Janie’s Self-Perception in Their Eyes Were Watching God
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the character of Janie Crawford experiences severe ideological conflicts with her grandmother, and the effects of these conflicts are far-reaching indeed. Hurston’s novel of manners, noted for its exploration of the black female experience, fully shows how a conflict with one’s elders can alter one’s self image. In the case of Janie and Nanny, it is Janie’s perception of men that is altered, as well as her perception of self. The conflict between the two women is largely generational in nature, and appears heart-breakingly inevitable.
Hurston’s Nanny has seen a lot of trouble in her life. Once a slave, Nanny tells of being raped by her master, an act from which Janie’s mother was brought into the world. With a crushing sense of personal sacrifice, Nanny tells sixteen-year-old Janie of hiding the light skinned baby from an angry, betrayed slave master’s wife. Young Janie listens to Nanny’s troubles thoughtfully, but Hurston subtly lets the reader know that Nanny’s stern, embittered world view does not have much to do with Janie’s pear trees and buzzing bees (Hurston’s symbols of a rewarding, self-fulfilling relationship). Hurston highlights the conflict well, changing from a creative, curious tone (as Janie plays in the meadow and lies under a pear tree) to Nanny’s tired, aching speeches. Nanny further details an already sad tale, explaining to the reader (and Janie) that Janie’s mother was also raped, by a schoolteacher. Janie is seeking something and has yet to experience the greatness she is beginning to see in the world’s possibilities (as she tells her “kissin’ friend” Phoebe later on, “Yuh got tuh go there to know there.”) Nanny is seeking to “love” Janie by reining her in and marrying her off to a man (Logan Killicks) whose most attractive feature is his acreage. Janie’s quest, which is the underlying theme of the book, begins here.
Too young to fully realize her hatred of Nanny’s choking actions, Janie marries Logan. But soon she is off, true to her free-minded self. It is interesting to note that Hurston does not dwell on the socio-economic situations (i.e., slavery, poverty) that bring about the two rapes, as another black author (perhaps Richard Wright?) might have done. Hurston instead focuses on Janie’s very real, very necessary search for self-fulfillment. This kind of focus was not common in Black literature at the time of the writing (early 1930’s), and Hurston drew much criticism for what was seen as a refusal to address the social, economic and political issues that preoccupied her contemporaries such as Wright and Ralph Ellison. However, it can be argued that what Hurston was attempting, a portrayal of a culturally “self-sufficient” black community, was just as necessary for a full realization of Black consciousness as was the “protest” literature of the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston does not concern herself with the actions of whites. Instead, she concerns herself with the self-perceptions and actions of blacks. Whites become almost irrelevant, certainly negative, but in no way absolute influences on her characters.
Janie’s quest for her “buzzing bee” is started at the same time she is in conflict with her controlling grandmother. Nanny, in a perceived act of love, pushes her into a completely unfulfilling relationship, which Janie soon leaves. Hurston makes sure to convey the sense of quest throughout the work, as Janie leaves two marriages and suffers a tragic end to the third. Janie later realizes how much she hated her grandmother. Her ideal relationship (realized while under her beloved pear tree as she watches bees pollinate with the classic phrase, “So this is a marriage!”) only comes about as Janie dismisses all the conventional wisdom handed to her by her grandmother and, in a larger sense, her community. Janie tellingly remarks to Phoebe later that everybody has “got tuh find out about living for theyselves.” Janie certainly does this and it is perhaps Hurston’s greatest contribution to the body of black literature that she allows her female character to go on such a quest for self knowledge, and, better yet, to realize her vision of a fulfilling relationship with a man and community.
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