Their Eyes Were Watching God 1-60g

1)

(Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out o sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dream mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.) Page 1

This is the opening paragraph of the story, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This is a statement made in generalities. Hurston has grouped together all men, making them all one and the same. The significance of the ships is a connection to the sea and previous earthly exploration. The sea is said to be a mysterious place, filled with creatures unable to breath air, a different way of life entirely. Only those living in the sea can understand the meaning of life underwater. The ships are connected with earthly exploration because when the New World was discovered, men were sailing in ships, doing all the work on the sea. Just like in the Navy, the sea was no place for a woman at this time. The ships, and the sea is a way of life only men can understand, just as the underwater creatures understand the sea. They are the same. No coincidence then, that Poseidon, God of the Sea, was a man.

The meaning of the wishes on board is that some men’s dreams come true, while some men have to accept defeat and let go. If the ships come in with the tide, they’ve done so for a good reason. The men who’s dreams are brought to them are of great importance and the ships have heard of them. These men have made a name for themselves so the ships actually have a reason to come in. Men who just sit and watch, have no need for the ships, so they look away after a realization. If men don’t dream, or dream of the wrong thing, their wishes won’t come to land. Maybe they already have their dream, or maybe they just aren’t enough man to chase it.

2)

(…women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.) Page 1

In this passage, Hurston states that women have all the know-how in the world. Women obviously know what they know is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God. Basically, if there is any question on if something happened was good or bad, the women would know. If I ran to McDonalds in the snow, and the middle of day, naked, women would know if that was a good or bad thing. Even if they don’t know why it happened. They don’t have to know why, they just know. They get to pick and choose their memories.

Strange then, if they can pick and choose memories and yet, what they know is still truth. If I did go running naked in the cold, they could easily forget it and say it never happened (except that with me, the chicks dig it. They don’t forget the Danny ;). So now, that didn’t happen. Truth be told that didn’t happen! Why? The women said so, so it’s true now. But of course what they didn’t know is that I ran there naked in the cold because I gave my clothes to a hobo family and was running to McDonalds to get cheep food for all of them. Not such a bad thing right? But now it never happened because the women said so…and thus the battle of the sexes begins…

3)

Or main character is Janie Starks. She is a beautiful, black woman with some flaw. What flaw, we do not know yet. The story starts out, and Janie is being judged by everybody. (What’s she doin coming back here in overhalls? Can’t she find no dress to put on? Where’s dat blue satin dress she left here in? Where all dat money her husband took an died and left her? What dat ole forty year ole ‘oman doin’ wid her hair swingin’ down her back lak some young gal? Where she left dat young lad of a boy she went off here wid? Thought she was going to marry? Where he left her? What he done wid all her money? Betcha he off wid some gal so young she ain’t even got no hairs, why she don’t stay in her class?) Page 2. They do not know what happened to her, that she has come back home a changed woman. It seems Janie hasn’t told anybody anything, and she is okay with them making their crazy assumptions.

From what they all say about her in this passage, I see a woman of beauty none can match, a black stallion, lounging in dirty, torn overalls smokin’ a bowl on a hammock as a way of presenting the world a big F U/Spondee. Something happened to this woman, and now she has no desire to search out a fine man to fill her life. She has everything she needs, and while others just don’t understand, she has life all figured out. Simplicity is the way to true happiness, and this woman is simple. She has no money, no nice clothes, no man, no worries.

4)

(…you know if you pass some people and don’t speak tuh suit ‘em dy got tuh go way back in yo’ life and see whut you ever done. They know mo’ ‘bout yuh than you do yo’ self. An envious heart makes a treacherous ear. They done ‘heard’ ‘bout you just what they hope done happened.) Page 5

This is a great quote. If people don’t know your business, they’ll look for it if they really have nothing else going on. People who do this are sad little bitches. One person’s life really isn’t anybody else’s business, but sometimes people have no business and seek out drama. This is unfortunate, but also can be fun for some. Janie chooses not to tell people of her past and lets them think what they want to think. Why? Probably because she knows her business is her business, and nobody has to know anything. She is a woman, and Hurston clearly stated that woman forget what they don’t want to remember; this woman, whatever happened to her, didn’t happen. So she has nothing to tell people. They can make up whatever they want to make up, and none of it would be true because to Janie, nothing happened.

There isn’t a lot I can say on the subject pass what has been stated already because I am unaware of the events between Janie and Tea Cake. I can predict she was being controlled by him, and wanted some control herself, so she killed him and is now laying low. What a great way to take control. Maybe Tea Cake was control, and she had to take it because she had none. No sense in trying to make any sense out of them, a woman is a psycho-hoe’s-beast.

5)

(…Sam say most of ‘em goes to church so they’ll be sure to rise in Judgment. Dat’s de day dat every secret is s’posed to be made known. They wants to be there and hear it all.) Page 6

This is why people make odd assumptions of other people’s business. They want to know what happened because the suspense has just been killing them. The rise in Judgment is relevant to the Last Judgement, or the end of the world. Every secret is known, and it causes people to go crazy. People shouldn’t know everything; some doors are better left closed.

