A famous Afro-American writer Zora Neale Hurston created her second novel Their Eyes Were Watching God in Haiti in 1936. In 1937, the novel was published in the United States. According to Awkward, coming into the world Their Eyes Were Watching God drew scathing criticism in American literary groups for “a seriously flawed text”. Alaine Locke, her Howard University teacher, cherishes Hurston’s literary talent but criticizes the novel for over-simplification of Afro-American situation) at that time. The other literary critic, Richard Wright considers the novel as a lacking material that lent itself to ‘significant interpretation’. Moreover, he affixes blame to Hurston for gratifying white audience’s racial biases. Furthermore, the splendid novel had been undeservedly neglected till the early 1980s. Owing to Alice Walker’s, Barbara Jonson’s, and Robert Hemenway’s statements Their Eyes Were Watching God was admitted as one of the important American novels produced during this century. Nowadays, problems depicted in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God are the topical ones and described in essays https://order-essay.org/.

The theme of gender is represented in the novel by traditional stereotypes of roles men and women in life. These typical marital relations are shown in Chapter Four of by an example of Logan’s family when his first wife had to chop wood. He decides that Janie is able to chop and haul wood, handle a mule, plow the fields and plant potatoes besides the all her housework. He even threatened to kill Janie for her refusal to have his manure pile removed. Of course, it is a typical domestic slavery when a husband shirks off his work upon his wife because she is weaker and has to obey him. The other example of the dependent position of a woman is shown in Chapter Five, when Janie’s second husband Joe forbids her to take a floor on account of his election as a Mayor of Eatonville. Again, she was shown her place.

The theme of love covers the entire novel from the very beginning. Readers see unhappy life of both Janie’s mother Leafy and grandmother Nanny. Leafy was raped by her teacher at 17 and ended her life up. They both Leafy and Nanny did not know love. Their life was hard and joyless. Thus, no wonder that Nanny wants Janie to marry because she genuinely believes in Janie’s happiness after that. She gives Janie in marriage to a widower by the name of Logan. Of course, he had money, but Janie does not love him. Moreover, he was much older than she. Janie wants to love. Till her death Nanny assured Janie continuously that love would come. As a result, Janie did not fall in love with Logan. Contrary, she started hating Logan for his rough treatment. Then she meets Joe. He was elder Janie as well, but the girl believed in his love. She thinks her love came. Of course, she was happy with him. It lasted until Joe was elected as a Mayor of Eatonville. At that time, he shows his real face. He not only disregarded Janie’s opinion, but also failed to respect her. Hence, Janie’s fantasy of love as a bee’s flight over a pear-blossom is her childish image of life as a whole. She wants to love and to be loved. Her second husband betrayed her trust. Moreover, her hopes for a happy life were downtrodden by Joe once he showed her place. In the case of Tea Cake, Janie thinks her love became. She is happy and agrees even to work in the field despite her former high position as a Mayor’s wife. She did not consider her hard work as slavery because she was happy. The main problem is that Janie waited for someone to bring love and happiness to her. Of course, she was a strong woman, but she occupied a passive position in life. It is quite possible that she could not have met Tea Cake and would not have known love and happiness.

Hurston expressed her attitude towards sex by describing Janie’s life with her beloved Tea Cake. Hence, Hurston considers that sex should be connected with love. Otherwise, sex might be used as a kind of humiliation of a woman. The most striking instance of that statement is life of Nanny and Leafy. They both were unhappy because of one reason they did not know love. Leafy was raped. It is not impossible that Nanny was raped too. Leafy’s life failed because of that situation. Her descent was due in no small part to a certain public opinion of raped women. In spite of all, Nanny managed to bring up Janie and to give her in marriage. She did her best that her granddaughter was happy. Of course, if Logan had loved Janie and cherished her opinions, they would have been happy. This statement holds for the marriage of Janie and Joe. Hence, Hurston considers Janie’s sex with her two former husbands as the same humiliation of a woman as a rape. Of course, the ideal case when beloved people have sex after their marriage because a lot of reasons for jealousy, disbelieves, various suspicions and other negative aspects are excluded. In this case, marital relations are based on mutual trust and become a passport of success in their life when husbands love each other. In the case of marriage with Logan, Janie had sex after marriage but because of the absence of love she suffered from the marriage. No wonder that the marriage turned into slavery for her. Furthermore, sex without love is equal to the encouragement to one’s animal instincts. It is nothing else but a mutual humiliation of human dignities because of the abovementioned reason.

The theme of race is not central in the novel. It is represented in the Chapter 16 by Mrs. Turner’s statements considered whites as Gods and all Afro-Americans should deify whites. Moreover, the racial confrontation is represented in the Chapter 19 when after the trial, the white community supported Janie and the black one opposed her. Janie was almost white woman, but for Nanny she was considered as an Afro-American. Moreover, her speech and a pattern of thoughts were similar to Afro-Americans. Hurston satirizes Mrs. Turner’s statements for their racial biases and does not concentrate on them. Contrary, Hurston depicts the racial biases of the black community expressed by its jealousy, black racism, gregarious instincts, and its aspiration for destroying their white chiefs.

In the conclusion, the image of God should be mentioned. God is represented by a natural disaster. Overtaken by fear Janie with Tea Cake watched the sky. They felt approaching the death and prayed God for saving them. Then, they saw the God’s wrath. For this reason, the novel is called Their Eyes Were Watching God. After all, a rabid dog bites Tea Cake and Janie had to shot her husband while self defending. Although Janie stays alone, she does not feel loneliness because she lives with memories of her Tea Cake. Was Janie happy or did she think so? Of course, she met the love. Her comparison love with the sea shaped by the shores it meets) is a mere illusion. The probability is that Janie’s husbands tried to put her in their frames with the very purpose to make a perfect maidservant from her. Although the all their attempts failed, Janie is not happy. She does not have any child. It means she does not have a future. Her life is fruitless. Of course, she is an independent woman, but she lives for nothing. She keeps in mind her love, but she cannot bring up a child in her love to Tea Cake. Of course, if she even had adopted a child from an orphan home, her life would have been more meaningful. In this case, Janie would have come into collision with feminists denying the main mission of a woman to give birth to children and bring them up.