To The Horizon & Back (Ch.9-20)

For the rest of the book, we see the change in Janie's character as she finally accomplishes her freedom and finds herself -her horizon. As soon as Jodie dies, Janie feels free in a way she had never felt before and immediately starts wearing her long hair down again as a sign of her freedom, which is a recurring theme in the story. She feels better than ever since from an early age, she was used to being controlled first by Nanny and then by Logan Killicks and Jodie. However, she decides to keep her happiness hidden to avoid judgements from the townspeople of Eatonville, since she basically still is the "mayors wife". Within a period of six months, Janie stops using black clothes and eventually stops caring about what the people of Eatonville can say about her, which marks the beginning of Janie's change. She also realizes that she despises Nanny for making her believe that love was about marrying the man with most money. Tea Cake is soon introduced in Their Eyes Were Watching God, as a young and handsome man who catches Janie's attention even though he is more than 10 years younger than her. Janie feels attracted towards Tea Cake because he starts treating her in a way that no other man had ever treated her. He considers her an equal, unlike Jodie, and brings out the best of her like no one ever has. At first, Janie can't believe that a younger man would be able to take her seriously but she realizes how much Tea Cake loves her and decides to be with him.

The townspeople soon start talking about the relationship that is going on between the mayors wife and Tea Cake but Janie doesn't really care anymore about the gossip. Pheoby tries to warn her but Janie refuses to listen and tells her that she is moving out of Eatonville with Tea Cake. They move to Jacksonville hoping for a good life together. Tea Cake is shown as a wise gambler and even though he is different from the other men in Janie's life, he somehow manages to manipulate her into believing everything he says, for example when he stole her money to make a party for his colleagues and she didn't even get mad. Tea Cake and Janie move out of Jacksonville to go live in the Everglades where Tea Cake promises to work on the field. Janie feels welcome in this new town as she manages to walk 'towards her horizon'. Tea Cake convinces Janie to work in the fields with him because he misses her during the day. One day, Janie finds Nunkie flirting with Tea Cake and jealousy overwhelms her, but Tea Cake manages to, once again, prove to her that she is the only woman for him. 

In the Everglades, Janie meets Mrs. Turner, a black woman that despite of her race, thinks that blacks are inferior and expresses her racist views towards colored folks. She believes that there should be a way to lighten up the race and she also controls her husband; which is something that Janie has never experienced before. During one of her crazy talks, Mrs. Turner brings up her light skinned brother and tells Janie that she should marry him. When Mrs. Turner's brother gets to town Tea Cake feels threatened and hits Janie to show Mrs. Turner and her brother, as well as Janie, that he possesses her and has power over her. Janie is so in love with him that she doesn't even bother the beating and doesn't realize that history might be repeating itself. 

Some time later, Janie and Tea Cake are told that there is a storm coming to the Everglades, but they ignore the news and decide to stay instead of going upland. The hurricane arrives and scared by its strength and the flood that has started to form, Janie, Tea Cake and Motor Boat (one of the only men who stayed in town) decide to make their way out and to Palm Beach. The hurricane is the climax of the story and what changes Janie's life forever acting as a threatening force and something that pushes her off her path of finding her horizon. As they are dragged by the flood Janie gets attacked by a dog with rabies and Tea Cake saves her but gets bitten on the cheek. They get to Palm Beach, where the recurring theme of racism is portrayed, when even dead bodies are segregated; white bodies get to be put inside coffins while black bodies are just thrown inside pits. 

Janie and Tea Cake go back to the Everglades to find  lot of destruction but glad that many familiar people are still alive. Tea Cake soon starts feeling paranoid and becomes delusional as the effects of the bite of the dog with rabies start acting upon him. He goes insane and accuses her of being with Mrs. Turner's brother and of treating him wrongly; something that he would have never said in his sane state. One day, Janie finds Tea Cake's loaded gun and loads it so that no bullet will come out when it is fired. When he aims it towards her and fires 3 times (without bullets coming out) she has no choice but to shoot him with a rifle that ironically Tea Cake had taught her to use. Janie is put on trial for murder that same day but is found not guilty when her testimony proves her to be a woman who loved her husband and only killed him for her own protection. Janie decides to go back to Eatonville, since her life in the Everglades is now pointless. She tells Pheoby that she has been to the "horizon and back" and doesn't care about the gossip. That night, Janie thinks about the day when she killed Tea Cake but even though Tea Cake is dead, Janie knows she has found the horizon that she had wanted since she was a little girl.

