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Belal Elkadri

Professor House

Eng 469-001

22 March 2012

The Birth of African-American Feminism in Early 20th

Century

The talented African-American author of The Color Purple, Alice Walker, once said,

“Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender”. During the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s

through 1930s, Harlem became the center of African-American life, helping mold the black

identity using music of jazz and blues, and the literary works of people like Langston Hughes,

Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen (Martin). African-American writers were determined to

focus a lens on their unique experience of American life and culture (Martin). One writer that is

well known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston played a key role

in this movement, especially as a female. Hurston moved to New York and became a part of the

Harlem Renaissance in 1925 and her interest in black culture reflected in her stories with

authentic dialect and community life and this can be seen in one of her most famous works, Their

Eyes Were Watching God (Robinson). Towards the end of the Renaissance, Hurston published

her masterpiece of marriage and finding self-identity, close to the end of the movement in 1937

(Martin). In the novel, we see the growth and the development of the independent protagonist

Janine Crawford through her three marriages and her search to find her identity and happiness.

One can argue that during these three marriages, Hurston portrays a strong meaning of feminism

in Janie as she is in search of self-identity in her growth as character.

The novel takes place in the 1920s in the rural areas of Florida. Janie Crawford is a

sixteen year old girl, beautiful and full of life. In the first sentence of the novel the narrator

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states, “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board for some they come in with the tide

for others they sail forever … that is the life of men” (Hurston 1). The narrator says men follow

their strong desires despite some coming to realize their dreams are unachievable. Then, the

narrator goes on to give the difference between the two genders by saying, “Women forget all

those things they don’t want to remember and remember everything they don’t want to forget the

dream is the truth then they act” (2). The narrator is going out to insult men saying they are more

applied than women as they desire for something that they can’t have and it is always in their

sight and that women live their lives of optimism as they mix dreams with reality and having the

ability to control their desires. Janie is raised by her grandmother Nanny, a former slave who was

raped and marries off Jane young to Logan Killicks for her “protection”. Nanny sees Logan as

someone who can give Janie financial stability as he owns land and that’s much more important

than love in her eyes. Janie was force into an unlovable and unhappy marriage and we see that

when the narrator says, “She knew now that marriage did not make love Janie’s first dream was

dead so she became a woman” (28). Janine is told she is to obey everything she is told and to

work hard when Nanny says, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world” (14). The traditional

job of women in that time was to be a house wife, taking care of the husband and home. During

her first marriage, Logan puts Janie to work similar to a slave rather than loving her like a wife.

She is dehumanized when Logan says he’s getting a second mule to help Janine plow in the fall

and when Logan tells her, “You ain’t got no particular place it’s wherever ah need yuh” (31).

Logan even threatens to take “dat ax and kill” her (31). This marriage with Logan was

dehumanizing Janine as a female as she was Logan’s slave, being used and not loved. Janie

leaves Logan and the sixty acres that would have been given to her once Logan dies, to live a

new life with her second husband Jody Starks.

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Jody Starks, is an intelligent business man who charms Janie to come to Eatonville with

him where he promises her a different and better lifestyle. The first marriage was given to Janie

and now Janie has chosen her own destiny and responsibility based on fate, in which she faces

more hardship than her first marriage, but learns much more of herself. Jody is a man like Logan

who sees through his eyes as he has big dreams. He is a hard working politician and becomes the

mayor and storekeeper of Eatonville and Janie is now the “mayor’s wife” (Butterworth). At first,

Janie is treated like a queen and she feels loved. In the first marriage, Janie is treated like a

“mule”, in this marriage she is treated like a voiceless trophy. One scene that stands out is when

Jody is given the title of mayor and when the community wants to hear from “Mrs. Mayor

Starks”, Jody responds, “Mah wife don’t know nothing’ ‘bout no speech-makin’ Ah never

married her for dat shes a woman and her place Is in de home” (43). In this scene, Janie is not

only stripped from her identity as she is known as “Mrs. Mayor Starks”, but she is stripped from

her voice and is treated like an object, not a human being. The next scene that is very powerful

and that stands out is when she is stripped from her identity again; this time it is her hair that she

loses. Janie is interacting with the community and Jody “forbids her to talk after such trashy

people” and socialize with the public (54).The narrator says, “Her hair was NOT going to show

in the store…for him to look at not those others” (55). Jody wants to have complete satisfaction

of Janie and she is forced to cover her hair as her beauty is masked only for Jody’s eyes to see

because he is jealous how other men look at her. Jody becomes the superior and has complete

power over Janie. At the end of the chapter, Janie breaks her silence and tells some men outside

the store, “Sometimes God gits familiar wid us women folks to…it’s east to make yo’self out

God Almighty when you ain’t got nothin’ tuh stain against but women and chickens” (75). In

other words, Janie says God talks to men and women equally and it is easy to act tough when

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woman and chickens are the only thing men overpower but in regards to Jody, he is not the

highest like God. Jody ends up telling Janie to be quite and Janie is once again silenced. As years

pass, Janie is now forty, Jody dies and now Janie is a wealthy widow, no longer abused verbally,

physically, mentally and can no longer be oppressed by Jody (Butterworth).

She ends up meeting a young man named Tea Cake. Tea Cake is a free spirit, who loves

life and makes Janie laugh (Butterworth). Janie, forty and mature, is now experiencing real, true,

romantic love for the first time her life, making her feel as if her life is full and complete. “Tea

Cake and Janie gone to the movies, dancing, making flower beds, how to drive, playing

checkers”, fishing and Janie being taught how to shoot a gun are the things the two would do and

it shows that there are men that are compassionate out there (100). They run away from town to

live a life in the Jacksonville and giving Janie a new identity and marrying Tea Cake.

