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Their Eyes Were Watching God

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Author:

Zora Neale Hurston

Published:

1937

Setting:

1930's Western Florida
Eatonville-with Jody, all black community
The Muck-Everglades
Palm Beach-nearby town
Jacksonville-married Tea Cake

Major Characters:

Janie: independent, married three times, naive, youthful, beautiful, wants love
Jody: about 10 years older than Janie, smart, vain, politician, mayor of Eatonville, dies of kidney failure
Tea Cake: loves Janie, younger, spontaneous, sweet-talker, get rabies, shot by Janie
Nanny: mother of Leafy(Janie's mom), raises Janie as her granddaughter, forces Janie to marry Logan

Minor Characters:

Logan: old man, Janie's first husband, makes Janie work
Phoebe: Janie's best friend, listens to Janie's story, wishes she lived like that
Johnny: kisses Janie and is seen by Nanny
Hezekiah: helps Janie and Jody in the store
Mrs. Turner: black, but dislikes blacks, likes Janie for her white blood

Themes:

The only thing that assures happiness is personal freedom.
Self discovery is essential for fulfillment.
Worth of the individual is of supreme importance.
Communication and honesty are essential for a successful marriage.
Money and material gain do not necessarily bring happiness.
Love determines one's happiness, not material wealth, possessions, or stature.

Symbols:

Horizon: dreams
Pear tree: love
Janie's hair: freedom
Headrags: confinement
Mule: Janie
Muck: Janie's life with Tea Cake
Eatonville: Janie's life with Jody

Allusions:

Methuselah: lived 900 years (insult)
Jim Crow laws: equal but seperate
Booker T. Washington: black speaker who was very influential and educated
Lincoln: president who freed the blacks from slavery

Ironies:

Nanny's ways to make Janie happy (money and material things) did not work.
Black prejudiced against the black.
Jody hid Janie's beauty from everyone, including himself.
Jody made fun of Janie but is insulted when she makes fun of him.
Tea Cake brought her the most happinees and most sorrow.
Motorboat survived in the house.
Tea Cake teaches Janie how to shoot, and she ends up shooting him.

Point of View:

Third person limited omniscient-Janie's story

Ending:

Tea Cake gets rabies from a mad dog. He tries to shoot Janie, but Janie kills him first. She is tried and found not guilty. She returns to Eatonville and is content with life.

Other Important Notes:

Frame story. Style-colloquial dialect, sophisticated commentary, parallelism, fragments, unusual comparisons. A book of contrasts. Foreshadowing-Jody wasn't a bee for her blossom, saving herself, a rabid dog doesn't like the water.

Brief Summary:

Janie marries Logan but runs away with Jody. He becomes mayor of Eatonville. He dies of kidney failure. Janie meets Tea Cake, and they go to the Muck. A hurricane blows through, and they leave. Janie was trying to protect Tea Cake, but she gets blown away. As he tries to save her, he is bitten by a mad dog. He goes crazy from the rabies, and Janie must shoot him out of self-protection.

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