The Social Pressure on Janie in Zora Neale Hurtson's Their Eyes Were Watching God Through an Intersectional Lens

Juliana Pronti

Zora Neale Hurtson, Their Eyes Were Watching God, 2008, Harper Collins Publishers, https://www.harperacademic.com/book/9780061470370/their-eyes-were-watching-god/.

Zora Neale Hurston’s (1891-1960) novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God[1], portrays a coming-of-age story depicting instances of persistent character defamation against the protagonist, Janie Crawford, by those around her. The beginning of the novel briefly depicts Janie at the end of her journey before guiding the reader into her childhood and the chronological beginning of Janie’s story. At this point in time Janie is a romantic; she is enthralled by the beauty of life and love. Janie is raised by her grandmother, Nanny, who does not share this romantic perspective and forces Janie to marry the respectable Logan Killicks by the age of sixteen. This does not suppress Janie’s desire for romance, which continues to grow until she meets Joe Starks. Joe becomes Janie’s first love, until he becomes controlling and forces her to become an obedient housewife. After Joe passes, Janie begins to rebuild herself; she meets Tea Cake and the romantic in her is brought back to life. Janie’s life with Tea Cake is full of love and freedom, so she happily stays with him until his death. Ultimately the novel brings the reader back to the starting point of the novel, with Janie returning to Eatonville as a woman who has reclaimed herself. By looking through the lens of an intersection between race and gender, this article will argue that most characters in Janie’s life over-criticized her in an attempt to control and limit her own personal being. As a result of this criticism, Janie is forced to navigate a loss of persona, until she encounters someone who allowed for her individuality.

The timing of Janie’s loss and ultimate regaining of individuality suggests a drastic connection between social surroundings and individuality. Janie appears to adhere to the limitations placed on her by the authority figures surrounding her; characters such as Nanny, Logan Killicks, and Joe Starks serve as a means of limiting Janie, and chose to crush her individuality to support their own agendas. Unfortunately for Janie, this was her life- until Tea Cake, who assists her in this journey towards liberation, ultimately resulting in her break from societal expectation and a discovery and indulgence in her own personal freedom. This analysis is completed through a lens of intersectionality between race and gender, as Janie serves as a representation for African American women at this time who faced criticism rooted in capricious societal expectations and pressures associated with race and gender.

Intersectionality provides a means of connecting previously incomparable aspects of life, but it also supplies academics with traceable concepts connecting social action with the things seen in the social world. Patricia Hill Collins, a social theorist, notes that “intersectionality bundles together ideas from disparate places, times, and perspectives, enabling people to share points of view that formerly were forbidden, outlawed, or simply obscured …”[2] . Ultimately, this warrants perspective and point of view sharing between groups or individuals who were previously unable to do so, allowing intersectionality to have repercussions within the social world through a means of connection and sharing of experiences. As Collins describes, “because they inform social action, intersectionality’s ideas have consequences in the social world”[3]. These consequences relate back to a reclaiming: Through intersectionality, individuals are able to take back control of these aspects of their lives and discuss them both academically and socially. Within the realm of Hurston’s Their Eyes, Janie struggles with uncovering and embracing herself as society confines her to expectations associated with her race and gender. As a result of this central concept, the intersectionality between race and gender becomes a crucial aspect to understanding the novel and Janie’s character progression. The concept relates to the wider realm of social critique, as through the “bundling” of race and gender, Hurston speaks towards the larger issue of poor treatment and struggles of African American women within US society. In order to properly grasp how Janie develops as a character and how the people around her influence this development, it is important to make note of their influence chronologically.

 Nanny: The Overprotective Grandmother

The first character Hurston depicts as highly influencing Janie is Nanny, her grandmother and main caretaker, who dictates Janie’s life in an attempt to protect her from the possibility of continuing a damaging familial cycle discussed later. Nanny takes on the responsibly of instilling specific beliefs in Janie, such as what it means to be a “respectable woman” and the significance of focusing on the practicalities of life in contrast to Janie’s desires for freedom and love. Nanny’s actions are a means of protecting Janie and giving her the opportunities to achieve an ideal future. Nanny prioritizes Janie’s future prosperity over every other aspect of their lives, and as a result their relationship is defined by Nanny’s over protection and controlling characteristics.

