Many people debate if Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a feminist novel. We discussed this briefly in class, and people had good points for both sides of the argument. I don't think that Hurston specifically wrote this book with the thought of writing a feminist novel, but I do think that the book has important feminist ideas. Especially for the time that Their Eyes Were Watching God was written, it is significant on its own just to have a female character as the lead in the book. The lead character, Janie, makes her own decisions even when being forced into an arranged marriage. She leaves Logan, whom she did not love and moved on to Joe Starks and eventually Tea Cake.
One of the arguments against this book being a feminist novel is that Janie’s life still revolves around finding the right man to marry and settle down with. I agree that this is not a very forward plot, but Janie does eventually come to a time, after Joe dies, where she is content living alone.
After Joe’s death, Janie talks to Pheoby about her grief:
“Tain’t dat Ah worries over Joe’s death, Pheoby. Ah jus’ loves dis freedom.”
“Sh-sh-sh! Don't let nobody hear you say dat, Janie. Folks will say you ain’t sorry he’s gone.”
“Let ‘em say whut dey wants tuh, Pheoby. To my thinkin’ mourning oughtn’t tuh last no longer’n grief.”
In this quote, Janie acknowledges that she likes the freedom of not having a man. At this point, when Tea Cake comes around, Janie is not actively searching for a partner, but she falls for Tea Cake because she truly likes him. Based on Janie’s mindset before meeting Tea Cake, it seems like Janie would have been perfectly fine being alone had she not met Tea Cake.
I do see this as a feminist book, even if it still revolves around Janie’s life in relation to other men. Janie gets married off at a very young age into a relationship that she isn't happy in, and she has the agency to leave and find a better life for herself. After going through a big part of her life married to Joe Starks, Janie finally realized that she likes being alone and doesn't want or need to get married again. Even if Hurston didn't write this book with the specific intent of writing a feminist novel, it is definitely an important aspect to the book, especially considering that female leads in books were almost non-existent at the time it was written.
I think that the message of this novel is relatively ambiguous: it could be seen as a feminist novel with Janie as the heroine, but on a more direct level it is a love story. Her love with Tea Cake is depicted as unwavering and I believe that this is the main 'message' Hurston was trying to send.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. This is a feminist novel in the way that Janie is a strong female character who acts how she chooses. I feel like I have heard some people talk about how the book isn't feminist enough, but what about it isn't? Just because it is the whole book is about her relationship with different men she is not fazed by them and does what she chooses.
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