Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
Awkward, Michael. Inspiring Influences: Tradition, Revision, and Afro-American Women's Novels. New York: Columbia UP, 1989: 1-56.
Janie gains a "double consciousness" from her husband Joe Starks, an inside and outside self, that she later merges after she learns of the black culture and its wisdom. This book believes that Janie "achieves a powerful and independent cultural voice as a result of her experiences." Through Janie's story telling to her friend Phoeby, Janie "discovers her own soul...thus intimating the artist's responsibility to, and dependence on, the larger community." Janie's inside and outside selves are united as one towards the end of the novel and she pulls herself into the horizon that she has dreamt about since she was young. Janie no longer views the universe or herself as divided and her human existence is understood in terms of physical, spiritual, and interactiveness. She unifies her "double consciousness" into a unified black sensibility.
Bartkowski, Frances. Feminist-Utopias. University of Nebraska Press. 1989.
Bartkowski writes that, over the ages, women have used language to instill a sense of self as a subject. Feminist theory is more concerned with power to rather than power over, that is, it deals more with personal control than dominance. Janie shows that she has power over her life through the language that she uses.
Callahan, John F. "`Mah Tongue Is in Mah Friend's Mouff': The Rhetoric of Intimacy and Immensity in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Modern Critical Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. 87-113.
Callahan examines two aspects Janie's personality: her battle to control her life and her fight to have a voice that would be heard and respected (90). Her search for identity and her voice are intertwined within the story. Without her ability to speak her mind she felt empty and useless. When she met Tea Cake he allowed her to try new things and say what she thought. She was even stronger than she imagined because of the death of Tea Cake, at her own hands, only made her a tougher woman. The emphasis on storytelling and thoughts being verbalized is one of the most important and liberating themes within the book, as portrayed in her conversation with Phoeby (93). When she spoke her mind and interacted with others through her feelings and thoughts, like Tea Cake and Phoeby, she began to find her identity with her community and an irrevocable bond with herself.
Cataliotti, Robert. The Music In African American Fiction.Garland Publishers. New York. 1995.
Cataliotti feels that more "black speak" enters Janie's speech after she meets Tea Cake. Tie believes that this is an indication that Janie accepts her identity, and because of this is more self aware and happier.
Chinn, Nancy. "Like Love, `a moving thing': Janie's Search for Self and God in Their Eyes Were Watching God." The South Atlantic Review. 60.1(1995): 77-95.
Janie stands up to Joe and recognizes a part of herself which results in an ability to speak for herself. Janie finds her voice because Hurston believes voice "is an instrument to the soul" (page83). Janie gains liberation as the novel progresses and she becomes spontaneous, in control of herself and her relationships, and a new found freedom is felt between God, the community and herself. Love, self, and God are major components of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston created the book to address things that we do not understand.
Christian, Barbara. Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers. Pergamon Press, 1985.
Janie is the conventional tragic mulatto in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Through her childhood stories told to her by her grandmother and through what happens to her as she grows up, she begins to see her world for what it is. Janie searches for her a means to clarify and harmonize herself. Janie does not want to be isolated from her people and she wants to get to know herself. She searches for meaning and finally understand that it was all in front of her, she just needed to understand it.
Christian, Barbara. Black Women Novelists. Greenwood Press. London. 1980.
This book concentrates on the black woman in relation to her community. By studying this relationship we can asses the individuals cultural values. By looking at Janie's relationship with her community we can better determine her values, and therefore her sense of self.
Conjured Into Being: 2 NH's Their Eyes Were Watching God Web Site. http//splavc.spjc.cc.fl.us/hooks/zora.html, 1998.
Janie is considered to be Zora Neale's "counterpart". Both women wanted the "horizon and to see what the end of the world was like." Janie discovers integration within herself and also how important it is to gain and learn knowledge personally. Janie achieves wholeness at the end of the book because of her courage and integrity tat she had throughout her life.
Davies, Kathleen. "Zora Neale Hurston's Poetics of Embalmment: Articulating the Rage of Black Women and Narrative Self-Defense." African American Review. Volume 26 Number 1 (Spring 1992): 147-159.
