Their Eyes Were Watching God Language Analysis

In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston uses the motifs storytelling, mouths, and tongues to represent a person’s status and power at that period of time and uses them to emphasize how important speech was important to a person’s status at that time. In The beginning of the story when Janie arrived back into town she tells Phoeby, “You can tell ‘ em what Ah say if you wants to dats just de same as me’ cause mah tongue is in my friends mouth”(2). Janie saying this is giving Phoeby power over her reputation. She trusts Phoeby enough to relay her story truthfully to rest of the town members. Phoeby has Janie’s Fate in the community in her hands. Referencing the neighbors janie proclaims, “so long as they get a name to gnaw on they don’t care whose it is and what about’ specially if they can make it sound like evil”(3). During this time reputation was everything and gossip in the town gave the town members power to judge each other's fate in the community. People with a bad reputation were gossiped about in the town and most likely weren’t respected or powerful.
The narrator alludes, “She had learned how to talk some and leave some”(76). During this time Jody began hitting Janie

Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home”(43). During this time women had no power; a woman’s role in society was to was to tend to the house and take care of kids, Like Nanny said women were the mule of the world especially black women and mules are not equated as being powerful and strong. They are considered dirty working creatures which you can treat ineptly , feed them garbage, and they are still expected to do their work and be obedient like the women of that time were