Their Eyes Were Watching Dreams

One of the most fascinating dynamics in Their Eyes Were Watching God is Janie’s coming-of-age journey. This aspect interests me because, especially after discussing it in class, I realized that her life follows a rather unusual pattern.

At the end of chapter three, Hurston writes, “Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25). Not only is this a powerful statement, but it stood out to me because it seems so declarative, confident, firm, and sudden. It creates a clear and abrupt dividing line in Janie’s life. In the portion of the story before, Janie therefore has not “become a woman” yet, and from there on out, she must be in this phase of “womanhood” (contrasting also with Nanny’s ideas of when Janie “becomes a woman,” after being with Johnny Taylor on page 12). It seems that this quote equates the death of dreams with aging, entering a new chapter of life, and developing in the world, and implies that this new phase is only encountered after this first death of a dream.

However, as we talked about in class, things seem to change for Janie when she meets Tea Cake, in more ways than one. She feels and experiences freedom and a completely different lifestyle for the first time in the muck, and we see this as a period of development for Janie. But, we discussed in class how she also seems to be experiencing and living her childhood or adolescence with him. The novel seems to romanticize childhood and the paired innocence and freedom to an extent as well. For instance, with Tea Cake, the word “play” is often mentioned: “Tea Cake and Janie playing checkers; playing coon-can; playing Florida flip on the store porch all afternoon as if nobody else was there. Day after day and week after week” (110). The “day after day and week after week” implies the carefree and calmed feeling of childhood, as well as that this was a solid period of Janie’s life. It wasn’t just a one-time occurrence or experience. Then, there is also the more overt passage on page 102, which directly associates Janie’s experience of being with Tea Cake with a child-like lifestyle and feeling:

It was so crazy digging worms by lamp light and setting out for Lake Sabelia after midnight that she felt like a child breaking rules. That’s what made Janie like it. They caught two or three and got home just before day. Then she had to smuggle Tea Cake out by the back gate and that made it seem like some great secret she was keeping from the town.

This section of the novel and the feelings demonstrated within are especially relevant as it seems that Janie had skipped this phase of life in the age range when it typically happens (perhaps, even if she meant well, this could partially be Nanny’s fault for arranging Janie with Logan Killicks?). Janie’s adolescence and time for play and fantasies, and her time for living her pear tree dream, went away so quickly when she had to leave with Logan.

What I find so interesting about this change in Janie’s lifestyle with Tea Cake is that it seems to contradict what the narrator stated earlier and breaks the linear and “typical” coming-of-age storyline. Janie seems to feel more like a teenager or playful child in this scene than she ever had before. With Tea Cake, her dreams are not “dead”; she actually gets to experience life with him and, for the first time, live out her wishes. When she wants to do something new with Tea Cake, such as working or spending time casually with him, he allows her to. She has more choice and possibility than she had ever had before and they do not seem particularly worried about the “adult” things in life. For instance, this could be illustrated with how she and Tea Cake don’t seem very concerned with saving up money and instead focus more on instant gratification (in contrast with everything Janie had experienced before with Logan and Joe).

This thread of returning to a childhood experience of life while disregarding your literal age in years seems further emphasized with how Tea Cake is younger than Janie, and several times, she mentions that age doesn't matter to her. For example, in this passage, Janie says that age just seems to signify a number and nothing else: “Ah’m older than Tea Cake, yes. But he done showed me where it’s de thought dat makes de difference in ages. If people thinks de same they can make it all right. So in the beginnin’ new thoughts had tuh be thought and new words said” (115). And furthermore, she emphasized that it’s the “thought” (dreams?) that makes the most difference.

So perhaps “becoming a woman,” as depicted in this novel by the narrator, really does happen when someone’s first dream dies and when the possibilities and wonder of childhood seem over (which is kind of sad). But, perhaps there is even a hopeful message too. Their Eyes Were Watching God could also show that you’re able to return and experience this childhood, like Janie. There are always still dreams and possibilities at all ages, no matter how many years have gone by and how many dreams had died before in the tough world. Perhaps they’re just waiting to evolve at the right opportunity and waiting for the person unafraid of change and strong enough to take a risk… even after countless (false) warnings and concerns from their town.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Amistad, 2006.