Their Eyes Were Watching God (AP English Literature and Composition) Notes

Chapter One:

• Janie comes back to her town of Eatonville after burying the dead. The townspeople, including porchers, shame her for coming back to their town while also lusting after her appearance.

Chapter Two:

• “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.”

• Janie and Nanny’s conflict intensifies as Nanny sees Janie kissing Johnny Taylor, which angers her.

• Janie’s life is “a great tree in leaf” meaning that every leaf is all the “things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone.” As an extension of this, the pear tree symbolizes the escapism/happiness she has whenever she doesn’t do chores. Hurston uses specific word choices to describe the pear tree, naming the “snowy virginity of bloom”, an evident metaphor for both Janie’s fertility and her overall adolescence at this point in her journey.

• Nanny believes that the white man rules overall as far as she can tell, who should dominate over the “mule” or the black woman. This is explained by Nanny was raised under slavery and later Reconstruction, which instilled her with the sense of how life as an African-American is in reality.

Chapter Three:

• “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.”

• Nanny sets up an arranged marriage for Janie and a man named Logan Killicks.

• Nanny believes that love sprouts from marriage rather than the other way around, a belief the other old folks believe in, as well. We can infer that Nanny and her generation grew up with the preference of arranged eyes, premarital love is a detriment for the woman as pre-marital love might not result in the idea husband (having no confidence in Janie to make the right choices for herself).

• Logan’s achievements makes Nanny believe he is the idea husband for Janie, as she believes that would make for an idea marriage, tying into her more traditional beliefs and lack of faith in Janie.

Chapter Four:

• Janie has grown merely tolerant of Logan, not treating him as one should treat their husband. While, Logan was away, Janie encounters Joe Starks, who represented everything Janie wanted in a man. Janie then leaves Logan for Joe.

• “They say on the boarding house porch and saw the sun plunge into the same crack in the earth from which the night emerged.”

• Janie and Logan’s relationship has been failing, proving Nanny wrong in her “traditional” beliefs relating to what an “ideal” marriage should be. Logan’s going over to Lake City to get two mules, to Janie’s chagrin. Their marriage has been boiling “long before the year was up” as tension between them grew.

• Joe is, essentially, the man Janie had always wanted, with his skirt being “dazzling” and a walk that signified that he knew where he’s going while also dressing as a foreigner. Joe also acted similarly to aged Mr. Washburn, indicating that he’s more wise than the average townsfolk.

• Janie saw that Joe represented chance and change for her, an opportunity to live out her dream she wanted before her marriage.

• The porch symbolizes Janie’s new path after her breakup with Logan and a new beginning with Joe, seemingly living out her dream as the sun sets.

Chapter Five:

• The porch is the place of converse for Joe and Janie Long with xonverse with the townspeople. Joe talks to the people at the porch and Janie getting settled in the bedroom defines each of their roles as Joe is the “face” of the marriage while Janie takes care and prepares for activities, or the heart.

• The townspeople at first unamiously agreed to elect Jody as mayor of Eatonville, as he demonstarted exceptionally communication abilities that made him suitable for the role, especially since Eatonville never has had a mayor beforehand. Later on, however, the townspeople felt that Jody was being corrupt by power after he made Henry Pitts leave town for seemlingly little to no reason after taking the cone away from him. This conflict develops to the point where the townsfolk are divided in opinion over Jody Starks as mayor, with detractors saying that he’s corrupted with power and abusing it.

Chapter Six:

• Janie's Stagnation: Janie continues to work at Jody's store, finding the work monotonous and unfulfilling. 

• Community Life: She observes and listens to the lively conversations on the store porch, even though Jody often restricts her participation. 

• Control and Suppression: Jody's controlling behavior intensifies, stifling Janie's spirit and individuality. He dictates her appearance and limits her social interactions. 

• A Glimpse of Rebellion: Janie briefly challenges the townspeople's cruelty towards Matt Bonner's mule, showcasing a spark of defiance. 

Chapter Seven:

• Jody's Increasing Control: As Jody's health declines, his controlling behavior escalates. He becomes more demanding and verbally abusive towards Janie. 

• Janie's Internal Struggle: Janie begins to withdraw emotionally from Jody, but she remains outwardly submissive, concealing her true feelings. 

• The Erosion of Intimacy: The spark of passion fades from their marriage, and Janie experiences a growing sense of disillusionment. 

• A Sign of Resistance: Janie defends Mrs. Robbins, a woman mistreated by her husband, demonstrating a small act of defiance against the prevailing societal norms. 

Chapter Eight:

• Jody's Physical Abuse: Jody physically assaults Janie for the first time, marking a significant turning point in their relationship. 

• Janie's Inner Strength: Despite the abuse, Janie maintains an outward facade of respect, while inwardly harboring resentment and a growing sense of self-preservation. 

• The Weight of Expectations: Janie grapples with the societal expectations placed upon her as a married woman, feeling trapped by the constraints of her role. 

Chapter Nine:

• The Crumbling of the Marriage: Jody's health continues to deteriorate, and his cruelty intensifies. He becomes increasingly insecure and takes his frustrations out on Janie. 

