Summary:
In the novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" written by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie the protagonist is seen by critics as having no voice. For all women silence knows no boundaries of race or culture, and Janie is no exception.
Breaking Through
In the novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" written by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie the protagonist is seen by critics as having no voice. For all women silence knows no boundaries of race or culture, and Janie is no exception. Hurston characterizes Janie with the same silence that women at that time & period were forced into, (complete submission.) "Women were to be seen and not heard." Janie spends forty years of her life, learning to achieve/find, her voice against the over-ruling and dominate men in her life. But in the end Janie comes out the victor, breaking the silence. In her essay "What do Feminist Critics Want"" Gilbert states, "Like Wagner's master singers....men had the power of speech,[but]....women like Emily Dickinson, knew that they had, or were supposed to have, the graceful obligation of silence."(34) To question the male voice in "Their Eyes" is an important aspect of the genre which contributes to the story as a whole. Furthermore it is to discover the ways in which the male voice affected Janie's. Weather it be physical or mental, the reader [if reading close] can surpass Janie's verbal silence and allow just her presence to speak for her. Janie's actions are what makes her someone to pay attention to. By first understanding that Janie was silent (verbally)through most of the novel, does not mean she was not heard. Her presence demands respect and by doing so, the reader will find and appreciate Janie as a whole, and not just a "Black Woman" whose voice had been hindered by societies bias. Mary Helen Washington states in her critical essay on Their Eyes, "Ourattentiveness to the possibility that women are excluded categorically from the language of the dominant discourse should help us be aware of the inadequacy of language, its inability to represent female experience, its tendency not only to silence women but to make women complicitous in that silence."(28) I will show in this essay that Janie did not need to be verbally out spoken to be heard. Janie's actions are stronger than words, Janie's trial at the end of the novel, proves, Janie's silence to be more powerful than articulation.
Hurston uses the narrative consciousness in Their Eyes, to characterize those who are silent and lack their own voice, by doing this Hurston gives depth, to those whose voices, are heard. Throughout the entire novel, the development of the male voice seems to parallel the development of Janie's. The men in Janie's life have voices, and it is by her relationships with these men, that Janie's voice gets stronger. Janie becomes more self confident with each relationship she endures. Hurston, by using the consciousness narrative, is actually speaking for Janie; the narrator and Janie are like one. This might be the reason that Hurston gives little voice to Janie's character. Janie is not silenced in the novel, she is expressed through the narrative. Which if the reader does not close read, the reader will not comprehend this aspect of Hurston's novel.
Passion and control correspond to voice and silence, as expressed by the three relationships in Janie's life. Hurston brings together the men and women in her novel, comparing Janie's personal growth to the three significant men in her life ( Logan, Starks, Tea Cake, which all three were her husband.) In Janie's life her first two marriages represent control, the last marriage to Tea Cake represents passion. Janie's first marriage to Logan is not for love, it is for security. Furthermore, Logan due to his emotional inadequacy and lack of self expression
hinders his voice by not expressing his hurt or disappointment to Janie. This becomes a turning point for Janie and a chance for her self expression to surface, exposing her silenced voice. Janie's first step in showing the reader she is not one to be counted out....not just yet. Through the narrative the reader comes to understand Logan's emotions and fears. Unfortunately, Janie never hears his voice; it may be that Janie leaves Logan for Joe Starks just because of this flaw in his character. Janie's inability to express her self also contributes to her leaving Logan and running off with Starks.