"They sat in company with the others... They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God." This quote appears when Janie, Tea Cake and Motor Boat seek refuge from the hurricane and are united by the same force (God). It shows how belief in something can be so powerful and uniting and God is probably the reason why they made it out alive from the storm.  

"Of course he wasn't dead. He could never be dead until she saw herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fishnet. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see." This quote represents how Tea Cake will always be alive for Janie for all the things he ever did for her and for helping her gain her freedom and being part of it. She was able to find the love she had always wished for since those days under the pear tree, as well as her freedom (horizon) that she finally manages to "drape over her shoulder".     

Their Eyes Were Watching God really impressed me. I never imagined that Janie would end up killing the love of her life; the person that had helped her get to the horizon and back. This book showed me the drastic paths that life can take and how we should always be prepared for everything; hoping for the best but expecting the worst. It also showed me the importance of finding oneself and knowing who you are in order to life your life. 

Welcome to Eatonville (Ch.4-8)

Their Eyes Were Watching God continues when Janie decides to run off with Joe Starks, a handsome man that catches her attention when Logan goes off to buy a mule for her to work. Joe, who asks Janie to call him Jodie, tells her that a beautiful girl like her shouldn’t be working and tries to convince her to escape with him to the new town being built by blacks. After a fight with Logan, Janie decides to go meet Jodie and they immediately get married. When they get to Eatonville, Jodie is disappointed to see that the town only consists of a few little houses and that there is no mayor. There they meet Lee Coker and Amos Hicks, two residents of Eatonville who make an attempt to attract Janie but they fail. Jodie decides to buy 200 more acres for Eatonville as well as to build a store and a post office and he soon becomes the mayor. He buys the first streetlamp for the town, which becomes a source of pride and unfortunately he starts pushing Janie away. Jodie becomes the authority of Eatonville and no one dares to challenge him, not even Janie when he obligates her to put her hair up.

Other than that, Jodie prohibits Janie to talk with the townspeople because she is “superior” since she is the mayor’s wife. Janie and Jodie start their first big argument because she tells him that he is not fun to be with; he tells her that he is being responsible. Here Sam Watson (Pheoby’s husband) and Lige Moss are introduced as they discuss on Joe’s porch; Janie stops to listen to their talk but she is sent back to work. Hezekiah Potts, the store assistant, is also mentioned. Jodie and Janie continue to fight over time and Jodie hits Janie for the first time after 7 years of being together, but she has no other choice than to remain silent. As time goes by, Janie keeps everything inside and refuses to fight back. Jodie is growing old and looks worse everyday but he keeps on tormenting Janie with his words and mocks her, until one day Janie stands up to him. Ashamed of Janie’s response, Jodie moves to another room in the house and never treats Janie the same way again. His kidneys stop working and he will die soon so Janie decides to talk to him one last time; she tells him that he never let her show her real emotions. Jodie dies and Janie is free from the tyranny of her husband.

    

Love, or lack of love, is a recurring theme in this book, since Janie is always in search of it but can’t really find it. Somewhere along chapter 6, Janie starts to realize that leaving her prior husband for Joe might have been a mistake. Janie had fallen in love with Jodie because he had promised her “the world” but instead, she ends up getting more mistreatment than ever. Jodie and Janie’s marriage starts to fall apart; he forces her to work in the store and doesn’t even let her talk with the townspeople. He shows no affection towards her and she learns to remain silent whenever he orders her –even though it is unfair: “No matter what Jodie did, she said nothing,” (76). Janie realizes that, although she had been married to him for half of her life, love lacks in their relationship and Joe eventually starts hitting her. Courage, a minor symbol in the story is present when Janie finally stands up to Joe because she is tired of his mocks towards women and herself: “ …Talkin’ ‘bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo britches, you look lak de change uh life,” (79).    

