Zora
Neale Hurston's “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is set in Southern Florida in
the 1920s, a time of segregation. Therefore, the majority of the characters in
the story are black. The book is arranged in an end-to-flashbacks arrangement,
as it begins with Janie in her late-life, reflecting on the rest of her life
which is presented chronologically as a flashback.
The exposition of the true
story begins with Janie as a child living with her grandmother. Life is fairly
easy for Janie, though she has occasional conflicts with her grandmother. Her
contradictions with her grandmother eventually grow to a point when Janie is
forced to marry Logan, a man who she neither loves nor wants to love. This is
the beginning of the true conflicts in Janie's life. These conflicts consist of
the free spirit and huge dreams that Janie has clashing with the expectations
of her grandmother, her husbands, and the communities in which she finds
herself.
As her first marriage, to Logan, falls apart, Janie runs off with Joe
Starks, a handsome, promising man with goals as big as Janie's dreams. As they
moved to a new town, Joe becomes the governor and brings order to the town,
starting a store and organizing the community. Janie and Joe live happily
together for a time, but Janie began to feel the repression of Joe's strong
will and expectations for Janie's role in the marriage. This drove them to a
painful halt in the loving relationship they had at first. They stayed married,
however, until Joe's death.
After Joe's death, Janie feels a certain freedom
and renewal of youth. She then runs away and gets married to a younger man
named Tea Cake. This is where the dreams she had as a child seem to take their
form.
The rising action begins with a hurricane in Florida which threatens to
destroy the life Janie and Tea Cake have built. Both survive the hurricane, but
Tea Cake was bitten by a rabid dog and becomes very ill. This illness leads to
the climax of the story, when Tea Cake and Janie are both holding guns, Tea
Cake out of insanity and Janie out of self-defense. The climax resolves with
Janie shooting Tea Cake, Janie being put on trial and freed, and Janie
returning to the town where she lived with Joe so many years before.
by Jenna Gullickson
