In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the book goes in depth about two major topics at the time period; gender and race. Gender is an especially large topic in this book because it is what the main character, Janie, had to experience throughout the story. It’s one thing to be different because of your race but it’s a whole different situation to be different or the “lesser than” person because of your gender. This is why gender had such a major impact on Janie in the story.
To make matters worse, women are considered lesser and the only way for them to get back up from this is through the power of a man. This is why we see Janie with different men throughout the story because this is the only way for her to feel like she means something, even if this means being silenced or being considered an object of sorts because of her gender. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, without marriage, women are considered powerless objects that are no use and do not belong in society.
In chapter 3, Jamie confides to Nanny about being nervous and scared of having her husband’s children. Nanny’s response to Janie was to ‘You ain’t got nothing’ to be ashamed of, honey, youse uh married ‘woman. You got yo’ lawful husband same as Mis’ Washburn or anybody else!'(3). Nanny explains to Janie how she shouldn’t be ashamed of being pregnant because she is married. Yes, because she is married. According to gender roles in this book, if Janie wasn’t under the power of a man, her being pregnant would have people consider her as a slut and not fit for society. Nanny is basically saying that the only reason why Janie feels safe is because she is married to a man. Without it, she would have been an outcast to society.
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In Their Eyes Were Watching God, men consider women to be lesser and an idiotic gender. In chapter 6, Joe and Janie are having an argument after Janie doesn’t give Joe the “proper” amount of food. Joe explains how ‘Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they who don’t think none themselves.’. Joe is essentially comparing women to farm animals and children and essentially calling them stupid. He says that women can’t even think for themselves. When Jamie rebels Joe exclaims that women “just think they thinking’.
When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don’t understand one’. He says that when a man understands ten things a woman only understands one. Again he states how he feels that women are dumb without actually having a chance to be in a womens shoes and feel what they are feeling. He doesn’t even take into consideration on what they are fighting about it in the first place as Jamie never did anything wrong except be a women, something that she is unable to change. Another factor of how men consider women useless.
Male dominance also plays a big factor into woman being the “lesser” gender. In chapter 15, Jamie catches Tea Cake flirting with Nunkie and “ It wasn’t long before Tea Cake found her…and tried to talk. She cut him short with a blow and they fought from one room to the other, Janie trying to beat him, and Tea Cake kept holding her wrists and wherever he could to keep her from going too far.”(15) It is seen here that Jamie is considerably angry by what she is seeing. She tries to hit Tea Cake which breaks normal gender norms at the time period, since women were supposed to keep to themselves.
As Janie tries to hit Tea Cake he lets her do it but he still ‘keeps her from going too far’ which is basically putting his arm in front of her so that Janie can barely lay a claw on him. This is a petty move on Tea Cake’s side. He is asserting his male dominance and in a rude way. He is essentially getting away with almost cheating on Jamie and treating her like she’s nothing by holding her wrists and not letting her hit him. This is another way women like Jamie get treated throughout the story. Male dominance is able to take control of them and get away with everything and they have no power to change it.
Throughout the story, men have treated women has objects but one particular thought from one of the characters sums up all of men in the story’s own thoughts. In a conversation between Tea Cake and Sop-de-Bottom. Tea cake is bragging about Janie to Sop. Sop proceeds to call him a lucky guy and says “Ah bet she never raised her hand tuh hit yuh back, neither. Take some uh dese ol’ rusty black women and dey would fight yuh all night long and next day nobody couldn’t tell you ever hit ‘em. Dat’s de reason Ah done quit beatin’ mah woman. You can’t make no mark on ‘em at all. Lawd! Wouldn’t Ah love tuh whip uh tender woman lak Janie. Ah bet she don’t even holler. She just’ cries, eh, Tea Cake?’.
This quote is probably the most notable cases of gender discrimination and abuse. Sop is basically explaining to Tea Cake how he gets pleasure out of beating women. He even said how annoying it is if they cry or scream. He says the only reason why he doesn’t beat his wife anymore is because it doesn’t leave a mark but with Jamie, she will probably leave a mark. He is basically explaining this like a fetish and how easy it is to beat a woman for your own dirty pleasure. This demonstrates the most in the novel about how women are treated essentially just as objects. They get hit and abused by their own husbands for their own pleasure and they cannot do anything about it but take it.
Even though Their Eyes Were Watching God as a racial aspect tied to it, it’s involvement with female discrimination is much more powerful. Throughout the novel we can see that Jamie struggled with not only with discrimination because of her race but more so discrimination because of her gender from her husbands and people around her. She was essentially treated like an object of sorts. She wasn’t allowed to do certain things, was silenced, and could even be abused with her having to keep her mouth shut. Zora Neale does an immaculate job of opening the readers eyes to not only racial bias during that specific time period, but also the gender bias.
