Best of Miami Portfolios 2001 - Units.muohio.edu

had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room for yours in me. (86)
This is the first time Janie expresses her feelings to her husband about how he treats her.
Unfortunately, this pivotal step in their relationship comes too late for them to salvage their loving
marriage before Joe passes away. Although the reader might see this progress as unimportant,
actually it is very significant. From this moment, Janie begins to change her way of thinking and
acting.
Soon after Joe’s death, Janie meets a young man, Tea Cake, who attracts her and with whom
she gets along easily. Janie does not try to hide her relationship from the disapproving town, and
she runs off with Tea Cake to the muck in southern Florida. Mrs. Turner, another wife on the muck,
does not like Tea Cake and tries to interest Janie in her brother. Janie, although not interested,
receives a harsh beating from the jealous Tea Cake. Tea Cake explains the beating as a way of
proving his control not only over Janie, but the Turners as well. Although their relationship is
violent, Tea Cake is the only man with whom Janie is comfortable, and can love as violently.
The violence of their relationship provokes the final example of Janie expressing her
newfound voice. In self-defense during an argument, Janie accidentally killed her husband and the
court prepares to try her for murder. Many people attend the trial, including her old friends from
the muck, who are hoping to witness her conviction. Janie takes the stand, knowing she has to
change the minds of all those against her and make them see her as Tea Cake’s wife and lover, not
the murderer they perceive her as: “She tried to make them see how terrible it was that things were
fixed so that Tea Cake couldn’t come back to himself until he had got rid of that mad dog that was
in him and he couldn’t get rid of the dog and live...She didn’t plead to anybody. She just sat there
and told them and when she was through she hushed” (187). Ironically, Hurston summarizes the
trial, without including direct testimony from Janie. One may think that such an important aspect
of Janie’s story, and also a main example of her finally vocalizing her feelings, would be told by
Janie herself. The reader can conclude that although Janie learned from her experiences and came
to speak her mind, she also sees the appropriate time to do so.
The judge rules her innocent; Janie buries her husband, and decides to go back to her home
in Eatonville. Hurston weaves the story back to the beginning of the novel where Janie returns
home and finishes her story to her friend Pheoby. Afterward, Janie reiterates that Pheoby can go
and tell all the other women in the town just exactly what happened: “‘You can tell ‘em what Ah
say if you wants to. Dat’s just de same as me ‘cause mah tongue is in mah friend’s mouf’” (6). But
Janie knows that the other women will never understand because they haven’t lived through what
she did: “talkin’ don’t amount tuh uh hill uh beans when yuh can’t do nothin’ else. And listenin’
tuh dat kind uh talk is jus’ lak openin’ yo’ mouth and lettin’ de moon shine down yo’ throat. It’s a
known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there’” (192). Janie no longer worries about
what others think of her, nor does she feel that she has to suppress her thoughts and feelings. The
tragic death of her third husband, a turning point in her way of thinking, helps her to find her voice
and to express it wisely.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is not a novel simply about a young black woman dealing
with her husband’s death; but rather, it is the story of a young black woman dealing with life and
learning from its experiences. The story starts out with Janie as a child and continues through her
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