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Themes and Symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Leafy couldn't bare to raise her rapist's child and ran away, leaving Nanny to raise Janie and be her only caretaker.
        
        Men have physical and sexual power over women in the novel and choose to use said powers and the patriarchy to exploit young women and cause physical and emotional trauma.
  - - - Janie's Money
        
        Tea Cake takes money from Janie without her knowing to fuel his gambling addiction and to pay for a luscious dinner for his fellow railroad workers, which Janie was not invited to. Tea Cake's taking of Janie's money without her permission and allowing her to worry if they'd been robbed showcases his immaturity. He is naive to the power he has over her as a man, exploiting it without realising he is doing so.
      - Physical Violence
        
        Tea Cake and Janie both become jealous. Tea Cake is jealous at the men "making passes" at Janie (218), and Janie is jealous over the women "taking out" after Tea Cake (218).
        
        Tea Cake's jealous manifests into him whipping Janie to "relieve that awful fear inside him" (218). It is also stated, "Being able to whip her reassured him in possession. No brutal beating at all. He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss" (218)
        
        Janie is being physically punished by her husband for the actions of other men. Janie suffered physical abuse at the hands of Starks, so for Tea Cake, the love of her life, to be displaying the same characteristics is unhealthy.
        
        Although it is not rape or sexual violence, Janie is a victim of physical abuse under Starks and Tea Cake, which is what Nanny strove so hard to prevent from happening.
        
        Tea Cake's jealousy is taken one step further with his possession of the pistol. He is jealous that Mrs. Turner's brother is back in town.
        
        Tea Cake aims the gun at Janie, his "suffering brain urging him to kill" (272), which makes Janie reach for the rifle.
        
        Although his illness is to be accounted for in this situation, and how it made Tea Cake become so violent and murderous, it is more likely than not that his jealousy may have resulted in such a similar fate without his illness. Before this tragedy, his jealousy had made him physcially violent towards Janie.
        
        Tea Cake could have been the reason why Janie was killed if she hadn't of defended herself. I believe that his illness from the bite emphasized his jealousy and violent tendancies towards Janie and they did not begin with the illness. Men believing they are allowed to hold such unjustifiable emotions towards women, resulting in such traumatic behaviours directed towards the women, displays every type of power men use over women.
  - - - Being Silenced
        
        "Mah wife don't know nothin' 'bout no speech-makin'. Ah never married her for nothin' lak dat. She's uh woman and her place is in de home" (69)
        
        Starks forces Janie to adopt a traditional role within their relationship, stripping Janie of her voice within their relationship and as her own person. Starks, especially with his role as mayor, has such control and power over Janie vocally that he is not shy in engaging with.
        
        "For women, silence has crossed every racial and cultural boundary; and silence characterizes Hurston's Janie, who spends the first forty years of her life learning to achieve her voice against the opposition of men" (283). Racine, Maria J. “Voice and Interiority in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” African American Review, vol. 28, no. 2, 1994, pp. 283–92.
      - Physical Violence
        
        "He slapped her face in the kitchen [...] He slapped Janie until she had a ringing sound in her ears" (111-112).
        
        This is perhaps the action that makes Janie realise that marriage is nothing what she had expected it to be as a young girl, and that marriage and having a husband means nothing unless there is love and respect. Starks uses physical violence as a method of putting Janie 'in her place' and trying to mould her into a silent wife.
- - - - "Growing up in America with an ethnic name means you constantly have to be ready to give up some part of your heritage to make yourself more palatable to schools, jobs or even just people you meet in passing." Why getting ethnic names right matters
        
        Black people and Asian people anglicize their own names to have better opportunities in terms of jobs, university applications and tenancy agreements.
        
        Tea Cake is also referred to as "Jim" by two white men during Chapter 19 of the novel, to which he says, "Mah name ain't no Jim" (251). This is a racial stereotype employed by the white men to showcase the power they have over Tea Cake.
        