Davies' article primarily discusses what she calls embalming. She took the term from Hurston's autobiography, and states that it is Hurston's strategy for dealing with the oppression of black men on women. Davies touches on the risks and problems black women face when dealing with black men. She says women fear being judged for their actions against men, as in the case of Janie's trial. Next, Davies discusses the role of Nature in the novel and in Hurston's life. Davies states that Hurston uses Nature as a primary means of employing her embalming strategy. Davies then links Nature and embalming through the scenes in Their Eyes like the mock funeral of the yellow mule, the buzzards mocking the mock funeral, the hurricane, and Tea Cake's contraction of rabies. Davies says Nature protects women from the oppressive black men by punishing them for their treatment of the women.
Davies' view of Tea Cake is slightly different from most of the other authors in this annotation. She depicts Janie and Tea Cake's life and problems with abuse on the muck as synonymous to the fall of Adam and Eve in Eden. When Tea Cake hits Janie, he ultimately betrays her dreams. He is punished in the hurricane, and dies at Janie's hands when she defends herself. After he is dead, the so-called embalming process begins. This entails Janie forgiving and forgetting specific incidents in their relationship and her life in order to reaffirm her realization of her dreams. She wanted to view Tea Cake as her ideal lover, and a significant part in the discovery of herself. Janie is thus transformed from a dreamer to a self-assured and strong woman.
Dubey, Madhu. Black Women Novelists and the Nationalist Perspective. Indiana University Press. Indianapolis. 1994.
This book relates some of Hurston's own feelings on black solidarity. She felt that there were only individuals, no black solidarity. I found this of interest to my focus because it forced me to look at Janie as an individual apart from her community, even from her own race. It made me see her as a woman first and foremost.
DuPlessis, Rachel Blau. "Power, Judgment, and Narrative in a Work of Zora Neale Hurston: Feminist Cultural Studies." New Essays On Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Michael Awkward. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990. 95-119.
This essay focuses on the issues of gender, color and sexuality surrounding the main character, Janie. The sensuality of the novel begins on the first page when her body and hair are mentioned and continues with Janie's mysterious sexual rendezvous under the pear tree. Janie is at first upset to learn she is black but by the ending she has "pierced the darkness" of her embarrassment or ignorance of her race in order to accept her color and possibly become the individualistic woman she wants to be. Janie uses her voice, as well as her "thinking silence," to gain power and independence. Janie finds gender color and sexual freedom with Tea Cake but Hurston allows her to kill him so she can be free from any outside influences of obstacles that might get in the way of her independence.
Evens, Elliot. Race, Gender and Desire. Temple University Press. Philadelphia. 1970.
Evens argues that in most black literature written around the time that There Eyes Were Watching God delt with the heroic (or anti-heroic) aspects of black males. There Eyes Were Watchinq God, on the other hand deals with the personal development and freedom of a black female. Evens stresses that the language used by Janie asserts her presence in the novel and exemplifies her development.
Ferguson, Sally Ann. "Folkloric Men and Female Growth in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Black American Literature Forum. Volume 21 Number 1 (1987): 185-195.
Ferguson's article discusses the struggles of black women. Janie's quest for love leads her to the three marriages in her life. The men she marries each represent a separate folkloric stereotype, and all have their effects on Janie's ability to express herself and think independently. Ferguson depicts these men as antagonists to Janie, therefore driving her to become strong and willing to defend herself. However, as in the case of Tea Cake, her life was thoroughly enriched by some of her experiences. Janie lived a full life and came away with some harsh and realistic conclusions, but many memories.
Halloway, Carla. The Character of the Word. Greenwood Press. New York. 1987.
Halloway discusses Hurston's voice as a writer. She compares Janie's voice with Hurston's. She feels that language was integral in reflecting Janie's "voice".
Hemenway, Robert. "The Personal Dimension in Their Eyes Were Watching God." New Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990. 33- 36.
Hemenway acknowledges an interesting point of the story including the yellow mule and how it relates to Janie symbolically. The yellow mule is given a funeral, is accepted as part of the town and even indirectly is part of the conversation in the town. The mule represents the "culture" that Starks will not allow Janie to be a part of because it is beneath her. Hemenway points out that even the buzzards could take part in this event by eating the mule's dead flesh but Janie was reserved for a role even lower than that of the scavengers (43). Both of these animals, the buzzards and the mule personify human characteristics and represent liberation for Janie. Interestingly, the buzzards can talk and the mule is discussed like a human which helps Janie find her voice to retell her incredible story of failure and success.
Holloway, Karla F.C. The Character of the World: The Texts of Zora Neale Hurston. Greenwood Press, 1987.