(Butterworth). However, being compassionate as Tea Cake is, he still shows some oppression as

he beats Janie once and stole and gambled her money away which Janie questions his character.

They end up moving to Everglades, a place that Janie loves and is happy, something that Janie’s

first two husbands fail to accomplish. In Everglades, a big hurricane comes and the two lives are

in danger. Tea Cake appears to have drowned. When Janie is almost killed by a rabid dog, Tea

Cake saves Janie’s life, although in the process, is bitten and is diagnosed with Rabies. Tea

Cake’s mind goes crazy and he becomes jealous, violent and aggressive. He believes that Janie is

cheating on him and pulls a gun on Janie. Janie, in self-defense, shoots and kills Tea Cake

(Butterworth). Killing Tea Cake saves her life but it also sets Janie free and although she is

alone, she is now independent (Butterworth). She returns to Eatonville and lives her life telling

her best friend Pheoby her story. After hearing the story, Pheoby says, “Ah done growed ten feet

higher jus’ listen’ tuh you Janie…ah means tuh make Sam take me fishin’ wid him after this

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nobody better not criticize yuh in mah hearin” (192). With this being said, Janie’s story, or even

the novel itself, will motive other women to seek their own desires.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a beautifully written book with a powerful, strong

message. We view a journey of an immature child to a mature woman over her three marriages.

Logan Killicks selfish marriage, Jody Starks’ disrespectful marriage and Tea Cake the

compassionate marriage, all helped shape the identity of Janie Crawford, an African-American

woman. As Wendy Martin puts it, “Hurston’s story stands as a testament to the stringy of a

generation of African-American women striving for a place in the world”, and it did as it sparked

a feminist movement (Martin). According to Claire Crabtree, “The ending of the novel is

explained through the feminist mind of Hurston. Hurston did not want Janie to find fulfillment in

a man but rather in her new found self” (Crabtree). An African-American author Richard Wright,

accused Hurston of portraying a “minstrel image” of African-Americans mainly because it

lacked the serious political literature that was coming out during that time of the struggle of

African-Americans (Robinson). However, the message that Hurston is portraying in the novel is

much more than a political one, but a self-revelation and voice of an African-American female as

a human struggle. As Susan Butterworth points out, “A woman’s freedom lies in discovering her

own voice and identity apart from her husbands” (Butterworth). In regards to Wrights comment

it can be seen as a political view point when you take in consideration Butterworth’s quote;

people’s freedom lies in their own voice and identity apart from the oppressor (Butterworth).

The book has been given high regards from people like Alice Walker and Oprah who see the

book as a celebration of black culture and not blacks as victims of the world (Robinson). Oprah,

who turned the book into a movie said, “Janie, to me, represents awareness of self and becoming

a whole person and being proud of being a whole, full person, I used to be one of those women

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who was afraid of being full of herself" (“Oprah”). Zora Neale Hurston paved the way for

African-American writers included Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor and Toni Morrison

(Butterworth). Alice Walker, author of the Pulitzer Prize award for The Color Purple, was

inspired by Hurston as it brought remembrance of her American roots and culture (“A Genius”).

She used Their Eyes Were Watching God as a tool to incorporate that culture almost forty years

after the book was written (“A Genius”). Fourteen years after the funeral of Zora Neale Hurston,

Alice Walker found the grave of Hurston (“A Genius”). She marked it with a stone that read,

“Zora Neal Hurston – A Genius of the South (“A Genius”). Hurston not only made an impact in

African-American literature, the feminist movement and the Harlem Renaissance, but she also

made an impact and inspired the lives of many African-American women today.

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Works Cited

"A Genius of the South the Voice of Zora Neale Hurston is Heard in St. Louis." St.Louis Post –

Dispatch (pre-1997 Fulltext): 1.D. ProQuest Newsstand. Jan 06 1992. Web. 22 Mar.

2012 .

Butterworth, Susan. "Hurston, Zora Neale." The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature.

Ed. Jay PariniNew York: Oxford UP, 2008. Oxford African American Studies Center.

Thu Mar 22.

<http://0eww.oxfordaasc.com.wizard.umd.umich.edu/article/opr/t197/e0125>.

Crabtree, Claire. "The confluence of folklore, feminism and black self-determination in Zora

Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." The Southern Literary Journal 17.2

(1985): 54+. General OneFile. Web. 22 Mar. 2012.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Perennial Library, 2000. Print.

Martin, Wendy and Sharon Becker. "Writing as a Woman in the Twentieth Century." The Oxford

Encyclopedia of American Literature. Ed. Jay PariniNew York: Oxford UP, 2008. Oxford

African American Studies Center. Thu Mar 22 01:02:01 EDT 2012. <http://0-

www.oxfordaasc.com.wizard.umd.umich.edu/article/opr/t197/e0338>.

"Oprahs Dedication Turns Hurston Book into Film." Daily Breeze: B.5. ProQuest Newsstand.

Mar 03 2005. Web. 22 Mar. 2012

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Robinson, Lisa Clayton. "Hurston, Zora Neale." Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and

African American Experience, Second Edition. Ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry

Louis Gates Jr.. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Oxford African American Studies Center.

Thu Mar 22.

<http://0-www.oxfordaasc.com.wizard.umd.umich.edu/article/opr/t0002/e1956>.