Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Their Eyes Were Watching God

Everyone’s journey to liberation looks different, especially when you do not know that is what you truly want. Janie spends this novel being swept off her feet; not by men, but by lifestyles, by false promises and desires, none of which will fulfill her. All predetermined and laid out for her bow her head into. Tea Cake was far from the ideal man but what he gave her was a taste of liberation, of choice.

When we first meet Janie, she thinks she wants love. She dreams of the flowers and the trees and the pollen blooming together. She was confident that she could find that in marriage, despite her feelings going into it. “Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant” (Hurston 21). That was not what marriage means and she quickly learned that. She never found love there, but she did find a cage. It was in the shape of plows, sowing needles, and thankless labor. Janie never wanted to slave her days away for a man she never loved. She soon ran from that cage.

Joe Starks extended his hand, in it laid a different cage, a much prettier one. This one was gilded, in the shape of opulence and high status. The cage had a label on it, in careful loopy script, Mrs. Mayor Starks. She was promised a life with little physical labor and where she would be exalted for her beauty. “A pretty doll-baby lak you is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan yo’self and eat p’taters dat other folks plant just special for you” (Hurston 29). And nothing else. That is where the problem lies. Being pampered is fine until the loneliness sets in. When the pedestal you were put on is so high that you cannot talk to anyone, what is the point of the pedestal. This realization came slower to Janie and was that much harder to accept, but when the time came, she left it all behind without looking back.

Tea Cake was not perfect. It is very easy to fall into Janie’s view of him and make him an angel in our minds. She loved him with every part of her being, even deifying him in the end. But he is none of the sort. He hit her, he took her money, partook in rather strange activities and was overconfident. In fact, I would not say the storm killed him, but his own hubris. Tea Cake gave Janie something different, he gave her freedom. He gave her no cage, but a place by his side. She made decisions, gave her insight, was heard for once. She was liberated, despite Tea Cake’s faults, because her autonomy is fully realized. Are we sure, though? Being in true love is not the same as being liberated. Love can be a powerful binding force for a woman, and much lovelier and comfortable cage but a cage all the same.

That liberation was tested lethally when it was him or her. If she had picked his life over hers, we would know that she was never truly free. Love held her back from being a free woman. But she picked herself. She did not let love blind her and she took a life to keep hers. No cages, not anymore.

Janie knows what a cage looks like. She loved Tea Cake and would do anything for him, but she knew that she must live. Dying for a dead man might be a choice but it is not liberation. It is just another tool to keep a woman tied down, and Janie knows what it feels like. She breaks through and lives.

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wellreadandhalfdead's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

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kylieve's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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raeviews's review

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adventurous hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Zora Neale Hurston's writing style is magical! Her figurative language is so beautifully crafted and the dialogue being written in dialect is immersive. I loved learning more about Florida during this time period and about Eatonville. Does a great job of discussing race and gender without centering victimhood. I love Janie's sense of self and her development as a character. Also, the ending is quite the page turner!

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