed, he
refuses to see Janie. One day, she decides to break the boundary and go in to
speak her mind and reveal how selfish their love has been. She lets out all her
feelings and at the end of it all, Jody dies. At this moment, Janie feels free.
She is sad for Joe, but not sad that she lost him. Sad that he lost himself.
Now with him gone though, Janie is liberated. She lets her hair down for the
first time. Jody made her keep her beautiful hair bundled up, so no other man
could covet it. The hair, throughout the novel, continues to represent her
state of freedom. Now that Joe is gone, her hair is gone, and her soul feels
free. She goes through the basic mourning procedure at first and continues to
live life as normal. She runs the store with a little bit of help and doesn’t
look for any suitors to marry. People begin to talk about Janie, and when a
young man named Tea Cake starts hanging around the store, the gossip only gets
worse. Janie stops caring so much what people think of her. Tea Cake takes
Janie around town, fishing, showing her card games – all the things Joe said
were below her. She is finally experiencing life fully. She participates in the
conversations and antics of the common people. She loves in a way she never
loved before.
Tea
Cake and Janie soon decide that they will leave Eatonville and get married. She
takes a train and meets Tea Cake in Jacksonville. She carries $200 with her in
her dress but the next day, she wakes up to find Tea Cake and her money gone.
Janie goes the day worrying that she is a fool. She is an older woman who got
played by a young, poor man who only wanted her money. She worries all day
until Tea Cake comes home. He explains how he found her money and used it, he
felt like a big man, a rich man – something he’s never experienced. He helped
people and put on a party with strangers. He promised to make it up to her,
because he was an expert gambler and could get it back. Tea Cake’s character
seems a little shady at this point. It seems like he could be just a foolish
young guy who would ruin Janie’s life.
Janie
and Tea Cake decide to move to the Everglades, and as their life there
continues, it is apparent that Tea Cake isn’t going anywhere. They work on “the
muck” together, harvesting the beans in the glades and making friends with the
other workers. The two of them become a very popular couple, interacting with
everybody. Janie learns how to shoot a gun and becomes a better shot than her
teacher, Tea Cake. Card games are played and relationships are built. Janie and
Tea Cake’s love continues to be strong, liberating, and ever-growing. Even
after bouts of jealousy occur between them and the other workers, they overcome
and learn how to trust each other and love each other better.
Seasons
pass and soon, predictions of a hurricane are on the muck. The Indians go to
high ground and many of the people in the town flee, fearing the storm. Janie,
Tea Cake, and some of their close friends decide to stay, not thinking it will
be anything big. They stay up long into the night, gambling and having fun.
Eventually though, the storm begins, and the lake overflows with the pounding
rain. They stare to the sky, to the door, into the darkness – together, but
alone with God. Janie, Tea Cake, and their friend, Motor Boat, continue to move
on to higher ground and find a house to stay in. As they get some rest, Janie
wakes up and sees that the lake is coming closer to them. Her and Tea Cake
decide to leave, but Motor Boat doesn’t believe the water will reach the house
and stays to sleep. They move on, braving the storm and struggling to get
through it. The floodwaters grow high and they almost lose each other. As Janie
gets lost in the flood, she grabs on to the tail of a cow swimming. A dog sits
atop the cow and the dog is vicious, ready to kill Janie. Tea Cake swims out
and kills the dog, but not without getting bit. They eventually make it to
land. The next day or two, they hang around the town they washed up in and
watch the people pull together after the storm. Tea Cake goes out to town and
is put to work gathering bodies and burying them. Janie thinks Tea Cake has
gotten lost, or something worse, until he returns that night and they decide to
go back to the Everglades.
Upon
their return, they find Motor Boat, alive and well. The lake never washed away
the house they had been staying in and he slept through the rest of the night
in peace. Their little community begins to pick itself up and put back together
the pieces of what was ruined. Unfortunately, Tea Cake begins to feel sick.
Sick beyond belief. He begins choking in his sleep and can do nothing but lay
on the couch. He won’t drink the water Janie brings him, he believes it’s
tainted. Yet when he goes out to get water for himself, he still chokes. The
doctor takes a look at him and knows what has happened – the dog that bit Tea
Cake was rabid. There is no help for Tea Cake, rabies can’t be cured that late.
The doctor recommends Janie brings him to the hospital to pass, but Janie knows
he would rather be at home. No one tells Tea Cake that he is rabid and destined
to die. His condition worsens and his aggression increases. Janie finds a gun
under his pillow and begins to worry what might happen. For safety, she keeps
her gun basically put together and loaded, just in case the worst happens. She
also whirls the cylinder of the gun, as this six shooter had only three loaded
chambers. As she approaches Tea Cake later that day, he accuses her of being
unfaithful and lying to him. She tries to calm him, but it’s no use. The mad
dog in Tea Cake has taken over, and he wants to kill whatever’s closest. He
holds the gun out, and intermittently in conversation shoots three times, until
the fourth when Janie shoots her shotgun simultaneously with the pistol. Tea
Cake was killed, and his shot at Janie went past her. She cradles his head, sad
for the way he had to go.
A
trial is held almost immediately, and although all of Janie’s old friends see
her as a killer, the jury doesn’t put her in jail. The kill was self – defense
and justifiable. Yet again, Janie doesn’t care what people think about her
after her husband’s death. She mourns the way she needs too and eventually, her
friends come to forgive her. They understand the situation and, if only for
their great love of Tea Cake, they let it go. After Tea Cake’s death, the muck wasn’t
the same, so Janie returned to the town of Eatonville.
Here,
Hurston brings the story back to present tense, with Janie explaining her story
and where she’s been to her good friend Phoeby, from Eatonville. It makes sense
to Phoeby now why Janie feels the freedom to wear overalls instead of dresses
now, to work instead of be proper, to wear her hair down instead of up. She
feels no need to be limited or conform to people’s expectations of her. Janie,
after three marriages, multiple towns and homes, and a full life, doesn’t feel
the need to be what people want her to be. She is free. There, the story ends,
as Janie reflects on her love of Tea Cake, and as she invites her soul to meet
her and her feelings in freedom.
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