Nature and Janie are paralleled in Their Eyes Were Watching God to show who is to come to self-actualization, thus complimenting Janie. African mythology often shows this to enable a character to be surrounded by truth that they will eventually recognize. Janie gains knowledge of herself and what her actions have meant to her realization of womanness.
Holloway, Lillie. Alice Walker and Zora Ne ale Tiurston - the Common Bond. Greenwood Press. 1993.
This books tells the now classic story of how Alice Walker rediscovered Hurston. It compares the work of these woman writers. According to this book the language that the characters use is important as a mark of identity. Janie's voice (the language she uses when she speaks, not her inner "voice") and when she chooses to use it are a very crucial markers in Janie's personal development.
Jordan, Jennifer. "Feminist Fantasies: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. 7.1(1988): 105-117.
The main theme of Jordan's article is the relationship between Janie and Tea Cake. The two ideas addressed are 1) Their marriage is an example of male-domination, resulting in Janie's killing of Tea Cake being an ultimate lash out against her oppression, and 2) Their marriage is a liberating experience based on their equality and ability to think freely. Jordan draws attention to every female-female relationship in the novel. Although the novel seems to fail to meet some criteria set by black feminists, emotional and economic dependence are nevertheless important issues.
Kalb, John D. "The Anthropological Narrator of Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Studies In American Fiction. 16 .2(1988): 169-180.
This article discusses who the narrator is in Their Eyes Were Watching God and how it changes through out the book. Janie has changed her personality at the end of the book and becomes a spectator/narrator as she retells her story to Pheoby. While Janie explains her story, she begins to fully understand her place in the culture she has helped to create.
Krasner, James. "The Life of Women: Zora Neale Hurston and Female Autobiography." Black American Literature Forum. Volume 23 Number 1 (Spring 1989): 113-126.
Krasner's article compares women's dreams and their structure in Hurston's autobiography and Their Eyes. He states that women structure their histories or autobiographies not on ambitions or material success, like men do, but rather on fiction. Krasner feels that Janie's dreams and desires are designed around a male model. He points out that most critics describe Janie as fulfilling her ambitions and dreams, which is in accordance with the male model. Throughout the story, Janie revises her ideals and dreams as they are not fulfilled in her marriages. Logan failed to make her happy, and Joe represented, at the time, a chance for change. However, Joe treated her as a possession which boosted his appearance, and Janie was forced to eventually lash out against him. From here, Krasner views Janie's relationship with Tea Cake as an emotional necessity because she has a fulfillment-oriented view of happiness.
Janie thinks of Tea Cake as the ideal man for her so she can fulfill her dreams. This Tea Cake could possibly never even existed according to Krasner. Janie has, in a sense, become like Joe because she needs verification of her success. Krasner states that, "Hurston has written a novel in which a woman tries to tell a man's story but ends up telling a woman's story in spite of herself." (125)
Kubitschek, Missy Dehn. "`Tuh De Horizon and Back': The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Black American Literature Forum. 17.3(1983): 109-115.
Janie is on a search for her identity and how her community connects to her. Janie is a strong woman on a quest that Hurston wrote with artistry. Janie gains self realization throughout the novel with each passing event that happens to her. Hurston wrote in a "folk process" involving behavior influenced by action. There are many narratives in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Individual and community are renewed and constructed in this novel.
Kubitshek, Missy Dehn. Ed. Harold Bloom. "`To de Horizon and Back'": The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Modern Critical Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Chelsea House, 1987.19-33.
Kubitshek states that social interaction is important in the quest for inner peace, and ironically Janie finds herself only after she has run from the confinements of society. Janie ran from the hopelessness of the town and Nanny's predictions to find a life that more resembled her pear tree with Starks. This proved to be a disastrous, oppressing marriage that caused Janie immense stress and grief. When Tea Cake comes along, his "self-reliant" buoyant nature entices her to leave her community. Yet at the end of the book she returns to her hometown, after experiencing the difficulties of life and finds resolution in telling her story to Phoeby. So, being independent is the key to Janie's happiness but community is a vital source that need to be a part of the growing process.
Kubitschek focuses on Janie as a questing female heroine while citing an array of criticism that either ignores this aspect of Janie's character or supports it in some way. She uses Joseph Campbell's components of a quest to examine Janie's journey, which she claims ends with a return to community. This source is valuable in that it cites many other critics' views on Janie's handling of violence in relationships, the narrative structure of the novel, and Janie's motivation and reaction to her own plight.