6)

Okay, I’m just going to say it, Janie and Pheoby make out. They totally kiss each other, and whatever else. There is proof on pages 6 and 7:

(…Dat’s just the same as me ‘cause mah tongue is in mah friend’s mouf…

…if they wants to see and know, why they donn’t come kiss and be kissed?...

…They sat together in fresh young darkness close together. Pheoby eager to touch and feel Janie…

…Pheoby, we been kissin’-friends for twenty years…)

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. She’s obviously bangin’ hott and I bet Pheoby isn’t a total cow.

7)

(…Tea Cake is gone. And dat’s de only reason you see me back here—cause Ah ain’t got nothing to make me happy no more where Ah was at. Down in the Everglades there, down on the muck.)

This is the all we know about the situation between Tea Cake and Janie. She told this to her partner Pheoby, and this is all she’s told anybody of it. Now, I thought the Everglades were nice. Why then, does she find no happiness there? Tea Cake obviously wasn’t very entertaining, but he must have been worth suffering the Everglades. We need to know more about her and Tea Cake to understand why she was down on the muck.

8)

Janie is not like every other person. She never knew either of her parents, and had to learn things on her own, for nobody was there to teach her. Her grandmother raised her, but controlled her mind. Janie is one of the most beautiful women put on this Earth, yet she stands out from even the rest of the pretty girls. She has a good heart. She knows how good she looks, but she never uses it to her advantage. She’s just another one of God’s creations in her mind, and everyone around her is equal. That is, before she meets them and can judge her thoughts on them. What separates Janie from the rest of the pretty girls is that Janie isn’t a bitch, and that she doesn’t take things for granted. She can see that people don’t have much to live on because she is one of them.

Another thing is that she is black, and didn’t know it until a picture she took with her friends as a young girl. She looked at the picture and didn’t see herself in it. It wasn’t until she asked, “where am i?” everybody laughed and then Miss Nellie pointed to the black child and said, “that’s you”. She had thought she was the same color as all the other children. Nobody was there to teach her about races.

9)

(Oh to be a pear tree—any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. Where were the singing bees for her?)

Janie is at a rebellious age now and so many more questions are coming into her head. None of which can be answered at home, Janie knows she wants to search for the answers. She wants to live! She is getting older, probably a little bit horny, and maybe even wants to cause a little trouble. She is a girl with daddy issues, this is normal for teens like her. She is “waiting for the world to be made.”

There are questions she asks throughout pages 10 and 11. How? Why? What? How? Why? Where? When? How? This is all that’s going through her head at this point and she wants to have experiences. She needs an adventure.

10)

(Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie Ah’m a cracked plate.)

This is grandma talking. She doesn’t want Janie to go off and do all those things she knows she wants to. Grandma was a slave woman and even had to hide with Janie from General Sherman in his March to the Sea. This is a direct allusion. Grandma worked so hard to give Janie what she needed to survive, and to keep her young an innocent. Now that she is growing up, she’s not so young, and isn’t as innocent.

Janie was caught kissing a boy on the fence late one night. Her grandmother saw her kissing Johnny Taylor. Janie was yelled at, and told she wasn’t acting like a woman. She replied, telling her grandma she doesn’t want to be a woman. She wants to stay young. Her youth is her freedom, and in youth, she can explore her curiosity of the world. Grandma wants her to marry right away. Janie doesn’t like this idea because grandma wants her to marry Logan Killacks. Janie doesn’t love Logan, but she does marry him for her grandmother.

This is how controlling her grandmother is, she can make her marry against her will. She is not the only controlling force in Janie’s life in the story, but she is the first and foremost.

11)

The First Marriage

Janie is married to Logan Killacks at this point. This is her first marriage and she doesn’t know for sure what to expect. She has been told, “Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant. It was just so. Janie felt glad of the thought, for then it wouldn’t seem so destructive and mouldy. She wouldn’t be lonely anymore.” She keeps thinking of this Pear Tree, and what it would be like to lay under one with her love just to pass the time, happily.

But it seems that Janie isn’t doing her part in the marriage and Logan may not put up with it. “…He ain’t kissin’ yo’ mouf when he carry on over yuh lak dat. He’s kissin’ yo’ foot and ‘tan’t in uh man tuh kiss foot long. Mouf kissn’ is on uh equal and dat’s natural but when dey got to bow down tuh love, dey soon straightens up.” This makes it seem like Logan is doing everything he can to please her and she isn’t really doing much in return. She doesn’t kiss mouth or foot, and she isn’t happy with him.

Grandma dies, and with her, a part of Janie dies too. With the passing, Janie ends up finding out that marriage doesn’t make love, and she is done with Logan Killacks. “Her first dream was dead, so she became a woman.”

