Similarities Between Zora Neale Nekie And Their Eyes Were Watching God

Throughout the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Zora Neale Hurston uses colors and other symbols to describe the state of relationships, feelings, and even show a certain point of view. As Janie goes through relationships, she encounters different colors. Hurston also shows us Janie’s feelings within those relationships as well as the common view of the world on Janie. Next to the colors, Hurston uses other symbols to show the reader even more specific meanings. This is first seen in her first marriage. After being forced to bond with Logan Killicks by her Nanny, Janie is upset at her situation. She sees “the world with red daggers” and “shadows [that] were gray and solid-looking around the barn”. Janie sees the world in many ways;

The yellow mule and Janie share many similarities. Both the mule and Janie were lighter in color than the others of other kind to show their difference. Yellow mules are not rare, but they are not common either like biracial people. Both the mule and Janie were deprived of a source needed in life. The mule is said to be “skinny” in the book and people tease the owner for not feeding him. Likewise, Janie was deprived of love in her relationship with Janie making her almost lifeless like a starving mule. With a starving heart and belly, they both work to the days end, not seeing much fun. Hurston write in the book, “see the devil plowing Matt Bonner all day long in a hell-hot sun and laying the rawhide to his back.” According to this quote, the reader could infer that the mule was work in a similar way and that this way caused the mule pain and suffering. Janie was also not allowed to leave the shop. Jody never let her go to outside the town, give speeches, join conversations on the porch, or let down her hair. Even when the mule, died and the whole town went to have a funeral. Jody told Janie to stay at the store. They shared a similar oppression by a man that was given power over them by the world. Out of all the resemblances between Janie and the yellow mule, the way the mule died was the most significant. The mules end was just like Janie’s beginning. The mule died under a tree, lying on its back as it to look up at the tree or the sky. Janie laid on her back under a tree in the beginning of the book as well. Hurston describes Janie’s feeling under the tree as “a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again”. Janie comes to a realization when under the tree in the beginning, just how the mule realizes his death under the tree. The mule turned on his back because he knew death was coming, otherwise he would have been on his side as one of the characters described it. In the same way,