Novel Summary:
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Janie Crawford is black woman who is middle aged and returns back to Eatonville, Florida after being gone for several years. As she enters the town the woman gossip and the men stare at her beautiful figure although hidden by oversized overhauls. The rest of the story is Janie’s account of her many stories and adventures during her life as she tells them to her bosom buddy, Pheoby.
Janie’s story starts off when she is abandon by her mother and her grandmother has to raise Janie. Janie’s grandmother has had a very hard life growing up as a slave and having to raise Janie’s mother. Because of this her grandmother’s main goal for Janie was to marry her off to a rich white man. Janie’s grandmother did just that and Janie was forced to grow up fast and learn to live with the middle-aged man she had married.
Janie’s first husband, Logan Killicks, is rude to Janie and is not exciting or enjoyable to be around. After Janie’s grandmother dies, Janie soon starts to secretly meet Joe Starks, who happened upon their farm one day. He is very flirtatious with Janie and is also a very hard working, determined man. They run away to Eatonville where Joe becomes a very successful businessman and town mayor. During this time Janie works at Joe’s town store tediously day in and day out. Joe does not allow her to interact with the townspeople who sit on the store’s front porch because he says that they are common and he doesn’t want her to be seen with them. During this time, while she is under Joe’s oppressive watch, Janie secretly hates her life, her circumstances but has not forgotten her dreams. After years of marriage she finally stands up to Joe, which causes the marriage to fall apart. Soon after, Joe gets deathly ill and even on his deathbed Janie cannot help but criticize him.
After Joe dies a man by the nickname Tea Cake starts visiting Janie’s store. Although Janie is not looking for any relationship she can’t help but enjoy Tea Cake’s company. Tea Cake treats her like a friend and even plays checkers with her, which Joe would have never allowed. Tea Cake is twelve years younger than Janie but this doesn’t seem to bother him. The couple starts to go out and make their relationship public and when this happens many of the townspeople question their motives. Soon they leave for the Everglades and Janie sells all that she owned. Both Tea Cake and Janie work as migrant workers while in the Everglades. They both experience jealously but they love each other and make this evident as well.
A hurricane hits the muck and Janie and Tea Cake try to ride the storm out. When they realize they can’t, they try to outrun the storm. During this journey the couple comes upon a rabid dog that bites Tea Cake. Tea Cake then gets rabies and his jealousy and sickness cause him to become paranoid about Janie’s faithfulness to the marriage and he questions her fidelity. This soon causes his emotions to escalate and he attempts to shoot Janie. She is forced to shoot him in self-defense. After pleading her innocence in the trial of Tea Cake’s death she is found innocent and travels back to Eatonville. She returns back to the community where she recounts her adventures during her travels with her good friend Phoeby, which is where this story begins.
This was written by: Laura Hamp