12)

The Second Man

Logan Killacks isn’t the pleaser he was in the beginning years of the marriage. Janie saw their relationship fading. Logan says he is to go in to town to get another mule. He wants one for him and another for a woman to work through the year. It doesn’t sound like he’s coming back into her life. Right when he leaves, a new man comes into the story. His name is Joe Starks and he gets quite the introduction. He wears a suit, and he has a way of leading people. Something about his face makes others want to follow in his beliefs.

Joe and Janie sit and talk for a while under a tree. This is significant to her dream of marriage with the image of the Pear Tree. Janie feels this man would make her happy. So then Logan comes home and Janie hints that she wants to leave. He then goes off on how no man will want her so he isn’t worried about her leaving. Of course, she wasn’t lying and she does leave him for Joe Starks and they move down to an all colored town where Starks would become mayor. The town they come to live in represents the time of the Harlem Renaissance.

13)

(What was she losing so much time for? A feeling of sudden newness and change came over her. Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south. Even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good.)

This is a reference to the way women deal with problems in the beginning pages of the story. It was stated right off the bat that women forget things they don’t want to remember because what they know is the truth. They must believe the truth, so by forgetting something ever happened, there is no proof, and it is no longer true. Why this works for them, I will never understand. But Hurston, in this book, seems to think that what women know is true, is true indeed. So now she never married Logan Taylor…just like that.

14)

The Second Marriage

(It must have been the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything one way or another that took the bloom off of things…she went down the road behind him that night feeling cold.)

This marriage won’t last long. Joe is a man who will do things for the good of mankind. He makes his name known. Janie feels proud of him, but is lonely. Her husband becomes a workaholic and she knows there is a storm coming.

Joe ends up being another controlling force in Janie’s life. She is always to help out around the store. He tells her what to do, when and how to do it. All day, every day. He is the boss, and everybody listens to him, even Janie. Janie is a Pear Tree Girl. That is, she wants to sit and lay under a tree and talk, just to pass the time. She doesn’t want to grow up and have responsibilities. Joe is forcing them upon her for becoming so big among the people. His fame is then represented through her, and she has to be something she is not in order to depict his magnitude the way he needs it.

15)

We’ll walk in de light, de beautiful light

Come where the dew drops of mercy shine bright

Shine all around us by day and by night

Jesus, the light of the world

This is a song sung after the lighting of the first lamp in a black town. This is a big moment in history, just as it is a big moment in the storyline. This short song represents light as a symbol of life. It is a motivational message; let your light shine on, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there with what you truly believe is right. This is what Janie needs to do. She is being controlled so much and she needs to be more independent, not listen to so many people, and shine her light.

16)

People start to grow envious of Joe Starks, but nobody could fill his shoes. They like what he is doing for the town, but begin to think they are being taken advantage of. (…how could they know up-to-date folks was spitting in flowery little things like that?) At this moment, a little order turns into chaos. (It was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could be so different it put you on a wonder.) There is some racism going on here, but it’s within one race. There are no white people in this story really, this makes it really harsh. Not only are black people beginning to loose trust within their own race, but they then start to feel a little crazy what with everybody hatin’ on each other.

People begin to turn on Starks (…he’s de wind and we’se de grass. We bend which ever way he blows…He’s got uh throne in de seat of his pants…he’s uh man dat changes everything, but nothin’ don’t change him)

17)

(The town had a basketful of feelings good and bad about Joe’s positions and possessions, but none had the temerity to challenge him. They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down.)

Comparison between the town and Janie maybe?

The town, and Janie both have the same feelings towards Joe Starks. They love him, but they hate him. They can’t live with him, but they can’t live without him. Joe brought them so much product and order into their town, and he has become such an important person. Janie has to be what he is to some extend. She is acting as a first lady in this town, and from what we know about her, she just wants to sit under an apple tree, this is too much responsibility for her to handle, and she is being forced into it. Joe has her working in the store a lot too, more than she wants to be in there. He even goes as far as forbidding her to indulge in conversations about the mule because (He didn’t want her talking after such trashy people.)

18)

(Abraham Lincoln, he had de whole United States tuh rule so he freed de Negros. You got uh town so you freed uh mule. You have tuh have power tuh free things and dat makes you lak uh king or something….Yo’ wife is uh born orator, Starks. Use never knowed dat befo’. She put jus’ de right words

tuh our thoughts.)

Matt Bonner’s yellow mule is the subject of ridicule among the people of Eatonville. When Joe Starks frees the mule by purchasing it from Matt, there is a moment of triumph for him because the people didn’t like to see the animal abused. However, his victory is wrecked because his wife finally grew a pair. Janie mocks him in a speech comparing him to President Lincoln. Hambo quickly shows his appreciation. This is a moment in the rising action that fuels the drift in Janie’s marriage to Joe. His jealousy will not allow him to be upstaged by his wife. (Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’…Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s a woman and her place is in de home.)