Symbolism Evaluation- Anna Froemming

What do the following have in common: hair, a mule, the horizon, a pear tree, and eyes? They seem like rather obscure objects that would have nothing in common. Zora Neale Hurston uses all of these symbols in her story Their Eyes Were Watching God. Each of the symbols reflects a stage in the main character’s life and develops more fully as the story progresses.
The most significant symbol in Their Eyes Were Watching God comes in the form of the main character’s hair. Janie’s hair represents her current situation in life and how much oppression she is under. Her hair changes throughout the story from a simple braid in the back of her head to hidden in a kerchief as not to be noticed. The hair takes on many different styles, but always comes back to how it started when she was a young, carefree girl (Hurston, 14).
The first time her hair is mentioned in the book is when Janie returns from being with Tea Cake. She had it in a long braid down her back, and the gossipers of the town were outraged and wanted to know why she had “her hair swingin’ down her back lak some young gal.” (2) These women assume that hairstyle equates age, but Janie shows them the opposite, rebelling against cultural norms to define herself. Janie’s hair also became an entity that her husbands enjoy. Both Tea Cake and Jody found themselves fingering her hair and admiring it, both, at the time, truly in love with Janie. When they cease to be in awe of Janie’s hair, Janie realized that the relationship has taken a negative turn. Jody tells Janie that “her hair was NOT going to show in the store” therefore repressing Janie and giving a good example of their relationship (55). When Jody died, “she tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair” realizing that she had been freed from Jody oppressive nature (87). Right after this she put it back up and went to tell the people that her husband has died, all the while maintaining her image that Jody forced on her. After the funeral, she again braided her hair and began the search for love all over again, symbolizing her new life. Hair, for Janie, was her freedom of expression: something that was precious to her and something that she took great care of. Although her hair changed stages throughout the story, Janie’s desires and personality remained constant.
The next most significant symbol in the story is that of the horizon. The horizon is used to portray a new day or the ending of one part of Janie’s life. The author uses this symbol of new life when Janie runs away from her first husband, Logan, to run away with Jody (33). To Janie, the horizon is something that remains in the distant, like a dream that can never be attained. Again the horizon appears when she first meets Tea Cake and falls in love (99). At the end of the story when she has gone through all three husbands, she comes back to her friend Pheoby and explains “Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons”(191). Janie realizes that sometimes what seems to lie in the future is not all that we expect it to be. She is now content with her life and chooses to live in the present.
The third most significant symbol in the story is the budding pear tree. It is first introduced when Janie is very young. She has decided to lie underneath it and examine its brand new buds. She felt like the pear tree is a mystery to be solved saying, “from barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom” wondering how the tree can change so much in one year (10). Janie yearns to be a tree and to have people come to her like the bees to the blossoms. She herself was of age; she had bloomed, but was only waiting for the bees to visit her. Not only does the tree model her growth through life, she often thinks back on it in times of change. One example of this is when she first meets Tea Cake. “[Tea Cake] could be a bee to a blossom--a pear tree blossom in the spring”(106). Janie realizes that Tea Cake could fulfill all the longings that she has and meet her dreams. Unfortunately, this longing is not met by men, but by the realization that only she can carry out her dreams.
The forth most important symbol in the story is where the title is derived from. The “eyes” in Their Eyes Were Watching God symbolize God’s favor on the world and on Janie’s current situation. Their eyes watched God because they were looking to Him to see if He was aware of the hardships they were going through and to see if He cared. The story begins with the following quote:
Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. (1)
This passage explains the view of God that the characters hold and how only with God’s favor a dream could be met. This is also shown when Janie first meets Tea Cake. She calls him “a glance from God,” indicating the favor that she feels that God has shown her by allowing them to be together. When the hurricane hits, “they seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (160). Again they look to him for favor and seek his blessing and protection on their lives.
The fifth most important symbol in the story is the mule. The mule symbolizes the role that the black women of society took (14). They were oppressed by their husbands and mistreated as property. They worked for almost no benefit and did what they are told. Janie has pity on a mule when she saw the mistreatment of it (56). In some ways she identified with the mule and knew how it felt. Both she and the mule were stubborn and tough, but in the end, the mule got more attention at death from her husband than she ever did. Throughout all of her oppression, Janie still maintains her true self.
Hurston uses very powerful and creative symbols in her book Their Eyes Were Watching God. Whether in nature or a characteristic of a human, she weaves hidden meaning into them all. These obscure objects become one of great reverence and admiration to a largely unwritten area of society, the black community. Some symbols change over time, but others do not. No matter Janie’s circumstances, she remains true to her dream and true to herself.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.