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In the Foreword to the novel, written by Edwidge Danticott, he writes, “In the circular narration of Their Eyes Were Watching God,” at the end of the book, a whole new life lies ahead, unchartered for a still relatively young Janie Crawford. She has told her story and has satisfied ‘that oldest human longing- self-revelation.” And now she must go on.” Janie’s journey includes marriages and different levels of romantic involvement with three men—Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake Woods. Describe each of the men in detail, including the nature of their relationship with Janie (how they treated her and how she reacted) and explain what Janie learned about herself from each relationship. Finally, explain how Janie has changed as a woman over the course of the novel.

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In one of the climactic scenes of the novel, Zora Neale Hurston writes, “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (160).  On an obvious level, these words are significant because they are the origin of the novel’s title. However, what do these words explain about the seriousness of the situation in which Tea Cake and Janie find themselves, and what do they mean on a symbolic level. Also, what realization does Janie make about her relationship with Tea Cake at this point in the novel.

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Locate two passages in the text that are far away from each other but connect to each other in some way, whether it be through figurative language, characterization, tone, imagery, or symbol. Refer to each passage with quotes and page numbers. Your goal is to show me how these two passages relate and why it’s important for a reader to make this connection.

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Tell me what you most appreciate about the novel as well as any areas that you feel could have made your reading experience better. You can answer this informally (use I). The best way to earn all the points for this question is to be specific about the stuff that happens in the novel; be energetic about how you tell me about it.

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Explore Janie's interractions with women--her mom, grandmother, Phoebe, the town ladies, etc.... and explain what effect they have on her, on the story, and more.

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The title stemmed from Janie and Tea Cake being stuck in a hurricane. They had nowhere to take shelter and desperately tried to rely on anything to save themselves. It becomes apparent they have run out of any other solutions and must rely on nature and God to save themselves. Their lives were now in the hands of God and had nowhere else to look amidst the darkness. In retrospect, this can also be applied to Janie's life and her journey to find herself. She goes through many trials and tribulations with the people in her life and the circumstances she finds herself in. God/nature controls the destiny of humans, creating events that pull people together or tear them apart. During the hurricane, Tea Cake did everything in his power to save Janie, despite Janie's pleas for him to look out for himself. Janie realizes the love she and Tea Cake shared is unbreaking as they both find each other no matter the situation they find themselves in.

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What I most appreciated about this novel was how strong-willed Janie is written. She goes through so much, yet she is still able to carry herself. I enjoyed how transparent the book was, allowing us to understand exactly how Janie responds to the situations she's put through. For example, when Joe Starks dies, her response is not sugar-coated even though many would find her words harsh. You can see how much she grows and matures from her life experiences as the novel progresses. If you asked me what would make my reading experience better when I first starting reading, I would say that the slang should be removed. At first, I found the dialogue hard to understand because of how much slang was used and didn't really enjoy it. But, after listening to it through the audiobook, I was able to pick up on the words and read more smoothly. The slang actually makes the novel feel more authentic and helped me immerse more to when the novel took place. Surprisingly, I also enjoyed reading about the gossip on the porch. It was interesting to see how much the truth was twisted with the rumors they shared with each other! Finally, I overall just enjoyed reading a story of a young black girl growing up and how the world affects her life because of her gender and race. Zora Neale Hurston wrote such a captivating book which I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters are all unique and written like real people with strengths and flaws, Janie too! I see why you love the book so much and I'm glad I chose to read it with you!

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Janie has both positive and negative relationships with women throughout the novel. First, there is a one-sided hateful relationship between the town ladies and Janie. They constantly spread rumors and talk badly about Janie behind her back. However, their spitefulness stems from their jealousy of her. They envy her because of how young she looks despite the fact that she's getting older. She also seen to have lived an exciting life while they're all stuck living in the same town. Janie had no relationship with her mother because she ran off after giving birth to her, leaving her grandmother to take care of her. Based on what is revealed in the book, Janie has a loving relationship with her grandmother. Her grandma takes care and looks after Janie as she grows up. After seeing Janie kissing a boy, she marries her to Logan Killicks. Killicks was financially stable and therefore could provide for Janie. Though Janie was stuck in a loveless marriage, her grandmother did so out of love to give Janie the stable life she never had. Finally, Pheoby Watson is depicted as Janie's best friend in the book. The friendship can already be seen in the first chapter as Pheoby brings Janie the dinner that she cooked. She supports, listens, and comforts Janie when she confides in her.

