Women In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

During the 20th century, women, specifically African American women, were undervalued and dominated by the patriarchal society. African American women not only had to overcome the social restrictions imposed on them, but also the subordinate role they played in their own marriages. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, African American women are portrayed through the main character, Janie Crawford, as a racial minority. Through Hurston’s symbolic use of the mule and Janie’s character development, black women are depicted as helpless victims of oppression that must overcome society’s suppression of them to be considered free. In a patriarchal society, a woman’s true identity is restrained by social customs. Hurston conveys this idea by comparing African American women to the lowest animal in the world, the mule. The mule first appears when …show more content…
Hurston first portrays Janie as a passive victim of abuse, always following her husband, Joe Starks, demands. When Joe dies, his dominating role in Janie’s life also dies allowing her to be herself, “The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off her kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there,” (87). Janie’s hair symbolizes her potential for improving her lifestyle. During her marriage with Joe, her voice is diminished and her actions are controlled, which are represented by her always tied up hair. The let down of her hair indicates that she is free from her toxic relationship with Joe and society’s norms. Furthermore, the repetition of “the” enhances the significance in the reader’s visualization of this moment. Janie’s transformation from a submissive woman to an independent woman suggests that an African American woman can go against society’s standards to gain