Their Eyes Were Watching God

1. Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

2. Main character • Janie is a black woman who, throughout the course of the story, searches for her identity and independence. She is considered very beautiful and has very strong character. Janie never looks in a mirror or knows what she looks like until Tea Cake tells her she’s beautiful

3. Setting: • The story begins in a back woods area of Southern Florida • It then follows Janie to Eatonville, a small all-black town in Southern Florida. • After leaving Eatonville, Janie and her husband, Tea Cake, move down to the Everglades, near Lake Okechobee to pursue better work and pay

4. The Story • Janie is an orphan who is raised by her grandmother. There isn’t much said about her parents other than her father was dead and her mother had run off. • She is married of at the age of 16 to an old landowner named Logan Killicks. Killicks treats Janie as nothing more than a possession, she is to work and accommodate his needs, nothing more. It was not Janie’s wish to marry so young or her choice of partner but her grandmother’s wish before she died was to see her safely married and well taken care of. • But Janie is a romantic and once she realizes that she will never love her old and crochety husband, she decides to find a way out.

5. The Story (Continued) • Janie’s savior arrives in the form of a man named Joe Starks. Joe is a man with a plan to build little Eatonville up into a respectable town just for colored people. He sweeps Janie off her feet with talk of big dreams and building a life together. • Things go well for Joe over the next years and the town flourishes, but Janie does not. She begins to realize Joe wants control and his overbearing use of power suppresses Janie. • Starks and Janie remain married for 20 years and during this time Janie manages to meekly bear Joe’s oppressiveness. Until one day Joe goes too far and Janie stands up for herself. Soon after Joes becomes sick and dies, leaving Janie a wealthy and well respected widow.

6. The Story (Continued) • Although many suitors are attracted by Janie’s fortune, she remains uninterested. Until a special young man, Tea Cake, comes along and allows Janie to be who she really is. They fall in love and elope to the Everglades. • Here Janie is truly happy. She finds comraderie with the people there, and love with Tea Cake. • But nothing can last forever, and a hurricane strikes the Everglades, decimating the town Janie and her husband lived in, and while trying to save Janie from a rabid dog during the storm, Tea Cake is bitten and contracts rabies. One month later he dies. • Although she has weathered many struggles and tragedies, Janie is able to find her identity and emerge a strong, courageous, and independent woman.