        Janie's identity as a black woman being erased by a white family presents ethnic names being made a mockery out of because theyre 'hard to pronounce' or 'hard to spell' which is a microaggression that people of colour still face today.
  - - - Readers find out that Nanny was raped before the end of the Civil War by a white master and fell pregnant with Janie's mother, Leafy.
        
        Nanny does not want Janie to fall victim to this vicious cycle, especially not to a white man as it happened to her.
  - - - She attempts to befriend Janie because of her "coffee-and-cream complexion" and her "luxurious hair" but "didn't forgive her for marrying a man as dark as Tea Cake" (209)
        
        Mrs. Turner "paid homage to Janie's Caucasian characteristics as such. And when she was with Janie she had a feeling of transmutation, as if she herself had become whiter and with straighter hair" [216]. Janie is 1/4 white; the fetishization of mixed people is not a new discovery yet is still extremely inappropiate, especially as it is obvious Mrs. Turner is projecting her unhappiness with being African-American onto Janie.
        
        "It’s impossible to see the rise of mixed beauty ideals as a positive thing, because at its heart sits an unsettling insistence on white superiority." Why celebrating ‘mixed-race beauty' has its problematic side
        
        "It is a sad and sobering fact to realize that color – how dark or light you are perceived as being by a prospective partner, who most likely is someone of your own race – sometimes determines who in our communities is deemed deserving of romance." Why black people discriminate among ourselves: the toxic legacy of colorism
      - Mrs. Turner is against her own community: "Ah jus' couldn't see mahself married to no black man. It's too many black folks already. We oughta lighten up de race" (209).
        
        During such a time like the Harlem Renaissance, where African-American culture, identity, music, literature and theatre were beginning to flourish in a white-centric society, this divide within the black community is unbelievably detrimental to the progress that was being made in the 1930s.
  - - - He is forced to start burying bodies in the "white cemetery" and the "black graveyard" (252); a dichotomy is presented to uplift white people but degrade black people, the word "graveyard" is harsh and dark juxtaposed against the light and holy "cemetery".
        
        Tea Cake is then told to examine the bodies he's burying to find out if they are white or black, as coffins are being made for the white folk while the black corpses are being buried in holes and sprinkled with quick-lime.
        
        This explicit racism is the reason why Janie and Tea Cake decide to go back to the Everglades; there is no remorse, mourning or respect for African-Americans in the South in death, their bodies cannot even be buried in peace.
        
        Racial segregation is even apparent in death, as if segregation amongst living African-Americans was not enough. This Jim Crow era of legislation and segregation came to an end under President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 with the signing of the Civil Rights Act. 400 years since slavery: a timeline of American history.
  - - - Instead of her own people, it is the white women that cry and "stood around her like a protecting wall" while "the Negros, with heads down, shuffled out and away" (280).
        
        This exemplifies a solidarity between Janie and the white women; they provide a sense of community for her after she suffered such a traumatic event that she couldn't process before being put on trial.
- - - - Janie's third and last husband. Tea Cake shows Janie that there can be love in marriage, along with respect and equality.
        
        Janie "finds herself glowing inside" (146) after meeting Tea Cake, opening herself up to the possibility of love and marriage again after two loveless and underwhelming marriages.
        
        The symbol of hair is again present in this relationship, but in a juxtaposing way from its use in Janie and Starks's. Tea Cake sings Janie to sleep and she wakes up with "Tea Cake combing her hair and scratching the dandruff from her scalp" (156). Janie's newfound freedom after the passing of Starks is in Tea Cake's hands, yet he is seen to nurture and be gentle with her hair. Tea Cake is not intimidated by Janie having her own voice within this marriage and he encourages equality between the two of them.
        
        Towards the end of the novel, Tea Cake's love for Janie saves her life, but at the cost of his own. When faced with the wild dog, Tea Cake "split the water like an otter, opening his knife as he dived [...] Tea Cake finished him and sent him to the bottom to stay there" (245-246). Tea Cake races to protect Janie from any harm that the wild dog could cause because he values her life over his own, which results in him being bitten by the dog, contracting rabies, and being shot by Janie in attempts to save her life.
        
