"Their Eyes Were Watching God" Question 3

What universal themes does this book address?  A big one is definitely of gender.  The entire book is of Janie either being forced out of or forced into the typical roles of a women.  With her first husband he tries to force his roles as the man in the field upon her.  Logan doesn't do this because he thinks that Janie wants to be out there with him and helping out, he does this because he is a lackadaisical jerk.  Janie's next husband restricts her to the most typical of women-roles.  She isn't to ever talk or express her opinion, in public or at home even, she must always be dressed appropriately and have her hair up in a tight bun, and she is forced to run the store that he himself built.  In literal and metaphorical terms, Janie just really wants to let her hair down.  The male figure ruling her, however does not let her.  Another theme that is prominent in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" was of love.  The protagonist of the story's, Janie, main goal is to find love.  That is it.  She just wants someone to love her and she love them back and to experience true and pure love.  Her first marriage she must learn the hard way that love does not come from marriage, but marriage come from love.  During her next marriage she learns that people can change and it is not always for the better and if you do not truly love a person, it is near impossible to stick with them.  She never really loved Joe, her second husband, she just loved the idea of being married to him and what it could provide.  Lastly, you have Tea Cake.  (I still haven't gotten over his name.  I keep wanting to type Tea Cup.)  Her one true love.  Their relationship exemplifies what true love is and it what is should be.  That is until he contracts rabies and Janie is forced to shoot him out of self-defense...besides that!  Zora Neale Hurston understand a lot about love and how humans tend to not understand it at all.  She conveys through this book that we struggle big time with making it work because we're so eager to please others and ourselves.  She also understands that we are capable of learning from out mistakes and making it right for ourselves, as Janie does in this novel.  



 Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.