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The first relationship Janie is in is with her first husband, Logan Killicks. Her grandmother was the one who put her into this marriage because he was a financially stable man who could provide for Janie. Though Janie spent a lot of time with him, she never came to love him. He constantly compared her to his previous wife and tried to get her to do farm work. Janie found him irritable as she already had work to do inside their house. The next man that came into Janie's life is Joe Starks whom she met while she was still in her marriage with Logan. She saw love and freedom with Joe, nothing she had with her current husband, and decided to run away with him. The ideal life Janie thought she would have with Jody shattered almost instantly. He focused all his time building up the town he was mayor for, leaving little to no time for Janie. She was known as the "mayor's wife" and did what Jody told her to do. She once again found herself trapped in a loveless marriage. He treated her as an afterthought yet got jealous when other men tried hitting on her. Even while on his deathbed, he continued to disrespect and berate Janie. The last man Janie had a relationship with was Tea Cake. He was the man who gave her the life she thought she would have with Joe Starks. He walked miles to visit her and reassured her when she had small doubts. He loved her unconditionally and did everything her could to prove it. Janie's life changed for the better now that she had found a man who loved her as is. Even in a hurricane, Tea Cake risked his life to ensure Janie's safety. He showed her love she had never experienced, love that she longed to experience. Her marriage with Logan Killicks made her yearn for freedom and love, her marriage with Joe Starks taught her what falsified love is, and her marriage with Tea Cake showed her what true love is and what it brings.

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“He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.” (Page 115)

"She pulled in her horizon like a great fish net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see." (Page 171)

These two passages use figurative language to personify Janie's soul. In the first one, Janie's soul "crawled out from its hiding place." It is insinuated that her soul was hidden after the years she spent submitting to Jody's words without retaliation. She found no love with him and had no one to turn to, thus her true self hid away with her soul. The love Tea Cake gave her, however, brought it out her soul because she could finally freely live as her true self. The freedom she found within her love with Tea Cake gave her identity. In the second passage, Janie calls "in her soul to come and see." When she's back home, she recalls all the memories she made with Tea Cake. Her soul that was living freely crawled back in as she recalled the time they spent together. The connection that can be found within these passages shows how much Tea Cake changed her life. He was able to bring out her soul, bring her life. Therefore, now that he wasn't physically present, Janie did not need for it to be out as she continued to relive all the moments they shared. Though she mourned and grieved his death, she was still able to feel happiness as the light Tea Cake brought into her world did not flicker out when he passed. Her soul was brought into their relationship and would therefore hold onto the memories filled with joy, comfort, and never-ending love.

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As each husband symbolized something different, they all contributed to Janie’s self growth and development as the novel progressed.

Logan Killicks: In her first marriage, it was arranged by her grandmother as Logan was wealthy, owning a lot of land. Janie was only 16 marrying an older man, told that through the marriage she would begin to love him. As they got married, she waited for the love to arise. However, she never felt that connection and they became rather distant over the year. He was kind and wanting to Janie in the beginning, but became controlling and rude as he believes she was spoiled by her grandmother. Lacking respect Janie leaves Logan as she spots a man named Joe Starks. Through this first marriage, Janie learns that land and wealth cannot buy neither happiness nor love.

Joe Starks: Charming with a good talk when they first met, Joe holds a title of mayor as they move to Eatonville. He buys her a big house, good food, and the ‘best things.’ However, this is only the beginning of this fabricated love he has for Janie. Using her to promote his status, he never treats Janie like a true human, let alone a wife. The arrogant and conceited Joe Starks adores the power he has as mayor, controlling Janie by making her work at the store. She could never talk, never play, and never let her hair down. He even lays a hand of her as his mistreatment towards Janie becomes worse. And as he gets older, Janie begins to stand up for herself, having a last words at his deathbed. Through this second marriage, Janie learns that power does not buy fulfillment, developing the theme of her emancipation.

Tea Cake: In her third and final marriage, Tea Cake teaches Janie how to live for herself. Brining back her childhood and the lack of desires she had in her life, he teaches her how to play games, work, sing/dance, and how to shoot a gun. Tea Cake truly loves Janie and listens and cares for her, rather than providing to her because he’s a man. The contrast between Tea Cake and Jody & Logan is highlighted due to the difference in the way he treats Janie. Becoming one of the most significant roles towards the theme and Janie’s development, she has changed into a fulfilled, strong, and independent woman at the end of the book.