        The circumstance of Janie having to fire the rifle at Tea Cake as a means of self-defence is descibed as "the meanest moment of eternity" (273). At her trial, she testifies that she "hadn't wanted to kill him" and that "she made them see how she couldn't ever want to be rid of him" (278). Their love is insurmountable; Janie does love him any less although he grew jealous in his last moments and had kept a loaded pistol to shoot her. Janie remembers that Tea Cake showed her true, unconditional love, and she will remember this subsequent to his death.
    - - Janie's second husband. During her marriage to Killicks, he promises her a life much fuller than the one she was currently living, which Janie takes.
        
        Jody becomes Mayor after their marriage and it becomes clear that he did not marry Janie because he loved her, but rather to control her and have her appear as one of his accessories for his success.
        
        The motif of hair within the novel is seen through Janie and Starks's relationship: "Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn't seem sensible at all" (86).
        
        Starks is arguably one of the novel's most dominating and controlling charatcers, who sees young, beautiful Janie as an ideal woman to be a Mayor's wife. Her hair symbolises her freedom and her identity as not only a woman, but an African-American woman. Starks's control over this physicality of hers represents the complete control he attempts to have of her.
        
        Starks demolishes Janie's childhood perception of love and marriage. While Killicks was a lesson for Janie about not being able to love people because you want to, Starks ruins Janie's ideas of marriage even further. She is forced to be submissive and has no voice in this marriage. She says, "The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired" (111).
        
        Janie believed Starks's initial promises and thought she was leaving one loveless marriage to restart in a loving marriage, but both relationships restricted her voice and she was not shown the love she wanted. The ideology that a wedded bed is a "daisy-field" highlights Janie's immaturity, signalling that it is her relationship with Starks that makes her lose hope in having a happy, loving marriage.
        
        After 20 years of marriage, Jody dies. This frees Janie of such a cruel marriage. She "tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there" (135). Her hair now begins to symbolise her regaining her freedom as she is no longer under the jurisdiction of Jody; she is allowed to make her own choices regarding her hair and her appearance.
    - - Janie's first husband. This is an arranged marriage as Nanny doesn't want Janie to meet the same fate as her and Leafy.
        
        Janie initally believes she will grow to love Logan: "Yes, she would love Logan after they were married [...] Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant (38)."
        
        The harsh realisation that Janie can't love Logan solely because they're married comes shortly after. She claims that, "Some folks was never meant to be loved and he's one of 'em (42)." Janie is distressed about her situation and comes to terms with the fact that sometimes, marriage and love do not coexist.
        
        When Jody Starks appears down the road from Janie and Killicks's farm and tells Janie that he "wants to make a wife outa [you]" (50), she jumps at the opportunity to escape her loveless marriage with Killicks.
  - - - Nanny "saw Johnny Taylor lacerating Janie with a kiss" (26), which makes Nanny aware of this maturity shift within Janie.
        
        Nanny belives Janie ought to be married straight away as she is now a "woman", which results in her first marriage to Logan Killicks.
- - - - This establishes a relationship between the readers and Janie through narration. Readers are able to watch Janie mature and learn valuable life lessons while also watching as she goes through the good elements of life and the bad elements. We are able to know Janie's truest emotions, even if she does not outwardly state them, making her feel very human and relatable.
- - - - "She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her [...] So this was a marriage!" (24)
        
        The pear tree and bees symbolise the harmony of nature, with the pear tree acting as a representative of Janie's own sexuality.
      - Janie describes Tea Cake as, "the love thoughts of a woman. He could be a bee to a blossom - a pear tree blossom in the spring" (161).
        
        Janie has left her marriages to Killicks and Starks unfulfilled and defeated. Tea Cake being described as the pear tree shifts the symbolism; Tea Cake is now the epitome of Janie's sexual attraction. There is natural passion and chemistry between the two, no matter Janie's reservations about his age.
        