Starks, with his energy and enthusiasm "rescues" Janie from the "mule and plow." But it is then that Janie blindly gives up her physical freedom for an emotional prison, which Starks puts upon her .Unfortunately Stark is interested in property, prestige, and financial security, as these represent control and change in his life. Starks wants a wife who stays home and takes care of her man. Janie is only allowed to associate with the community at a superficial level, as Starks keeps her on the edge of Eatonville society. Janie's interest and love for Starks falls apart for two reasons, the first is that Starks switches all of his energy that he used to charm Janie in becoming his wife and directs it towards the community to further his own aspirations. Second,Starks success depends on his voice and hindering that of Janie's. When Starks is elected mayor, Tony asks Janie to say a few words, but Starks interrupts:
Thank yuh fuh yo' compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin' 'bout speech-makin'. Ah never married for nothin' lak dat. She's uh woman and her place is in de home. Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn't too easy....It must have been the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything one way or another that took the bloom off of things. (40- 41)
Janie's voice and independence continue to grow while she is married to Starks:
....one day she sat and watched the shadow of herself going about tending store and prostrating itself before Jody, while all the time she herself sat under a shady tree with the wind blowing through her hair and her clothes....After a while [this vision] got so common she ceased to be surprised....In a way it was good because it reconciled her to things.(73)
Janie learns to separate her mind and her spirit from her physical surroundings, Janie thus has taken a step towards attaining her own voice, and controlling her own life. Janie starts to challenge her husband with words, and makes it clear that he has not completely devoured her reason for being by crushing her voice. Janie uses her voice eventually to emasculate her husband publicly on the porch of their store in Eatonville. "When you pull down yo' brithes, you look lak de change uh life' " (75). Starks is so humiliated before his friends he is unable to respond to Janie verbally, so he slaps her instead. Later in the novel Janie still in pursuit of her growing voice assaults Starks once again verbally. But this time it is when Starks is on his death bed.
....you ain't de Jody ah run off down de road wid. You'se whuts left after he died....Ah run off tuh keep house wid you in uh wonderful way. But you wasn't satisfied wid me de way Ah was. Naw! Mah own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowed out tuh make room for your in me.(82)
Starks had begun their marriage by hindering Janie's voice, but at the end, his own voice is suppressed by his lack of internal thoughts and emotions. As Starks lies there dead, Janie thinks about his life, exposing Hurston's idea that voice can be created and that individuals can influence the outcome of one's life.
Freeing her hair from the kerchief that Starks made her wear, Janie sees her complete self
in the mirror. No longer a reflection or a creation of her husband Starks, but a free, beautiful, strong, and unique individual, with the power to voice herself and become strong on her own. Janie creates for her self the face and voice the community expects from her upon the announcement of Starks death. .
Tea Cake is the love of Janie's life, she gives her self to him both physically and mentally. Tea Cake has no aspirations to hinder Janie's voice or to subdue her into submission as Logan and Starks did before. Tea Cake plays a big part in Janie expressing her self by strengthening her voice and giving it individuality:
Before the week was over he had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior had justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him. Being able to whip her reassured him in possession. No brutal beating at all. He just slapped her around a bit ti show he was boss. (140)
This particular violence shows a direct correlation between the male voice and fear of expression. This is the case with Janie's marriage to Starks also. This shows the reader the inability of males to express themselves verbally, Tea Cake is no exception. (Although one wishes he was). While the hurricane is approaching, "the time was past for asking the white folks what to look for through that door. Six eyes were watching God" (151). At this point Janie seems voiceless; it seems to the reader that she has transferred her will to Tea Cake, who in turn encourages Janie to move toward the cow, putting her in a precarious position with the dog. She slides down the cow's tail, away from the animal who would attack her, Tea Cake attacks the dog instead. Janie
survives the hurricane but Tea Cake becomes rabid from the dog bite. Tea Cake no longer comprehends reality and tries to kill Janie. Janie's only defense is to shoot Tea Cake before he
shoots her.
Although Hurston tells us that Janie speaks at her trail, we do not hear her, and Hurston effectively uses Janie's silence during her trial before an all-white, all male jury-the same representatives of white society that Tea Cake had deferred to-to emphasize their ultimate insignificance. Tea Cake pays the price-his life for his silence, while Janie fosters her own life, in her silence.
Through the narrative the reader knows Janie speaks at her trial and is effective, because Janie is acquitted and released immediately. But Hurston does not allow the reader to engage in her voice. Hurston does not allow Janie's speech to the all-white jury to be reproduced, as it would have detracted from the significance of her self-defense, and from the voice she expresses in defending her life from Tea Cake. Hurston shows that her characters' voices have been influenced by people's subjection to a dominant authority. Hurston indicates that voice may be personal and yet move into the universal. At the end of the novel, Janie's voice is heard and recognized by Pheoby, who will share it with the community later. Finally there is a unity within Janie that allows her to share her self with others. Janie has found her voice, and she can choose when and how to express it when defining who she is.
Works Cited
Gilbert, Sandra M. "What Do Feminist Critics Want? A Postcard from the volcano." ADE Bulletin 66 (1980).Rpt.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper, 1998.
Wall, Cheryl A. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Casebook. New York: Oxford, 2000.
This is the complete article, containing 1,853 words
(approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page).