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They seemed to be starting at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” This is the line in Chapter 18 that refers to the title during the storm. As nature had taken over, all they could do was pray and look for the hope, or God, in this hurricane. Their fate was taken out of their hands as could only wait for what was going to happen next. The power was laid in God’s hands because of the uncontrollable situation Tea Cake, Janie, and Motorboat were in. The line highlights the peak, or the central conflict within the novel. This symbolizes the act of struggling together against the nature that is out of control. At this point in the novel, both Tea Cake and Janie have a realization about their relationship. Tea Cake feels sympathy and regret in the way if it weren’t for him, they wouldn’t be in the situation right now. He says himself, “Ah reckon you wish now you had of stayed in yo’ big house ‘way from such as dis, don’t yuh?” But Janie argues not, because she would rather be with a husband like Tea Cake during this storm. Here, Tea Cake has this realization of Janie’s true satisfaction towards him, and I think Janie begins to truly understand the significance of true love. Knowing her self-worth and grasping this feeling of contentment allows her to to make her own realization. Tea Cake had shaped the woman she is today, and she wouldn’t change nothing in the world to go back, even when she’s facing death itself. Because she’s realized the meaning of living, she emphasizes on struggling in the storm with Tea Cake, and everyone together.

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Page 10: “Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard. She had been spending every minute that she could steal from her chores under that tree for the last three days. That was to say, ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom.“

Page 72: “She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be.”

The pear tree is repeated many times throughout the novel. It depicts figurative language, imagery, and symbolism as it represents Janie’s love journey, almost marking as a timeline in each parts of her life. In Chapter 2, it is first introduced as she has her first kiss under a pear tree. She describes the feeling of love and desire when comparing her first marriage with the moment she had under the tree. In Chapter 6, it is mentioned again when the love she had for Joe Sparks dies. Both the “glistening young fruit” and “petals” were no longer there. Janie says this line right after being physically hit by Jody, realizing the hard truth behind the facade. Around 30 pages later, the pear tree is referenced again when describing her love with Tea Cake. Page 106 states, “He could be a bee to a blossom—a pear tree blossom in the spring.” Finally becoming the true love Janie had been looking for all this time. I beleive the pear tree enhances the picture in the reader’s mind, but also serves to symbolize and remind Janie’s growth/change in love, as she grows older and learns.

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In Zora Neal Hurston’s iconic, classic novel, I appreciated the realistic scenes that promoted raw, real-world problems and situations. I like how Hurston never backed out of difficult topics including physical violence, sexual harassment, racism, forced marriage, and murder. I beleive her usage of the literary element, setting, illustrated these subjects extremely well. The traditional setting emphasizes these issues because of how male dominant society’s behavior was back then. The contrast between then and now spark similar themes in different times. And as much as I loved the southern language and usage of phonetic spelling, it was a bit difficult at times. I could understand the words, but as a reader’s perspective, it did slow me down. However, as a writer’s perspective, I think it enhances the rawness and cultural value in the book. I love how she switches up between this dialect for dialogue and regular English when explaining her story. The shift allows the reader to experience Janie’s story first hand, but the gap creates a whole deeper sense as she provides the explanations alongside symbolism, imagery, and other forms of literary devices.

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Although Janie has some good relationships with the women in her life, there are some bad relations that may have affected the outcomes of some of her actions. Her relationship with her grandmother is slightly more complicated because of how things ended. Other than that, she had taken Janie at a young age and raised her. Janie had felt sympathy for her grandmother as she lived a life she was forced to obey. Because of the grandmother’s complex past, she then forces Janie to marry a wealthy man to protect her from the worries she had her age. Although the grandma thinks what she does is best for Janie, she disagrees due to the lack of love she feels in her first marriage. Janie’s relationship with her mom is not disclosed because she leaves her at a young infant. I do think the women in her life during her childhood redirected her focus on what love was supposed to be. As she grows older into her own woman, she encounters other female roles in her life. Pheoby, her best friend, sits by her side without judging and gossiping about her, despite the other people in Eatonville. She listens to her stories and learns from Janie without any jealousy. In contrast, Mrs. Turner holds a prejudiced, cruel perspective as she is another interesting interaction Janie learns about. Idolizing her “white” physical characteristics, her motives are later revealed after attempting to get her brother to marry Janie. I do think the complexity of these women in her life have effected Janie’s action as she never had the right female role model guiding her in the direction she wants to live. Without a mother figure and with the complex dynamic of her grandmother, Janie almost learns the hard way in discovering how life goes “to the horizon and back.”