Chapter 1-4

1. Chapter 1-4 Their Eyes Were Watching God

2. Chapter 1 • “Backwards” • Literary Technique • The frame device for telling the story (Flashback) • The narrator begins by declaring “This is the experience I have undergone” • Important to remember the frame inside which the action is set • Novel is told almost entirely in metaphor • Metaphorical language is a central point of black language • Personification • Distinction between men and women • Hurston believes that men and women have different ways of dreaming. Important to examine the differences between men and women

3. Chapter 1 • Motifs – repeated symbols • The horizon • Ships on the horizon are dreams that are unattainable. The horizon represents the realm of dreams, and the realm of the unattainable • The porch • Porches are a place of community assembly. The only place where people can truly feel human. Place where Janie tells her story – another examples of community and communication • Hair • Janie’s hair is thick, young, and dances with nature

4. Chapter 2 • Pear Tree • Metaphor for Janie. It blooms and blossoms as Janie does. The first paragraph articulates the metaphor. • Although much of the novel is told exclusively in third person, certain sentences like “So this was marriage!” allow the reader to hear Janie’s thoughts through the narrator’s voice • The voices of Hurston and Janie merge  technique is called free indirect discourse  the voice of the main character is merged with the narrator

5. Chapter 2 • Janie has the power to see only what she wants to see • She projects her dream into a world and transcends reality • Janie’s power comes from the fact that she grew up believing she was no different from the white children • Gate • Another important symbol • Janie kisses Johnny over a gate post • Gates symbolize beginings, openings into new worlds or new stages in life • However, Janie does not open the gate; she does not actually leave her childhood entirely. She kisses Johnny over the gate post; therefore, she only leaves her childhood for a moment and then returns to it

6. Chapter 3 • First illustration of how different Janie is from other black women • Miserable in her marriage and Nanny seems puzzled as to why • Logan has power because he owns land – Nanny wants Janie to have this power • Janie is a natural woman • She grew up under a pear tree watching the bees spread pollen. For this reason, the “land” is not enough to make Janie happy in her marriage • She wants things sweet in her marriage, like under the pear tree

7. Chapter 3 • Gate reappears • When Janie feels she is unhappy in her marriage, she begins to look over the gate • The gate signifies a new beginning, a new experience, or a new adventure • Janie’s peering over the gate foreshadows that her life is about to change

8. Chapter 4 • Relationship with Logan ends • Logan stops talking to her in rhymes (for Janie, rhymes are linked to love) • Logan stops looking at her long black hair (Janie’s hair is symbolic of who she is) • Logan also starts to criticize her – he calls her spoiled and lazy • Joe Starks fulfills many of the things that are lacking in Janie’s life • He reminds her that she is young and beautiful and appeals to her need of having a friend that is the same that she is

9. Chapter 4 • They have a love for sugar in water; sweet water is a treat that young children like • Joe thinks big • He thinks of the big horizon, whereas Logan dreams extend no further than his sixty acres of land • The horizon is an important motif in the novel • Janie too, has high hopes • Her relationship with Logan is stifling because he inhibits her need for dreaming big dreams and trying to fulfill them • She explains her dissatisfaction with Logan’s shallow horizons when she says, “You don’t take nothin’ to cound but sow-belly and corn bread.”

10. Chapter 4 • Although Janie does dream of the far horizon, she does not “represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees.” • Pollen and blooming trees are metaphors for true love • This chapter provides some foreshadowing that although Joe Starks fulfills Janie’s need for a relationship with a person that loves the horizon as she does, Joe may not fulfill all of her needs • Nonetheless, Janie runs out the gate to meet Joe • The gate is a symbol of new adventure. She hopes that Joe will be a “bee for her bloom.”