Their Eyes Were Watching God

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What is the significance of the title Their eyes were watching God? Their eyes were watching God is the story of Janie Crawford on a journey to finding true love. Along the way she develops her emotional growth and maturity through her different marriages. She experiences different kinds of love as well. Janie 's first marriage was with an older man who she didn 't really know and of course didn 't love. Janie 's second marriage was with Mayor Jody Starks. They marry and both work together to build up the town of Eatonville. Janie is fascinated with the life she is living. She 's enjoying every part of being the mayors wife. After a while however, Jody start to become very controlling. Not letting Janie wear her hair down, be outside …show more content…
This story really does contribute a lot to the title. The significance of the title of Their eyes were watching God has to do with God having the power over everything in life. God plays an important role in the story. He isn 't necessary a character in the book but he is symbolized throughout the story. God is the sky, sun and horizon. God 's power is represented by the environment around. The title specifically come from a quote in the book, "They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God." (Hurston 151) The title also symbolizes the lack of control of life. We can see that the towns people of Eatonville creat an illusion of control. We see this with the relationship with Janie and Joe Starks. Their relationship starts of appreciable, both thinking they are in love. As their relationships moves forward Joe Starks becomes overly controlling. Janie being a beautiful women, Joe starts to feel insecure. He restricts her from doing certain things like, going out and interacting with the other townspeople. He makes her wrap up her hair and giving her certain outfits to wear. His controlling actions get to the point where Joe physically abuses her. Joe 's controlling actions symbolizes the control people want take in their lives. He tries to have power over Janie 's life and the life he wants to display to others. He only married Janie because she fits the role of a wife he wants to have. The type of wife that he can easily have control over. When Janie finally speaks up for herself, he lets her go because he knows that he can no longer control

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