Illustration of the profile of Janine Crawford and another person facing each other

Their Eyes Were Watching God

by Zora Neale Hurston

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Chapter 7: Summary and Analysis

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One day Janie wakes up and realizes that she is thirty-five. Eleven years have passed since the last chapter, and she has grown weary of her life, tired of her time spent working in the store. Whenever she performs a menial task or kowtows to Joe, she imagines herself sitting under a tree with wind in her hair, like she did when she was a girl. She isn’t the only one growing old, though. Joe, who was older than her when they married, looks half-dead already, and when he criticizes her for her looking old, she tells him that when he pulls down his pants he looks “lak de change uh life.” For this, he smacks her; but he still takes her words to heart.

Motifs

Trees. In chapter 2, Janie was depicted as a young girl sitting under a blossoming pear tree, flowering into a young woman. In this chapter, she can only dream of being that carefree young girl whose only wish is to find love. This clears her mind and allows her to reclaim some of her old identity, giving her the strength to stand up to Joe.

Themes

Age. Time moves very rapidly in this novel, and Janie goes from being in her mid-twenties to her mid-thirties in the course of a chapter. True to his sexist nature, Joe criticizes Janie for her age and her fading beauty, reinforcing the double standard that women can’t be sexual beings after they reach a certain age, even though men can. Of course, Janie’s beauty isn’t fading, and she will enter into her most romantic and erotic relationship shortly after Joe dies.

Gender. Unsurprisingly given the time period, women are almost constantly discriminated against in this novel and are judged more for their physical characteristics than their personality. Joe makes this abundantly clear when he calls Janie old and fat, as if her body is the only piece of her that matters. In a satisfying turn, Janie talks back to him, reclaiming some of her power as a woman.

Expert Q&A

How would you describe Janie's state of mind in Chapter 7 of "Their Eyes Were Watching God"?

At the beginning of Chapter 7, Janie is dissatisfied but resigned to her marriage with Joe. She sees Joe for the pathetic character he is but decides to lie both to him and to herself to keep some semblance of meaning in their lives. Even though Janie appears to be defeated, the author gives the sense that there is still plenty of life beneath the surface, but it is kept beaten down by the wheels. Janie escapes into daydreams to mask the pain of her empty existence. Her fantasies are an escape, and in a way they are good because they reconcile her to things.

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Chapter 6: Summary and Analysis

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Chapter 8: Summary and Analysis

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