Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay Example

years, that she still is not happy. Gradually, her husband tires of her intelligence, and, as his importance in the community builds, he begins to treat her badly. His illness and death come as a relief to Janie who has been twice oppressed by her spouse.However, Janie learns that neither others’ opinions of her, nor her own impression of importance, black or white, is not a measure of happiness.

She was just as unhappy being a rich black mayor’s wife as she was a poor black farmer’s wife. Janie’s third husband, Tea Cake, is many years younger than she is. Their relationship is vibrant, and the two travel to the muck to work the cane. Janie desperately loves Tea Cake, even though he sometimes does not appear to love her.

With him, Janie finds a measure of happiness, but fate intervenes when Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog during a hurricane.After being forced to shoot him to save her own life, Janie is cleared by a white judge and jury and returns home to Eatonville. Although race is not one of the most obvious themes in the book, it does appear to present some powerful lessons for Janie. First, Janie learns that both blacks and whites can be racists, that hate can be universal. In one memory of Janie’s she recalls living with a white family and not realizing she was black.

The painful laughter of the father when she told him that was one of her first notes that black and white is different.She also remembers that the other black children made fun of her because her clothing was nicer than theirs.

At one point after the hurricane, Tea Cake is forced to bury the black bodies, sometimes turning them out of the coffins, so that white bodies could be placed there. Later in her life, Janie meets up with Mrs. Turner, a black who voices her loud and negative opinions about other black people.

Finally, after her court victory, Janie is comforted by white women in the courtroom, but not by her own black friends. What the reader and Janie both learn here is that racism can happen anywhere to anyone.It can happen in all black towns and all white towns and opposite to the ways that you think it is going to happen. Basically, racism is a factor of the environment in this novel. It infects anybody, white or black, in any way.

If the opportunity presents itself for a racist act, many people will actually fall victim to it. Of course, as a reader, it is hard to hide from the race issues in the novel. The black dialect in which the novel is written is thick and obvious, often providing an obstacle for some white readers.The reader must learn to decipher this dialect in order to understand the story, much like people have to learn to understand people in order to get along. The fact that a type of hierarch exists in all-black Eatonville is a reminder to all readers that color is not the only way that oppressive feelings such as racism can exist.

Another area which is racially charged is the issue of feminism and independence that Janie seeks. She does not want to be kept down by a man, and

ironically, chooses the poorest and least educated of the bunch to fall in love with.The men’s mistreatment of her often characterize white mistreatment for blacks, but again, the reader notices that it can happen in any color combination. Hurston was often criticized for avoiding the issue of race in this novel.

However, a close look at the text reveals that she does not avoid it at all. She deftly imbeds issues in places where they are least expected in order for them to have a great impact on the reader. These areas follow the journey that Jane makes with her three husbands through the years.