Journal #4

            In the final chapters of Their Eyes Were Watching God, author Zora Neale Hurston focuses on the deterioration of Janie’s relationship with Tea Cakes. By the end of the book, the readers can see that Janie’s journey of self-discovery has finally come to an end. Through her many experiences, with equal amounts of joy and sorrow, she has finally matured into a grown woman with personal voice and self-identity.

            In these last chapters, splinters and cracks can be seen slowly breaking up the happy couple’s relationship. The major incident of Tea Cake beating Janie to show dominance reveals his insecurity, the first major flaw the readers see in Tea Cakes, although he passes it off as an attempt to insure his power. “Ah beat her tuh show dem Turners who is boss (page 148).”  The event also reflects Janie’s developing identity. In the first chapters of the book, Janie’s silence is attributed to fear of the oppressive powers of the men in her lives. Now, her silence is implied as strength and power to remain silent to satisfy Tea Cakes’ need for control.

            These final chapters also start to reveal the significance of the title “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. In the end, I believe Hurston is saying that life does not take in distinctions such as class, gender, and race into consideration. Beneath it, we are all the same, and are all vulnerable to the powers of God. In Chapter 18, the striking hurricanes symbolizes the power of God, tearing through everything regardless of distinction of groups. Janie’s eyes are watching God because she knows that it is in fact God that is controlling the life of all, and it could all be taken away in an instance. Such incidences reveal the insignificance of society’s squabble over irrelevances of distinction. In Chapter 11, Janie describes the “gift” of Tea Cakes as “a glance from God (page 106)”. This life-changing opportunity presented to Janie is only described as a mere glance for God, and once again, this reflects our unimportance compared to God.

            This book opens up the question of identity. It made me wonder whether identity is determined by our surroundings or the level of our courage to break through presented obstacles? I believe that it is a combination of both. In order to be able to persevere through conflicts, there has to be problems already in existence. It is through these conflicts that we build new experiences and discover ourselves.

            In some ways, this story reminds me of the poem I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou in the sense that the two birds described in the poem reflect Janie in her two different states. The “fearful bird” can be compared to Janie in her earlier days, her “wings are clipped and feet are tied” by the dominating men in her lives. She “sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still” – this is a metaphor of Janie and her longing for personal voice. The “free bird” symbolizes Janie in her days with Tea Cakes, when she has finally found the love that longed for, and she “sings of freedom”.