Hurston delves into this complex relationship in the beginning of the novel, focusing on the characters’ ideological separation from one another. Hurston establishes that Janie listened to Nanny’s instruction immediately, because Nanny acted as the maternal figure in Janie’s life and knew what was best for her granddaughter. The characters have a complicated relationship with one another: one which was violent, but also full of love,

‘Janie’ ‘Yes, ma’am.’ ‘You answer me when Ah speak. Don’t you set dere poutin’ wid me after all Ah done went through for you!’ She slapped the girl’s face violently, and forced her head back so that their eyes met in struggle. With her hand uplifted for the second blow she saw the huge tear that welled up from Janie’s heart and stood in each eye. She saw the terrible agony and the lips tightened down to hold back the cry and desisted. Instead she brushed back the heavy hair from Janie’s face and stood there suffering and loving and weeping internally for both of them.[4]

Nanny is aware of Janie’s need for discipline and her duty to enact it as the maternal figure; however, even amongst the times of rage and violence, Nanny is cognizant of Janie’s emotions. This hyperawareness is out of genuine love; Nanny believes Janie must be “set right” so she can be molded into Nanny’s ideal of a respectable woman, but she is also struggling with the damage she must create in order to do this. When Nanny “stood there suffering and loving and weeping internally for the both of them,” the reader can easily understand Nanny’s feelings toward the situation. She struggles with the reality of both of their lives, but is unable to express this openly to Janie. Ultimately, the two do love each other, and Nanny is looking out for Janie’s well-being. However, this struggle of open expression between the two creates a gap between them. As Janie ages and begins to explore her sexual identity, this gap only grows, pushing Nanny to become even more controlling and over-protective. Consequently, Janie begins to resent her grandmother.

The above instances of control and over-protection are most directly tied to the generational trauma Nanny and her daughter have experienced; both Nanny and Janie’s mother were raped. This trauma Janie’s mother and Nanny faced was recounted by Nanny: Nanny was raped repeatedly while enslaved “‘on de big plantation close to Savannah … [the plantation owner] run into mah cabin and made me let down mah hair for de last time’”[5]. As a result of this, her daughter, Janie’s mother, was born. Janie’s mother was raped by a schoolteacher: “’Dat school teacher had done hid her in de woods all night long, and he had done raped mah baby and run on off just before day’”[6]. This rape resulted in the conception of Janie.  Nanny’s depiction of her own trauma was painful, and her recounting of Janie’s mother’s trauma exasperated that pain. Nanny felt like she failed Janie’s mother and, as a result, became consumed by her goal of protecting Janie from a similar fate. Nanny was hyperaware of the dangers of some men: She was constantly thinking about protecting Janie from this trauma that she and her daughter had experienced at the hand of  white men. Nanny expresses an awareness of gender relations being contextually bound- an idea that recognizes that individuals of one sex may interact with those of the opposing sex differently depending on the present circumstances and power dynamics[7]. Nanny’s daughter’s rape was an accurate example of this: She was raped by her teacher, a man who in the classroom was inherently trustworthy. Unfortunately, when he was alone with and in a position of power over a young woman, he became a predator. The trauma associated with Janie’s birth- the rape of her mother and her mother leaving- only added to Nanny’s fear and apprehension for Janie, thus contributing to Nanny’s compulsive overprotection and control over Janie.  

Attributed to Francesco Allegrini, Mother and Child, n.d., Metropolitan Museum of Art Gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1880, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/338073.

Nanny became extremely aware of the men in Janie’s life: For instance, when Janie was sixteen and sexually curious, she pursued a young man named Johnny Taylor. Nanny caught the two of them kissing and became filled with fear and anxiety regarding Janie’s future: “She bolted upright and peered out of the window and saw Johnny Taylor lacerating her Janie with a kiss… ‘. Ah wants to see you married right away’”[8]. Nanny exhibited a parental response, as if she sensed something worrisome and was called to act. This not only depicts Nanny’s overprotectiveness when it comes to Janie, but additionally makes note of her anxiety-fueled parenting style that directly relates back to the trauma she and her daughter experienced. In addition, Hurston’s implementation of the word “lacerating” adds to the idea of Nanny viewing sexual curiosity as dangerous; lacerations imply a slicing, suggesting that Nanny viewed this kiss as a means of destroying her Janie. This was the death of Janie’s childhood, an event that Nanny mourned. As result of this perspective and her drastic response, Nanny refused Janie’s desperately wanted freedom. As a teenager, Janie was a romantic and wanted to explore this side of herself, but was unable to do so. As soon as she attempted to explore, Nanny denied her efforts and forced Janie to marry an older, well-off man: Logan Killicks. While Nanny’s intentions were pure, she limited Janie. Nanny refused to grant Janie the freedom to explore herself, causing a rift in their relationship and forcing Janie into her first marriage.