        This also accentuates that Janie is growing up; the pear tree is not solely tied to her adolescent sexuality with her first kiss, but it is the representation of a woman who can experience sexual attraction and is able to determine what is appealing to her. Her sexuality is not solely hers, but her and her partner's. She is able to have her sexuality and sexual attraction within her marriage to Tea Cake, which is what she had been deprived of in her previous marriages.
  - - - "De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see." (29)
        
        The first mention of the mule is Nanny telling Janie that black women are low thought of and are viewed as unintelligent yet worked hard. This use of power, and Nanny's wording, is perhaps due to Nanny's experiences in slavery, surrounded by white supremacy where such derogatory statements would have been said to her.
      - "Ah needs two mules dis yeah [...] dis man Ah'm talkin' 'bout is got uh mule all gentled up so even uh woman kin handle 'im." (46)
        
        Here, the mule is used by Killicks to suggest Janie is to carry the burden of labour around the farm. Janie is pitted against Killicks's first wife, who was eager to help around the farm. This is an unfair comparison as Janie contributed to the labour of the upkeep of the house. The mule is used to suggest that Killicks associates Janie as a mule-like figure, someone he can degrade yet put to work involuntary.
      - "Dat mule so skinny till de women is usin' his rib bones fuh fuh rub-board, and hangin things out on his hock-bones tuh dry." (83)
        
        The mule is starved and mistreated, mirroring that Janie is starved of love and affection within her marriage to Starks. Janie feels immense pity for the animal, and Starks buys it, becoming a town saviour. The mule is now an emblem for freedom. Starks can understand mistreatment when it comes to an animal, but not when it comes to his wife, who is in servitude to him.
  - - - "Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon." (50)
        
        Janie knows that Starks freeing her from her marriage to Killicks is not going to result in the perfect, admirable relationship that she wants, but he could be the beginning of something better than she has. Starks, at this point in the novel, fully represents the possibility of new love and hope romantically for Janie.
      - "Nanny had taken the biggest thing God had ever made, the horizon - for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you - and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter's neck tight enough to choke her." (138)
        
        Nanny had taken Janie's possibilities at true love when forcing her to marry Killicks. She felt restricted by Nanny and did not have a say in her own marriage. Threatening the horizon, or Janie's dreams, was a tremendously hurtful thing to do.
      - The last lines of the novel: "She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder." (286)
        
        By the novel's end, the symbolisation of the horizon shifts. While it still carries weight of possibilites, dreams and opportunity, it has also began to symbolise self-acceptance. Janie takes pride in her own story, although it is littered with heartbreak and disappointment, the lessons she has learned make her appreciate that it is her story and hers alone.
        
        She ends the novel with how she starts: alone. Nanny has died, she left Killicks, and Starks and Tea Cake are both dead too. Her journey symbolises her growth, and how she only has herself in the end.
  - - - "The wind came back with triple the fury, and put out the light for the last time. 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." (236)
        
        Janie, Tea Cake and the other bean field workers are face-to-face with the hurricane, not having reached high enough ground on time. They realise that the only help they can get from such an uncontrollable natural force is from God himself.
      - "This sickness to her was worse than the storm." (259)
        
        The symbol of unjust suffering is evident here, as Janie is referring to the rabies that Tea Cake contracted whilst saving her from the wild dog during the events of the hurricane.
        
        Tea Cake becomes increasingly jealous, hiding a pistol to shoot Janie with. She finds it and unloads it, but is forced to draw a rifle on Tea Cake as he points the pistol at her. She fires in self-defense, killing Tea Cake, who was only bitten by the dog to save her.
        
        Without the hurricane, none of this part of the plot would have happened. This showcases that nature is unpredictable and good, innocent people may suffer at the fate of such natural disasters. This teaches Janie that the world works in cruel ways, but that she has no control over nature and the natural balance of life.