In the Pursuit Of ...

“Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see” (193).


After finishing “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, I found myself deeply disappointed. I felt like Hurston’s poetic and beautiful beginning had failed to bring us to such an end. In a way, I felt similar to how I did after completing Douglass’ biography; like the whole story was building up to a central point, but upon reaching it, the author did not bring us into her realm of knowledge, but instead only gave us a fleeting glimpse. I wanted to hear, feel, and see that Janie had finally found what she was looking for! I wanted to believe that her lifelong search had finally led her to a place of peace and happiness. I wanted it so badly. Instead, I felt as though I was left to walk away with a bittersweet taste in my mouth; content with the fact that the lines read that Janie was happy, but they did not illustrate it.

We were supposed to believe that Janie went through these life changing experiences (she went through a devastating hurricane and had to shoot her one true love in the span of, at most, a few weeks!) and had somehow come out happy and satisfied. We were supposed to believe that she was now content to live with her now fairly empty life, and all with a carefree attitude. I was not convinced.

The first half of Hurston’s novel explores the deepest realms of Janie’s heart; her curiosity about life and love, her desire to live a life in synch with nature’s rich symphony, and her ultimate longing to reach the horizon. Hurston builds up in our minds this character that is desperately in pursuit of a dream. But by the time you are a third of the way from finishing the novel, you begin to pick up on the subtle changes that are weaving there way into Janie’s story.

The biggest overall change I noticed was that Hurston was no longer taking the time to use poetic imagery to create in our minds an actual sense of all that was happening in Janie’s life; instead she seemed to brush through things in a pretty straightforward manner. I so enjoyed dissecting Hurston’s beautiful, and sometimes confusing, lines in the beginning of the novel, so I could not help but be let down by this change. In addition to this, it was impossible to ignore changes in the main characters of Tea Cake and even Janie herself.

When we are first introduced to Tea Cake, we see him as the antithesis of all the other men in Janie’s life; he is fun, loving, and treats her more like an equal, rather than a showpiece. He seems like the most caring man, that would not dream of wronging Janie in any way, shape, or form. But then out of nowhere, we find him flirting with a random girl in a field and slapping Janie around! This seems in direct conflict with all we have come to know about Tea Cake.

Then there are the changes in the way Hurston portrays Janie. Gone is the dreamer, constantly looking towards the horizon. Janie becomes a two-dimensional character, who just barely fleshes out the spirit we have grown to know.

In finally concluding the novel, I was simply left wondering why Hurston would make such dramatic shifts. So I picked up the novel again a few days later and reread portions that I was confused about. And I think that the thing that I have concluded is that perhaps, Hurston was using these changes in her style of writing and descriptions of characters to further develop the changes that Janie’s life took throughout the course of events in the novel. In the beginning, Janie was a young girl, full of thoughts and hopes and dreams. But as she grew and actually experienced life, perhaps she realized that her initial dreams were not what she really wanted from life. Perhaps she found that the pear tree and the bees’ music was not the entire symphony, but rather it was just a part of the orchestra that had to play in harmony with the rest of the music that nature contributed in order to create a masterpiece. And upon that note, I find some measure of solace.