Logan Killicks: Janie’s First Husband

At this point in the novel, Janie moves from her life with Nanny to her life with Logan, who does not fulfill Janie’s expectations of love, takes her innocence, and makes her the mule of their relationship. As soon as the two are married, Janie becomes frustrated with her marital situation. Despite the age difference- with Logan being in his 60s and Janie being 16- or the differences in opinions and values, Janie made an effort in the beginning stages of their marriage; She wanted the marriage to be one of love, so she made the decision to love Logan during their marriage- even though she was not sure how she would be able to[9]. Logan also attempted to make this a possibility with his actions; in the beginning, he spoke sweetly to Janie and was clearly trying to make her love him. Unfortunately, as the marriage matured, these sweet sayings dissipated into nonexistence: “... Janie noticed that her husband had stopped talking in rhymes to her … ‘Looka heah, LilBit, help me out some. Cut up dese seed taters fuh me. Ah got tuh go step off a piece’”[10]. Logan prioritized the success of his farm over Janie as his wife, until Janie felt more like a tool than a partner.

Hurston’s use of the image of the mule is used as yet another means of limiting Janie through social pressures. For instance, Janie entered her marriage with Logan with the expectation that Logan work on his farm while she took care of the home, but Logan was too old to do the farm work on his own and too stubborn to hire help. As a result, he employed Janie just as he had done with a previous wife. This dynamic is representative of the ways in which Logan twists the figurative metaphor of the “mule.” Hurston, throughout this work and others, used the image of a mule as a way of describing African American presence within society. She furthers this in Their Eyes to note, more specifically, the experiences of African American women. According to Haurykiewicz, the mule is a cross-bred creature used to complete undesirable physical labor because it is not respected. Hurston used this to metaphorically describe the situations of African Americans, as they are frequently seen as the “mules” of white society[11].  This idea is used to describe how Janie is silenced towards the beginning of the novel. In her relationship with Logan, the mule is twisted from being simply an image to a physical presence as Janie is forced to complete manual labor[12]. In addition, Logan purchases a mule which works alongside Janie, again emphasizing that Janie is being likened to a mule herself. This is all done as Logan attempts to further silence Janie by making her the mule in the relationship and on the farm[13].  

This is most striking within the famous line from the novel, “De n----- woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see. Ah been prayin’ fuh it tuh be different wid you. Lawd, Lawd, Lawd!”[14]. By establishing this comparison in the beginning of the novel, Hurston almost immediately establishes this metaphor for the reader to take note of Janie’s appointed social standing. Additionally, the phrase “Ah been payin’ fuh it tih be different wid you” suggests a desire for change and Janie being placed as the center of this change. Hurston is not only establishing the undesired social position of African American women, but also that Janie may be one to diverge from this. As the novel progresses, the use of the mule metaphor continues, such as when Janie is living with and married to Joe: “There would be more stories about how poor the brute was; his age; his evil disposition and his latest caper. Everybody indulged in mule talk. ... Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule”[15]. Janie is fascinated with the mule because she relates to it. Community members gossip about the mule similarly to how they gossip about Janie in the beginning of the novel, critiquing its physical appearance, its abilities, and its life. Janie’s interest in the mule solidifies the connection between her character and this metaphor.

