Literary Analysis On Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston used three different husbands to show how Janie’s definition of love and marriage evolved. With her first marriage, she learned that love doesn’t automatically grow after marriage. In the second marriage, Janie learned that love could be confining and eventually ruin a relationship. The third and final marriage taught Janie that she needed to depend on herself rather than someone else for contentment. Janie’s view of love and marriage changed over her life and she learned important life lessons along the way.

In the beginning, Janie believed that marriage had the feeling of pear trees and flowers. That love would come once you were

She was with someone who she actually loved and she felt that she needed nothing more. She believed that Joe would show her the pear tree feeling, after all she did have feelings for him. “‘Ah’m uh man with principles. You ain’t never knowed what is was to be treated lak a lady and Ah wants to be the one tuh show yuh…’” (Hurston 29). Even Joe said that he wanted to treat Janie right. They both started a new life in an incomplete town. Joe took the lead, trying to get the government and town to boom. When others did not show leadership, Joe became mayor of the town, acquiring most of the power. When Joe was elected, a man asks for Janie to make a speech. Before Janie could even speak, Joe cut in and said, “‘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 uh women and her place is in de home’” (Hurston 43). This was the first sign that Joe was restrictive because he believed that Janie should be treated like property more than an equal human. Joe treated Janie like she was a piece of art that should be looked at and admired. Joe eventually built a two story house in which Janie and he lived. The house was much bigger than any of the other houses in the town, making the impression that they had a lot of power. Since Joe insisted that he was such a busy man, Janie was forced to work in the shop.