Summary Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

During the early decades of the twentieth century, opportunities for women to speak up and share their voices were extremely limited. A defying woman of the era, Zora Neale Hurston, found an opportunity for her voice to be heard through her writing. At the Literary Awards Dinner in 1925, Hurston made a flamboyant entrance when she walked into a room of crowded people and shouted the title of her famous play: “Coooolor Struckkkk!” Clearly, Hurston proved she was not afraid to speak out and let her voice be heard. In her book Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston demonstrates many factors can influence a person’s decision to speak up or not by charting Janie’s relationships with those around her. Janie’s first experience of her voice

After Janie leaves Killicks, Starks takes her to Florida to start a new life together and to establish the first colored town. At the beginning of their relationship Janie is convinced she has fallen in love with Starks for his charisma and confidence. However, Janie soon comes to realize that Starks’ true nature is pursuing his lifelong goal to become a “big voice” (Hurston 28). To achieve control and power, Starks soon becomes misogynistic and commanding of Janie and the townspeople. When Starks is elected mayor and the townspeople ask Janie for a speech, he interjects before Janie can answer and diminishes Janie to his conception of a woman’s place in society. Starks robs Janie of her voice and she begins to lose her sense of identity when he demands her to tie up her hair, not indulge in story swapping, and remain in the store. Ultimately, Janie realizes that her voice has no value to her husband and that “he’d keep on fighting [for her submission] until he felt he had it” (71). Janie does not gain independence and truly voice her emotions until Starks is close to death. Janie finally confronts her husband on his deathbed and embraces her voice when she tells him that he is “Too busy listening tuh [his] own big voice”