Levecq, Christine. "You Heard Her, You Ain't Blind: Subversive Shifts in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. " Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. Volume 13(1994): 87-111.
This article initially praises Janie for her importance as a black feminist character. Levecq then introduces her idea of "subversive shifts" which undermine the text. She addresses the issue of self-division, which Janie experiences during her marriage to Starks. Janie is viewed as self-defeating by going along with Starks' low image of her. In these situations with Starks, Levecq cites some contradictions in the way Janie thinks. Levecq ultimately states that through discrepancies and Janie's failure to really find her identity, Hurston introduced the very complex idea of identity itself.
Marks, Donald. "Sex, Violence, and Organic Consciousness in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Black American Literary Forum. vol. 19. (1985) Winter: 152-157.
Marks concentrates on the four relationships of Janie, her first sexual experience and her three marriages. He states that Janie's relationships can be divided in to categories: "those of passion and those of control" (152). The two passionate relationships are with Johnny Taylor, her first love and Tea Cake, her third husband. These two relationships allowed Janie to be herself and explore her sexuality and voice. The two controlling marriages with Starks and Gillicks tried to squash the vivacious Janie into a submissive, dainty wife. These latter two experiences make Janie feel alone, worthless and incarcerated while the former to make her feel liberated and content.
Janie comes back to Eatonville as a stronger woman who has "been there and knows". She is an independent woman who has lived on her own and knows how to take care of herself. She has learned and gained knowledge from her experiences on the muck, with her relationships, from herself, her feelings, her memories, her soul, and in her youth. Her horizon (her life) is "pulled in" and wrapped around her at the end of the book signifying the Janie's peace and knowledge that she has gained herself through her "experienced consciousness".
Mathiri, N.Y. Zora!. Orlando Sentinel Press. Orlando. 1991.
This book relates Hurston's relation to the real Eatonville and Janie's relation to the Eatonville of fiction. It demonstrates that Hurston reflectd her own relation and development in the fictional life of Janie. Language and communty were very imoportant to Janie's development.
Meisenhelder, Susan. "Ethnic and Gender Identity in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Teaching American Ethnic Literatures. Eds. John R. Maitino and David R. Peck. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996: 105-117.
Meisenhelder focuses on the identity of Janie's character. She starts by discussing the young and confused Janie when she was known as Alphabet. Janie's ideals are stomped on in her marriages to Killicks and Starks. Critics have varying opinions on her relationship with Tea Cake and its bearing on her identity. The discrepancies are about Janie's complete liberation.
Pryse, Marjorie. "Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and the "Ancient Power' Of black Women." Conjuring. Eds. Marjorie Pryse and Hortense J. Spillers. Indiana University Press, 1985: 12-15.
Both the men and women of Eatonville see Janie's strength when she returns from the mucks. The townspeople want Janie to "fall to their level" one day and hope that with gossip and cruel questions it will happen. Through Janie's self revelation and her story telling to Pheoby, however, she gains an understanding of herself and sees how she has developed physically and emotionally from all of her past experiences. Janie is as much as the author, Hurston, making "artistic self-consciousness" through her story telling and therefore gains a full grasp on her self-consciousness at the end of the novel.
Racine, Maria J. "Voice and Interiority in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." African American Review. Volume 28 Number 2(1994): 283-292.
Voice is obviously the major topic in this article. Racine looks at the evolution of Janie's voice throughout the book. She draws a parallel between Janie's growth in her voice and the men she encounters in her life in the South. Starting with Johnny Taylor, Racine points out the feelings inside of Janie, focusing on her fantasies of love and passion. Janie then marries Killicks, and enters a completely different relationship with him. Janie is depicted as a "mule" for Killicks. He and Janie both work together, but neither can express their true feelings toward one another, stressing a lack of voice in both characters. Janie finally takes a giant step forward in her journey toward self-enlightenment when she decides to leave Killicks when she runs off with Jody Starks. With Jody, Janie's voice is stifled by his refusal to let her speak, or even associate, with the townsfolk. Janie stays with Starks for many years, enduring the mental torture of her silence, and she develops an inside voice which Racine refers to as "interiority." Starks dies, and Janie is forced to become more independent, despite her comfortable social and economic situation. This sets the stage for Tea Cake. He and Janie live an intimate married life in which neither hold anything back. Janie has learned to use her voice and to express herself, and the idea of voice is solidified through Janie's ability to repeat her adventures to Phoeby.