Death is the most important theme in these chapters because when Jodie gets really sick, Janie realizes that death doesn’t stop or wait for anyone and she is scared. “So Janie began to think of Death… What need has Death for cover, and what winds can blow against him? He stands in his high house that overlooks the world. Stands watchful and motionless all day with his sword drawn back, waiting for the messenger to bid him come. Been standing there before there was a where or a when or a then,” (84). Janie knows that she might be far from dying but she is growing old and that is inevitable. She sort of feels sorry foe Jodie’s condition and regrets not having treated him better. Both of them are scared of what Death might bring but they know that there is no way to fight it. When Jodie dies, Janie goes to the mirror and lets her hair fall, which represents freedom. “The young girl was gone but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore of the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there,” (87). Janie was finally free to do what she wanted.   

Since Jodie has died, I really look forward to figuring out what Janie will do next. I am waiting for the moment when she finally meets Tea Cake, since she said in the first chapter that he was her only real love.

Let's Meet Janie (Ch. 1,2&3)

Their Eyes Were Watching God starts when Janie, the main character, returns to Eatonville, Florida after one and a half years. The story is told in third person point of view, omniscient, and contains plenty of dialogue. As the book opens, the townspeople stare at Janie and criticize her appearance –overalls and her long black hair- as well as her unexpected return. They are surprised that Janie confidently passes in front of them but doesn’t even stop to say hi and they wonder if the man she ran away with –Tea Cake, who was ten years younger that Janie, has taken her money and left her. This is the point in the story where the theme of judgment is first shown; the porch sitters “sat in judgment” (1). “What she doin coming back here in dem overhalls?... Wat dat ole forty year ole ‘oman doin’ wid her hair swingin’ down her back lak some young gal? –Where she left dat young lad of a boy she went off here wid?” (2). Considering the fact that Janie is different from the women in her town, I think that judgment will continue to appear in the novel as a main theme.

As the porch sitters continue to talk badly about Janie, Pheoby, her best friend, tries to defend her. She hasn’t seen her in very long but she tells the gossipers that Janie doesn’t have to share her personal information. She goes and takes Janie a plate of rice where readers discover that they have been friends since forever; that Pheoby is caring and trusting. Janie informs Pheoby about Tea Cakes death, and starts telling her life story, where we are introduced to many characters…

We are first introduced to Nanny, Janie’s loving and caring grandmother who had always wanted the best for Janie. Nanny was born during slavery and was a slave herself; she was raped by her master and had Leafy (Janie’s mother) who was born ½ white. When Leafy was a teenager, she was raped by her school teacher, got pregnant, and as soon as she gave birth to Janie she ran away, leaving Nanny to take care of her daughter. Nanny wants to make sure that Janie has everything she needs and deserves and decides to marry her to Logan Killicks, a wealthy farmer, who will offer Janie protection when Nanny dies. “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection,”(15). Janie and Logan marry but she cannot get herself to love him.   

During the first three chapters of the book many symbols show up. I think that an important symbol is Janie’s hair and clothing when she arrives at Eatonville. Her appearances reflect her attitude and personality and her way of being unique and different from what people expect her to be. She is forty years old and still decides to have long hair, which people around her criticize. I think this represents her rebellion towards woman standards. I think that the overalls she wears show that she is not like all the women in Eatonville who wear dresses just to blend in with the community and be accepted; she doesn’t want any of this and prefers being herself.

“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches,” (8). The pear tree in Nanny’s backyard is an important symbol in these chapters. Janie thinks of herself as the tree and the composition of the leaves are what make up her life. The tree is blooming during springtime and she is obsessed with it. This tree represents love, marriage, and loss of innocence for Janie. “She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her,” (11).  She observes how it blossoms and the branches and flowers connect with each other and while she is overwhelmed by these emotions that the tree provokes, she recieves her first kiss from Johnny Taylor.  

From what I've read, Their Eyes Were Watching God is a book that I will probably enjoy. I like how the story started with Janie returning to her town and it continued with a flashback of her life. I look forward to finding out what else has happened in the life of this interesting woman. Janie's character is very interesting for me because she is not afraid to be who she is and say what she feels and I think that her attitude is what will make her story more interesting.