English 3Mrs. Schmidt
Literary CriticismMay 19, 2009
Name ______
St Charles East HS LRC
Title:Symbolic representation of identity in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
Author(s):Keiko Dilbeck
Source:The Explicator. 66.2 (Winter 2008): p102. From LiteratureResourceCenter.
Document Type:Critical essay
In TheirEyes Were Watching God, the celebrated novel by Harlem Renaissance writer ZoraNealeHurston, the audience is provided a window into the development of the black female psyche through specific symbols. Hurston's reliance on symbolism in her literature has been emulated by writers such as The Color Purple author Alice Walker and studied by numerous researchers such as Rachel DuPlessis and Lillie Howard. These individuals and others have examined the symbols used in Hurston's literature and the personal relevance of symbols in the author's life, but they have not explored the relationship of these symbols to the main character, Janie--or what Hurston might call the New Negro Woman. (1) Through the symbolic use of the pear tree, mule, and hair, Hurston shows the development of her main character's identity as a woman and an African American.
By the end of the novel, Janie realizes that a woman is to be loved, respected, and self-sufficient, which is manifested through Hurston's use of the pear tree symbol. An anthropologist by training and practice, Hurston may well have known that "in primitive cultures pear trees [...] symbolize the sexuality/fertility of women" (Howard 47). The young Janie's sexuality takes shape as she relaxes underneath a pear tree: "She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver" (Hurston 11). Attuned to the connection between man and woman. Janie desperately wants the love and affection from a man that the tree receives from the pollen-bearing bee: "Oh to be a pear tree--any tree in bloom!" (11). As the novel progresses, this connection becomes fleshed out as she experiences marriage with Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake. Her first marriage with Logan is devastating: "Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree" (13). Janie recognizes that, along with being sexually desired, a woman should be treated with respect and dignity. In Janie's next marriage, with Jody, Hurston builds on the symbolism of the pear tree. Although Jody provides for her financially, he is jealous of the attention Janie receives from other men. In this marriage, Janie realizes that a man should have faith in his wife and give her freedom to experience life: "Janie pulled back a long time because [Jody] did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees" (28). It is not until her final marriage that the dream of the tree is realized. This realization is important because it comes when Janie is nearly forty years old, ripe with life and experience. With Tea Cake, Janie achieves womanhood: "[Tea Cake] looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom--a pear tree blossom in the spring" (101). Not only does he appreciate Janie's beauty, intelligence, and independence, but he also shows her tenderness, trust, and respect.
One of the most curious symbols in TheirEyes is that of the mule, which Hurston uses to develop female identity. Early in the novel, Janie's grandmother explains, "De nigger woman is de mule of de world so far as Ah can see" (Hurston 14). Nanny provides Janie with old-fashioned insight while trying to explain Janie's place in the world as a woman. This correlation between woman and mule appears repeatedly, but never with more meaning than when Janie tires of her first husband, Logan, and runs off with Jody Starks to Eatonville for a life where she is only expected to "sit on de front porch and rock and fan" (28). In Eatonville, she is again disappointed--it is a town full of men who believe that "[s]omebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don't think none themselves" (67). Matt Bonner, one of the residents, is ridiculed for his failure to control his stubborn mule, which is also taunted and abused by the townspeople. Hurston inserts this subplot as a metaphor of Janie and Jody's marriage. Janie expresses empathy for the animal and this is often seen as Janie's "own sense of gender entrapment" (DuPlessis 112). It is interesting to note that once Jody dies and Janie is free to do as she pleases, there are no further references to mules; Janie is free of her "load," no longer required to bear the expectations of men or others. Janie can escape her grandmother's words and realize her true power as a woman and human being--she belongs to no one but herself.
Hair is the most prominent symbol used throughout the text to expound femininity and identity. Janie's hair is what makes her stand out as independent and powerful, as demonstrated when she returns to Eatonville: Hurston notes "the great rope of hair swinging to her waist" (2). The townpeople wonder, "[w]hat dat ole forty year ole "oman doin' wid her hair swingin' down her back lak some young gal?" (2). While married to Jody Starks, the most domineering of Janie's husbands, she was made to bind up her hair up: "Joe never told Janie how jealous he was. He never told her how often he had seen the other men figuratively wallowing in it [...]"(51). When Jody dies, "[s]he tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair" (83). During their twenty-year marriage, Jody asserted himself over Janie: "The tying up of Janie's hair is clearly an exertion of power on Joe's part [...] he sends a message to Janie that her hair is not hers to wear the way she wants" (Ashe 3). The last man in Janie's life is unlike her first two husbands. He says to her shortly after their first meeting: "Ah ain't been sleepin' so good for more'n uh week cause Ah been wishin' so bad tuh git mah hands in yo' hair. It's so pretty. It feels jus' lak underneath uh dove's wing next to mah face" (Hurston 99). Tea Cake treats Janie's hair (womanhood) with considerate devotion, and it is under these circumstances that Janie's identity is her own. One scholar notes," Tea Cake is expressing his love by glorifying in Janie's beauty. He is loving her as she is--not trying to make her into a creation of his own" (Ashe 4). Janie's hair is also a marker of her ethnic identity. She is different from the rest of the Eatonville citizens and those in the muck because she is three-quarters Caucasian and one-quarter African American. Mrs.Tucker, a black woman who "can't stand black niggers," admires Janie's "coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair" (Hurston 135,134). Despite Mrs. Turner's request to "class off," Janie refuses. "Janie's reaction to Mrs. Turner's racialbias, however, indicates that, although Janie's hair is vital to her self-esteem, her racial identity is intact" (Ashe 5).
Examining these significant symbols in TheirEyes is necessary to fully understand Hurston's development of the black female. Historically, these women had been treated like animals, more specifically mules, to carry the burdens of men. Hurston encourages women to rise above this situation; she shows women that it is possible to realize their potential and achieve their aspirations.
NOTE
(1.) Male authors of the Harlem Renaissance often contemplated the struggles and examined the development of the "New Negro." Philosopher and critic Alain Locke stated the New Negro "had to 'smash' all of the racial, social and psychological impediments that had long obstructed black achievement" (Institute for International Visual Arts).
WORKS CITED
Ashe,Bertram D." Why Don't He Like My Hair?: Constructing African-American Standards of Beauty in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon and ZoraNealeHurston's TheirEyes Were Watching God." African American Review 29.4 (1995): 579-92.
DuPlessis, Rachel Blau. "Power, Judgment, and Narrative in a Work of ZoraNealeHurston: Feminist Cultural Studies." New Essays on TheirEyes Were Watching God. Ed. Michael Awkward. New York: Cambridge UP, 1990. 95-123.
Howard. Lillie P., ed. Alice Walker and ZoraNealeHurston: The Common Bond. Westport: Greenwood, 1993.
Hurston, ZoraNeale. TheirEyes Were Watching God. New York City: Perennial, 1990. Institute of International Visual Arts. "The New Negro." Harlem. 8 May 2007 <
Source Citation: Dilbeck, Keiko. "Symbolic representation of identity in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." The Explicator. 66.2 (Winter 2008): p102. LiteratureResourceCenter. Gale. ST CHARLESEASTHIGH SCHOOL. 18 May 2009 <
Gale Document Number: GALE|A184452408