Since Janie is established as being the mule of her relationship with Logan, she refused to step out of her comfort zone and participate in manual labor- something she was willing to do in other relationships, namely Joe Starks and Tea Cake later in the novel. Ultimately, because of Janie and Logan’s clashing expectations in terms of their relationship, there was a significant amount of conflict between the two of them. The study, “Longitudinal Associations Between Household Labor Division Inequity and Conflict Among Newlywed Couples” touched upon this idea. The study found that similar conflicts arise for other newlywed couples, resulting from a lack of communication in terms of expectations regarding marriage. Individuals possess differing ideals in reference to proper labor division amongst themselves within a marriage, and when these differing ideals clash, it often ultimately results in conflict, especially among newlyweds[16]. Within Their Eyes, this conflict bred discontentment and, for Janie, resulted in her break from her relationship with Logan. First, she was forced into a transactional marriage in which there was no discussion of expectations. Then, as that marriage evolved, Janie was forced to become the mule of it. All this pressure put onto Janie to fill the role of Logan’s ideal wife created more internalized conflict within herself, as she felt trapped in this relationship. These feelings were solidified when she took the first opportunity to run away with Joe.

The relationship between Janie and Logan also stripped Janie of her innocence. Nanny forced her early on into a loveless marriage, which eroded at her romantic side. Ultimately, Janie decided to escape the confines of the relationship. Ironically, Nanny pushed Janie into this relationship with the intention to keep her future safe and divergent from her mother’s, yet Janie ended up running away, just as her mother had done. Overall, this relationship limited Janie and forced her into a position that crushed her innocence and romantic expectations surrounding marriage, thus destroying this part of her completely. Janie was forced to run away in an attempt to re-discover the part of herself that it stole from her.

Joe Starks: Janie’s First Love

The next chapter of Janie’s life is with Joe Starks, a man who uses his masculinity to control and ultimately limit her. As a result of the various conflicts within their relationship, Janie took the first opportunity that she had to leave Logan; shortly after Joe Starks came into Janie’s life, she decided to run off with him. Joe is extremely aware of his control and power over any situation in which he finds himself,  ebodying a stereotypical idea of masculinity in which power and dominance are two defining characteristics. Essentially, Joe was using his gender as a means of performance- an idea that Andrea Cornwall, social anthropologist, touches on in her article “Men, Masculinity and ‘Gender in Development[17].’” Cornwall establishes that, in some instances, individuals use gender as a means of propelling a persona that fits the stereotypes associated with their gender[18]. For example, a male may choose to act tough physically or emotionally in an attempt to suggest he fits the male stereotype of being “manly.” Joe expresses this concern for masculine dominance through his actions and what he appears to value. He places a strong emphasis on the idea of masculine leadership, “Ah’m buyin’ in here, and buyin’ in big. Soon’s we find some place to sleep tonight us menfolks got to call people together and form a committee. Then we can get things movin’ round here”[19]. The idea of Joe gathering “menfolks” suggests the enforcement of gender roles and stereotypical masculinity. Joe references men, specifically, as individuals capable of decision making. Not only is Joe a member of this group, but he also proposes himself as the leader of this group- ultimately becoming such and gaining a position of power over the entirely of Eatonville. In short, Joe takes the opportunity to come to Eatonville as a means of projecting himself into a position of power. This power means more to Joe than his marriage to Janie, and he does not keep this fact a secret from her.

To dive further into this idea of pushing his masculinity/power (as these terms go hand in hand in this instance) onto Janie, one can see how Joe belittles Janie to reinforce his position of power. The most significant example of this is when Joe forces Janie to keep her hair tied back. Within the African American community, hair is often considered a complicated part of one’s identity. There is a constant struggle between wanting to express oneself with one’s hair, but also feeling the need to conform to a white-centered beauty standard[20]. For Janie in particular, her hair is not only a representation of her physical self-expression, but it also serves as a symbol for her personal freedoms. In Janie’s relationship with Joe, when he emotionally tied her down, he also forced her to tie her hair up. By forcing her to tie it up, Joe took away Janie’s freedom. This act solidified Joe’s control over Janie and establishes it openly to her as well as the audience. This concept was confirmed in the fact that at the end of the novel when Janie has regained her self-independence, she opts to wear it down to reclaim her own personal freedom. 

Charles Calverley, Little Ida, 1869; carved 1881, Metropolitan Museum of Art Gift of the sculptor through F. Byrne Ivy, 1904, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10360.

The gender stereotypes and roles imposed upon Janie can and do result in a loss of self. The article “A Threat in the Air. How Stereotypes Shape Intellectual Identity and Performance” discusses the impact of forced stereotypes as “a threat that in the short run can depress their intellectual performance and, over the long run, undermine the identity itself…”[21]. Joe, similar to others in her life, forced Janie to be someone she did not want to be- silencing Janie both metaphorically, by forcing her to tie up her hair, and literally, by making her the silent wife. Throughout the years of their marriage and her confinement, Janie became further detached from her identity, distancing her from her true desires and forcing her away from personal liberation.