• Janie's Isolation: Janie feels increasingly isolated and alone, both within her marriage and within the community. 

• A Lingering Hope: Despite the challenges, Janie clings to a faint hope for a different kind of life, a life filled with joy and self-expression. 

Chapter Ten:

• The Weight of Conformity: Janie struggles to reconcile her own desires with the societal expectations placed upon her. 

• The Illusion of Happiness: Jody's public image as a successful and respected leader masks the reality of their unhappy marriage. 

• Janie's Enduring Spirit: Despite the hardships she endures, Janie maintains a glimmer of hope and a yearning for a more fulfilling life. 

Chapter Eleven:

• Janie’s Life Experience: Janie’s history w/relationships causes her to treat other men, like Hezekiah, coldly.

• Tea Cake’s Love: Like, Brian or Jody, who were very successful men before they met Janie, Vergible is skilled in “Ah tells’em and then agin Ah shows ‘em.” While Janie lets Tea Cake comb and embrace her hair, she doesn’t regard him as a boyfriend.

• Janie’s Internal Conflict: Janie’s life experience conflicts with her true feelings towards Tea Cake. She tries to not think about him, yet she keeps seeing him as a “glance from God.” As the days go on, both Janie and Tea Cake grow more intimate and closer. Maybe Tea Cake was the one after all, Janie might think.
  
  Chapter Twelve:
  — Phoeby’s trying to convince Janie that Tea Cake is not the one and that she’s repeating mistakes. Janie responds by telling her that she doesn’t grieve Jody and that Tea Cake’s been better than he ever was.
  
  Chapter Thirteen:

• Janie and Tea Cake go to Jacksonville: Tea Cake had received a letter from Jacksonville from his old boss, who promised him work.

• Annie Tyler’s death: Annie Tyler, who had love affair after love affair, had been in a relationship with Who Lung, who promised to marry her then left with his money two days later. She later died of starvation. In grim parallel and as a warning to Janie, she “had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her.”

• Tea Cake’s gambling: in an effort to gain some cash, Tea Cake began gambling again, in which he’s an expert at. Janie had become worried about his habits, that Tea Cake had spent all week gambling, but justified it to herself saying, It was a part of him, so it was all right. This again showcases Janie’s lack of self-awareness in that she could have used this same justification for Jody’s abusive behavior, in which she denounced him a chapter earlier.
  
  Chapter Fourteen:

• Janie and Tea Cake go to work: Tea Cake teaches Janie how to shoot and aim.

• “Sometimes Janie would think of the old days…what if Eatonville could see her now in her blue denim overalls and heavy shoes?”

• Tensions arise: Ed Dockery, Bootyny and Sop-DE-Bottom play cards, Sop loses while Ed wins, playful banter all around to demonstrate what life is like in Jacksonville compared to Eatonville.
  
  Chapter Fifteen:

• Janie suspects that Tea Cake is interested in another woman, Tea Cake vehemently denies it, they get into a fight and Tea Cake calms her down. Janie then asks Tea Cake about the girl, but out of wanting to hear him deny it rather than anything else.

  Chapter Sixteen:

• Encounter with the Turners, who are cruel and symbolize part of the black community at the time that want slavery back.
  
  
  Chapter Seventeen:

• Tea Cake reveals that he’s been abusive to Janie in order to assert dominance over her. He hears what the Turners said to Janie about him, and he confronts them. Tea Cake beats up Mrs. Turner and ruins her place. Then, the Turners move to the “civilized” Miami.
  
  
  Chapter Eighteen:

• Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship grows stronger amid adversity. Tea Cake saves Janie’s life when she’s attacked by a dog while swimming in a flood. Janie tried to grab the tail of a cow when a dog attacked her. The dog symbolizes the hardships their marriage has undergone. Despite all of what they went through, Janie and Tea Cake still grew stronger together.
  
  

Chapter Nineteen:

• Janie manages to calm Tea Cake down from a tense situation, a role reversal and mark for Janie’s growth as a woman, the same goes for her getting better with firearms.

• Tea Cake dies, not from illness, but from a gun shot wound after his argument with Janie.

• The doctor almost jarringly uses standard English without a hint of the unique vernacular used by the vast majority of teh characters throughout the novel. This juxtaposition in language implies a proper, more traditional educaton in order to get into the medical field.
  
  Chapter Twenty:

• Janie is out on trial for Tea Cake’s death, which is later ruled as accidental. Janie gets to have a conversation with Phoeby about what to do next as the sun goes down, same as it was when Janie and Joe first met.

• The novel ends with Janie standing over the sunset, echoing the ending of chapter four where she sits over the sunset on the porch. The callback symbolizes Janie’s growing independence and hope for the future, without the porch and what it symbolized.

• Hurston’s characters are watching the kind of God that gives them hope and optimism for the future of their lives, even during the darkest of times such as the aftermath of a death of a loved one. Janie continously dreams for a better future, despite all the troublesome or complicated marriages she had. Her marriage woth Tea Cake gave her hope for a better future and his death reinforced that. Tea Cake is gone but Janie’s love for him will stay with her forever.