The title of the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is written out on page 160 when they are watching the hurricane’s approach. They are described as feeling “puny” (160) against Him. Janie and Tea Cake sit helplessly as they watch the storm building strength. This expectant powerlessness is a powerful theme of the novel, evident from the title. I noticed this dynamic repeated in the most dramatic scene of the novel. Tensions peak as Tea Cake is overwhelmed by his illness and takes up arms against Janie. Guns inherently hold lots of power, deciding between life and death. Janie watches it as it is aimed at her with no power over Tea Cake whose mind has been radically twisted. This is very similar to the scene anticipating the hurricane.
Additionally, in both cases, action is taken to secure safety with ultimate failure. Tea Cake and Janie are actually able to escape death during the hurricane by making their way to high ground. However, power of God manages to take down Tea Cake with the bite of a crazed dog. In the same way, Janie believes she has dodged a bullet when she takes out 3 of the shells from the pistol. However, as she looks on, he clicks through them all and fires the gun. She is forced to fire back to protect herself. This an important motif to that helps to define the story of Janie that dominates this novel.
This really the only place in the book where the title is applicable. It fits really well with this part of the book, but, in the context that you interpret it, it doesn't fit with anything else. I think, that to make the title applicable to the rest of the book, it should be interpreted as Jaine and Tea Cake looking up at god and love but forgetting about the rest of the world and its problems. This interpretation applies to Jaine in other parts of the book; she is always looking past reality at something metaphysical (ie love).
ReplyDeleteThe title was fairly ambiguous in meaning or significance for me up until the hurricane scene, at which point I could pretty much see how it could be applied to the whole book. The significance is definitely strongest at that point in the book, like you said, where Janie and Tea Cake are fleeing the hurricane and they're hoping desperately that they make it out alive and that everything turns out alright for them. Reflecting back on the book at that point, this is pretty much what Janie has been doing the entire time. Every action she takes and throughout every marriage she forms she's always hoping for the best and watching out for any signs of trouble, like the title seems to indicate.
ReplyDeleteYes I like how you put that
DeleteI definitely agree with what Neil said because though Janie may not be shown as a ultra-religious person, the way the narrative voice speaks does definitely evoke thoughts of religious texts, and some scenes such as the street-lamp scene explicitly calls to light (pun intended) thoughts of the bible. I also like the way it is "Their Eyes Were Watching God" because it shows how Janie's eyes are always open, and she is always scouting out her situation. She is seeing what is going on, and reacting given what's going on, rather than just being a pawn to bigger forces (like Bigger was).
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