Their Eyes Were Watching God (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Zora Neale Hurston
- First Published: 1937
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: c.1897-1921
- Setting: Florida
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman, Folklore
- Subjects: African Americans, Self-discovery, Love or romance, Twentieth century, Nineteenth century, Marriage, Florida, Migrant labor, Floods, Rabies
- Locales: Eatonville, FL
Characters Discussed
Janie Crawford Killicks Starks Woods, the novel’s central character, a beautiful, romantic, and hopeful black woman who, over the course of thirty years and three marriages, grows into an attractive, life-affirming, and independent woman. As an adolescent, Janie imagines life and especially marriage as a blossoming pear tree kissed by singing bees. She has her first experience of sexual ecstacy under the pear tree in her grandmother’s backyard. Her first two marriages end in disappointment, but Tea Cake, her third husband, reminds her of a pear tree...
[The entire page is 1285 words long]
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