Upon the development of Joe’s deadly illness,  Janie experiences a turning point in which she began to move towards establishing her own identity. When Joe is on his deathbed, Janie gives herself control in the absence of Joe’s physical strength to regain her voice: “But Ah ain’t goin’ outa here and Ah ain’t gointuh hush. Naw, you gointuh listen tuh me one time befo’ you die”[22]. In doing this, Janie uses her control over Joe in this moment to silence him, similarly to how he restrained her throughout the entirety of their marriage. This marks the beginning of Janie’s journey to self-liberation.

Tea Cake: Janie’s Guide to Freedom

After the death of Joe, Janie transitioned from an extremely controlling and manipulative relationship into a freer and more pleasant relationship with Tea Cake- one of genuine love and appreciation for one another, which works to guide Janie to finding her own personal freedom. In the beginning stages of their relationship, Tea Cake had gone out of his way to be kind and loving towards Janie: “Sho is. You needs tellin’ and showin’, and dat’s whut Ah’m doin’. Ah picked some strawberries too, Ah figgered you might like”[23].  Tea Cake’s demonstration by spontaneously picking the strawberries for Janie, along with other acts of love, continued throughout the entirety of their relationship- unlike Janie’s past experiences with men. An additional instance of devotion can be noted when Tea Cake made it a tradition for the two of them to go hunting together[24], making his appreciation for her time and effort extremely clear. Tea Cake also verbally solidifies his love for Janie though affirming his appreciation for her efforts: “Janie stayed home and boiled big pots of blackeyed peas and rice … That was something Tea Cake loved”[25]. Rather than complaining about being served the same meal frequently, as Joe would have, Tea Cake established how he valued the effort she put in. Nothing Janie does went unnoticed; this positivity and love is something Janie had not seen with her other two relationships.

Edouard Manet, Strawberries, 1882, Metropolitan Museum of Art Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nate B. Spingold, 1956, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436963.

As the relationship progressed, there was a mingling between their work and home life, and Janie and Tea Cake operated as a single unit. Eventually, Janie joined him out in the fields and worked alongside him. Though her motives were not to provide for herself and Tea Cake, rather out of jealousy- as she became aware of another woman working around and with Tea Cake- she still willingly went out and worked alongside him. This idea of both the men and women working in a household is touched upon in the article “Gender Roles Revisited: The Development of the ‘Woman's Place’ Among African American Women in the United States” by Norma J. Burgess, sociologist[26]. Burgess makes note of the idea that, for many African American families, employment is essential for a strong quality of life and, as a result, there is often a  for two working members of the household, like Janie and Tea Cake. However, it is noteworthy that, for a lot of African American families, having two working heads of house would not be not optional as it is for Janie and Tea Cake. Janie’s choice to work alongside Tea Cake is significant when considering her previous experiences with men: with Logan, Janie blatantly refused to participate in manual labor, and with Joe, she was forced to work in his store. Yet here, Janie is more than willing to work with Tea Cake, thus speaking towards how much she cares for him. The relationship between Janie and Tea Cake is emphasized because it is the first of the novel where Janie is appreciated and treated well, and the first where Janie is not restricted from navigating her own emotions freely. 

Tea Cake is Janie’s guide to personal freedom, but some critics challenge his apparent positivity. For example, Tracy L. Bealer, American literature specialist, argues in the article “‘The Kiss of Memory’: The Problem of Love in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God”: 

I also contend that Tea Cake’s death enables an idealization of his character that would otherwise be impossible, but suggest that Janie’s retrospective glorification allows Their Eyes to contain both a celebration of the liberatory possibilities of egalitarian love, and an indictment of the way racism and sexism can distort even the most satisfying heterosexual relationships. [27]

 Bealer suggests that Tea Cake is idolized simply because of his death, but also explains that through this idealization by Janie, the reader is given the opportunity to further understand the ways in which racism and sexism influence relationships and individuals within the novel. Though Bealer's argument furthers to detail an interesting “what if” as to who Tea Cake would have grown into if he was given the chance to live, it does not address the fact that Tea Cake is the character who encouraged Janie to change the most, in turn guiding her towards the liberation she grants herself at the end of the novel. Overall, the fact that Janie was willing work in the fields with Tea Cake shows how much this relationship differs from her past relationships. While her past relationships limited Janie and forced her to be an ideal that they wanted, Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake allowed her to not only grow, but to feel content while doing so. Due to this, Tea Cake had the largest and most positive influence on Janie. He acted as the character that broke through to Janie and reintroduced to her ideas of self-appreciation and self-liberation.  

