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Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: Character Analysis

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“It was the time for sitting on porches besides the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long,”(1) throughout the entire day people on the porch have looked down and judged others for being the way they are. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God the dominant character Janie had a life full of dramatic aspects, with many influences. Her idea of porches and being gifted with the power to sit on them continually shine through the text. The text focuses on the idea of porches, and the higher social order. The front porch and those on it represent power and wealth. The characters of Eatonville aspired to reach the porch in an effort to impress …show more content…

In the beginning of the novel Janie is coming back from the Everglades heading towards Eatonville. “She had come back from the sodden and the bloated; the sudden death, their eyes flung wide open in judgment,”(1) Janie coming back to Eatonville wasn’t a warm welcome with open arms. While sitting upon the porch they looked down at someone who they used to view as their friend, with judgement and sparse compassion. “Take for instance the case of Matt Bonner’s yellow mule. They had him up for conversation every day the Lord sent,”(51) Matt’s mule was never doing anything to harm the porch sitters, but they still felt as though they had the right to judge and gossip about the old mule. To the eyes of the sitters the mule wasn’t up to their standards, so they put the owner down with the old mule. Even Joe was controlling Janie’s life “Jody was on the porch and the porch was full of Eatonville as usual at this time of the day. [...] Janie could see Jody watching her out of the corner of his eye.”(72) Janie was going into the store, but Joe wanted to make sure that she was doing what he wanted her to do. The judging of others and the jury behind them, make it hard for the people of Eatonville. One day you are on the porch the next you are

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