Znh Zora Neale Hurston\'s Their

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Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God tracks the life of protagonist Janie Crawford. Told in Janie's first-person narration, the novel reveals themes of gender roles and relationships. Crawford has had a tragic life. Through three marriages, Crawford has experienced physical and mental abuse. She also contends with social isolation and the judging eyes of her traditional African-American community in northern Florida. Hurston addresses gender inequity as being universal but also related to race, class, and culture.

Crawford was raised by her grandmother Nanny, who was raped as a slave. Nanny wants her granddaughter to have an easier life than she, so encourages Janie to marry a well-off farmer named Logan Killicks. In the opening chapters of the book, Hurston shows how women's lives are conscripted into marriage. Nanny has good intentions for Janie, but still attempts to restrict Janie's independence through an arranged marriage. Janie understands the difference between a socially expedient relationship and one build on love, trust, and mutual respect. When Nanny dies, Janie elopes with a different man than the one that Nanny had chosen for her, Jody.

Both Logan and Jody treat Janie poorly because of her gender. Logan wants Janie to work in the fields, which is ironic considering her grandmother chosen Logan so that Janie could have an easy life. Then Jody restricts Janie's behavior on several occasions such as by preventing her from making a speech, resisting emotional intimacy, and insulting her intelligence. He also feels threatened by her sexuality and makes Janie wear her hair in rags so that the men in town will not be attracted to her. Yet he remains fixated on Janie's appearance and views her as a symbol of his potency. In Chapter 6, Janie points out men treat women like animals and ultimately Jody proves her right by beating her.

When Jody dies, Janie experiences liberation for the first time. She contemplates her life as an independent woman rather than as her role as a wife, and resists developing another relationship. Her independence is unconventional, and Phoebe tells her so. Unmarried women do not have a place in a traditional southern society. Gender roles are strictly proscribed in Southern society. The way the community perceives Janie is a continual theme in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Social conventions restrict the role of women, preventing them from being self-sufficient and independent. Janie seems unable to find a man who treats her as her equal. Through Janie, Hurston suggests that gender roles are socialized. Janie longs to be free of restrictive gender norms.

Janie eventually falls in love with Tea Cake, which raises issues related to gender and class. The townsfolk disapprove of Janie's relationship with Tea Cake because he is poor and has a low social status. Janie does not mind that Tea Cake is poor, which proves her desire to be in a relationship built solely on love. The couple takes off together and get married, starting a new life in the Everglades. However, Tea Cake steals from Janie and at some point begins to beat her. Her having to kill Tea Cake in self-defense is a symbolic move for Janie. She liberates herself and triumphs over the adversity that comes from unbridled sexism.