 Eatonville: The Hive Mind  

            Chronologically, the last major influential body the reader is introduced to in terms of Janie’s story is Eatonville as a community which, as an entity, outwardly criticizes Janie. The community was mainly known for what is referred to as “porch talk:” Porch talk is essentially the idea of gossip, developed from how individuals would gather on each other’s porches after work or after the day has ended and gossip amongst themselves about other people in town, events they’ve heard of going on, or pure speculation regarding the lives of others. This entire concept was extremely harmful to those who did not directly participate, because it was used as a means of demeaning others. As Hurston depicts the phenomenon, “They made burning statements with questions and killing tools out of laughs. It was mass cruelty. A mood come alive. Words walking without Masters”[28].  Porch talk acted as a weapon of destruction, aimed at those who the community ostracized. This is extremely subjective and, in Janie’s case, resulted in jealousy, as well as Janie’s lack of interest in gossip to begin with. Janie’s rejection of this community’s harmful habit made her a target.

In the beginning of the novel, when Janie walks back into town, she becomes the center of attention. This is particularly impactful for Janie, because her entire life was spent attempting to escape these judgments and merely live for herself. After accomplishing this desire in her life with Tea Cake and then losing it to a natural disaster as well as losing Tea Cake, the unwanted attention and speculation immediately surrounded Janie following her return to Eatonville. Thankfully, Janie’s time with Tea Cake developed her self-confidence. Despite the community’s judgments, Janie maintained the memory of her life with Tea Cake, as well as the recognition of her own self-worth.  

To dive deeper into this concept of porch talk, the gossip can be separated depending on whether it derives from a male or female perspective. For instance, the male perspective was an extremely over-sexualized one: when Janie first walked into town, the male audience immediately objectified her. They placed specific attention on the feminine parts of her body, “her firm buttocks… the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist… then her pugnacious breasts trying to bore holes in her shirt”[29], and over sexualized these parts. Specific attention is brought to the typical feminine characteristics associated with beauty, and this objectification served as an attempt to belittle her own feminine power. However, Janie remained confident and refused to let the hungry male gaze limit herself.

The women, on the other hand, openly expressed their judgment and used this as a means of belittling Janie’s character. They recognized her independence, beauty, and success, and these recognitions bred jealousy. As a result, when the women first saw Janie coming back to town the immediate reaction was to nitpick everything and anything they could see on her: “the women took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away for remembrance. It was a weapon.”[30]. This idea of creating reasons to judge Janie merely to bring her down is the main reasoning for Janie's dislike and ostracization from this community- and because Janie did not share this need to bring those around her down, she was a member that Eatonville’s community attempted to bring down. Generally, the attempts to overly criticize and overly sexualize Janie served as a means of limiting her character. However, since these attempts occurred following Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake, she had grown into her identity and experienced liberation. As a result, she was unbothered by these attempts; despite intending to limit her, the community only reinforced her strength.  