Racine focuses on Janie's four relationships (including her innocent affair with Johnny Taylor) and the emotional growth and development of voice that Janie undergoes as a result of her relationships. She places Janie's lust for material wealth as the central reason for her running off with Jody. She uses the issue of voice and how the Janie's voice and those of her male counterparts are express throughout the story. Racine, in her argument for the evolution of Janie's voice, however, concentrates solely on the effect that her relationships with males has aided in this. Contrary to many critics' arguments, she sees Janie and Tea Cakes relationship as one of mutual respect and equality.
Spillers, Hortense J. "A Hateful Passion, A Lost Love." Feminist Issues in Literary Scholarship. Ed. Shari Benstock. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, Inc.: 181-207.
Spillers has a slightly different outlook than what I have seen in other writings. Spillers finds what appears to be some fault in the flow of Janie's self discovery. She points out that throughout the story, Janie has taken rebellious stances while growing in strength, coming to a head when Janie must defend herself from Tea Cake. Spillers feels the ending detracts from Janie's development as a character. Janie once was adventurous, but now she returns to Eatonville, the site of much emotional turmoil, apparently not motivated to continue her search for identity and voice. Spillers is obviously at odds with Hurston's ending, and states, "The promise to seize upon the central dramatic moment of a woman's self-realization fizzles out in a litany of poetic platitudes about as opposite to Janie's horizon as the grandmother's obsessive fear of experience has been." (196)
Stein, Rachel. Ed. "Rerooting the Sacred Tree: Nature, Black Women, and Voodoo in Zora Neale Hurston's Tell My Horse and Their Eyes Were Watching God." Shifting the Ground: American Women Writers' Revision of Nature, Gender, and Race. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1997. 53-83.
Stein examines the voodoo symbolism in Their Eyes Were Watching God as well as the comparison of women to animals and the sexuality of a woman. The pear tree is a voodoo representative of Janie's sensuality, using paradoxes to describe it such as "dawn and doom" (73). It also represents her rejection of Nanny's sexist perspective. Another voodoo symbol is the intermingling of sexual and sacred, found in the pear tree scene. Often men compare women to animals to be used for the purposes of men or society. The identity of Janie is defined by men but is not accepted or practiced by her. Her sensual, stubborn attitude is original and can not be subdued by the society or town. It is a mixture of these components-sexism, symbolism and sexuality-that show the reader how strong Janie really is.
Walker, S. Jay. "Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God : Black Novel of Sexism." Modern Fiction Studies. Volume 20(1975): 519-527.
Walker defines the aims of liberation organizations in the first section of his article. He explains the idea of black women having their "place" or roles in Black Nationalist organizations. From here, Walker ties in the struggle against sexism which Janie fights. Her marriages are analyzed for their oppressive content, and, in Tea Cake's case, their role in Janie's growth and identity as an individual.
Washington, Mary Helen. "I Love the Way Janie Crawford Left Her Husbands: Zora Neale Hurston's Emergent Female Hero." Sweat. Ed. Cheryl Wall. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. pp. 193-209.
Draws parallels between the criticism Hurston endured and relates it to Janie's lack of voice in Their Eyes Were Watching God. "Not only are Janie and the other women barred from participation in the ceremonies and rituals of the community, but they became the objects of the sessions on the porch, included in the men's tale telling as the butt of their jokes, or their flattery, or their scorn" (196-7). This idea is a carryover of not only her young life in Eatonville, but of the reaction of her male contemporaries to her work.
Washington, Mary Helen. "The Black Woman's Search for Identity". Rev. of Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. Black World. Aug. 1972: 68-72.
Washington explores three main aspects of the novel including the dialect of the "Black rural life," the fact that the main characters are all black, and Janie's quest to find her "identity within the black culture" (68). The language helps the reader to relate to the black culture and helps us to understand the novel better. In addition, using an all-black town allows the focus to be on the relationships of the characters instead of racial politics between blacks and whites. Furthermore, Janie's constant search for her true self is fulfilled when she comes to terms with her "Blackness," a sin that neither Starks or Nanny would have approved of (72).
Weever, Jaqueline. Mythology and Meta-phor in Black Women's Fiction. St. M artin's Press. New York. 1991.
Weever writes about the importance of the language in the metaphor of Janie "s life being like a tree. It shows that Janie has reached the pinnacle of her personal development. The book can reach a satisfying end.