Their Eyes Were Watching God Book Report

Synopsis (Detailed paragraph): Their Eyes Were Watching God is centered around the life and experiences of a beautiful, black woman, Janie Crawford. The novel first takes place with the return of Janie to her hometown Eatonville, Florida. The townspeople judge and gossip about Janie due to her lone arrival without a man. This is odd when considering she left Eatonville with a young man named Tea Cake. Unlike most of the townspeople, Janie’s friend, Pheoby Watson, meets with Janie. This meeting prompts Janie to tell Pheoby about her life story, beginning with her young years with her grandmother. Janie was raised by her previously enslaved grandmother, Nanny. She seems to be a controlling person despite her honest intentions of simply

She simply hopes that someday, she will end up loving her husband. Unfortunately, her hopes are shattered by Logan forcing her to perform exhausting labor, as if she was an animal. During this strenuous labor, she meets a man named Joe Starks, who she gives the affectionate nickname of Jody. She spends an increasing amount of time with Jody, prompting her to feel like she may truly love him and forcing her to run away from Logan. Jody then decides to take her to the town of Eatonville, Florida. The entrepreneurial and ambitious nature of Jody allows him to build up political power in the town and leads him to seek for more power. He takes the high position of the town’s mayor and owns the general store in town. This leaves Janie as the wife of a powerful man, without her own identity. The relationship, while beginning sweet, leads to Jody abusing Janie and simply treating her as a servant and a trophy without any respect. Later, Jody slowly becomes significantly ill, leading to even worse treatment of Janie. This increasing abuse leads to her insulting Jody in public, which then leads to him beating her in public. Due to this assault, she does not show remorse on his deathbed, reminding Jody of all the horrible things he did to her until his final

Tea Cake steals some money from Janie and spends it on gambling. He then beats Janie to assert his dominance and then spends time with a girl named Nunkie. A woman named Mrs. Turner tests Janie’s marriage with the offer to marry her light-skinned brother. Janie does not fall for it, knowing her relationship with Tea Cake is special and based upon mutual respect. Despite the bad parts of their relationship, Janie and Tea Cake still have a lot of fun in the muck, inviting people to their house for many parties. This all ends when a hurricane hits the are, destroying their home. During the run to safety, Tea Cake is bitten by a dog, which gives him rabies. While it is not apparent at first, he soon starts to decay into a mad state, getting his condition even worse. His mad state is apparent to Janie when she finds a loaded pistol under his pillow. Due to this, and for her own safety, she has to kill Tea Cake, an action which she is not charged for when brought in front of an all-white jury after a moving testimony. She then returns to Eatonville, which brings the novel back to the beginning where she tells the story to Pheoby. Janie explains to Pheoby that she has come to the realization that she now knows who she truly is and that she can make her own happiness without a man. Tea Cake was the final reminder of her newfound