Synopsis

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston tells the story of Janie, an African American woman living in Florida in the 1930s, a time when the black community experienced a lot of racial discrimination.

The primary conflict in this story is Janie's search to discover and experience what it means to love and to be loved. The pattern of arrangement used in this story is Middle to Flashback. The story begins with Janie telling her friend, Pheoby, the story of her life up to that point.

When she is still young, her grandmother forces her to marry Logan Killicks even though she doesn't love him. They are unhappy together because there is no real love in their relationship. He forces her to work for him and mistreats her.

Later she runs away with Joe Starks who speak to her kindly and says he loves her. However, he ends up becoming the mayor of Eatonville and becomes too focused on working and becoming wealthy that he began to ignore her and her needs. They have a huge argument and later he dies of a horrible sickness.

After that, the story has a rise in action when Tea Cake comes along and he and Janie start becoming good friends. They begin to love each other in a way Janie had never known before. They get married and after a while move to the Everglades to live and work in the fields with other people who are also seeking opportunity for wealth through the crop industries in the Everglades.

The story reaches its climax when a terrible hurricane sweeps through Florida, destroying the Everglades and the surrounding area. Janie and Tea Cake just barely escape the storm alive. However, on their way to safety, Tea Cake is bitten by a dog. He comes down with rabies, which drives him insane to the point of shooting at Janie. She kills him out of self-defense. After Tea Cake dies, the jury for Janie's court trial declares Janie innocent because she killed Tea Cake unintentionally to defend herself and the rest of the town.

That is where Janie's story to Pheoby ends. Janie then goes inside her house where she enjoys the peace that comes from knowing that she had truly loved and been loved. She knows that she still loves Tea Cake, even after he had died.

By Katharine Johnson