Conclusions

The characters mentioned influenced how and when Janie’s character progresses and develops; Nanny, Logan, and Joe all limited Janie in that they forced her to suppress parts of her that she so desperately wanted to indulgein: Nanny took away her romanticism, Logan her childhood, and Joe her freedom. This social pressure from those close to Janie had forced her to experience dissonance with herself for most of her life. Speaking towards the idea of intersectionality, Janie was expected to fit into stereotypes regarding her race as well as her gender. When she did not fit these molds, Janie was ostracized and criticized by those around her. In addition, for most of the novel Janie is over-sexualized and forced into a box of being nothing more than her sex. Tea Cake is the only character who allowed Janie to grow into a person that she wanted to be, prompting Janie’s genuine break from societal expectation and allowing her to finally lead the life she wanted to live. He was the pivotal person in her life who helped her reach the freedom she had always so desperately desired. In terms of Eatonville- due to Tea Cakes drastically positive influence on Janie- the community didn’t limit her, but rather reinforced the idea that she can and will rise above the judgments and critiques of others. Overall, Janie’s character development through the novel in relation to the individuals she surrounded herself with proves a large correlation between social environment and character development. This sentiment is not only represented in fiction, but also relates to real world circumstances; Janie’s journey represents that of many African American women at the time. The constant criticism and judgment pushed onto African American women to fit a mold designed to limit them. This struggle is harmful, but Janie serves as a symbol of hope. She is one instance in which an African American woman may be strengthened by breaking the cast placed onto her. Though Janie’s journey was a long and painful one, she places emphasis on personal liberation. Ultimately, Janie illustrates the ways in which society works to confine African American women because of their race and sex, but she also embodies the strength in fighting for personal freedom.

When Janie was in a place where she lacked control and was forced into a box restricted by both her race and gender simultaneously, her growth was stunted; when she was allowed freedom of expression and emotions, Janie was able to grow into who she wanted to be. This growth on her part broke her out of the limitations forced upon her by societal pressures because of her race and gender. The individuals in Janie’s life shaped her for better or for worse, ultimately making her a strong independent character. 

Endnotes

[1]Zora Neale Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York, New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics), 2006.

[2]Patricia Hill Collins. “Introduction.” Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory, Duke University Press (2019): 2, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11hpkdj.

[3] Hill, “Introduction,” 2.

[4] Hurston, 14.

[5] Hurston, 18.

[6] Hurston, 19.

[7] Andrea Cornwall. “Men, Masculinity and ‘Gender in Development.’” Gender and Development 5, no. 2(1997): 10, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4030434.

[8] Hurston, 12.

[9] Hurston, 21.

[10] Hurston, 26-27.

[11] Julie A. Haurykiewicz “From Mules to Muliebrity: Speech and Silence in ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God.’” The Southern Literary Journal 29, no. 2 (1997): 53, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20078182.

[12] Haurykiewicz, “From Mules,” 53.

[13] Haurykiewicz, “From Mules,” 53.

[14] Hurston, 14.

[15]  Hurston, 53.

[16] Megan J. Adelson, et al. “Longitudinal Associations Between Household Labor Division Inequity and Conflict Among Newlywed Couples.” Journal of Family Issues 42, no. 12 (Dec. 2021): 2861–80, https://doi-org.ezproxy.utica.edu/10.1177/0192513X21993185.

[17] Cornwall, “From ‘Gender in Development,’” 1997.

[18] Cornwall, “From ‘Gender in Development,’” 10.

[19] Hurston, 35.

[20] Yamilex Bencosme. “Beauty Is Pain: Black Women’s Identity and Their Struggle with Embracing Their Natural Hair.” Perspectives (University of New Hampshire) 9, no.1 (Jan. 2017): 1, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,url,uid&db=sxi&AN=127094192&site=ehost-live.

[21] Claude M. Steele “A Threat in the Air: How Stereotypes Shape Intellectual Identity and Performance.” American Psychologist 52, no. 6 (June 1997): 627, https://doi-org.ezproxy.utica.edu/10.1037/0003-066X.52.6.613.

[22] Hurston, 86.

[23]  Hurston, 107.

[24] Hurston, 102.

[25] Hurston, 132.

[26] Norma J. Burgess. “Gender Roles Revisited: The Development of the ‘Woman’s Place’ Among African American Women in the United States.” Journal of Black Studies 24, no. 4 (1994): 391–401, accessed March 9, 2023http://www.jstor.org/stable/2784560.

[27] Tracy L. Bealer “‘The Kiss of Memory’: The Problem of Love in Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God.’” African American Review 43, no. 2/3 (2009): 311–27, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41328609.

[28]  Hurston, 2.

[29] Hurston, 2.

[30] Hurston, 2.

Juliana Pronti

Juliana Pronti majored in English and Minored in English Language at Utica University. She is currently obtaining her Juris Doctorate from Syracuse University College of Law. Her research interests include societal expectations, community, gender, intersectionality, familial dynamics, and individuality. Juliana’s goal is to utilize her undergraduate research within the profession of law to positively impact contemporary society in any way she can.