“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. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.”
In this quote, read at the start of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the tone for the novel is set. It speaks volumes of the peculiar perception of gender roles and indifferences. Not only is this novel about a woman, it is also the first major novel ever published by a black female author. This book has been frequently considered a ‘feminist novel’ However, feminism is regularly supported by the idea that men and women are equal. Yet, in the novel, the narrator frequently establishes the differences between men and women. The novel speaks to the fact that men and women need certain things from each other. A point that is supported in Janie’s quest for a male partner who can not only complement her, but also provide her with the life she yearns for.
“Janie was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from the root to the tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She has been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her lime and languid.”
Read in chapter two, this passage speaks to the start of Janie’s spiritual and sexual awakening. She is a young woman, being cared for by her grandmother, and it is in this moment that she is encouraged to live out her life to its fullest potential. She is unwilling to settle. The sweet embrace of the bee and the flower becomes the vision that Janie uses to idolize love.
“It was inevitable that she should accept any inconsistency and cruelty from her deity as all good worshippers do from theirs. All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.
Taken from chapter sixteen, the author offers an exception to the gender dichotomy presented in the opening passage of the novel. Mrs. Turner idolizes the qualities that she herself will never possess, and what is perhaps most unusual about this quote is that there is an implicit comparison between herself and Janie. The ‘real blood’ and ‘indiscriminate suffer’ that might lead to wisdom could equally be the suffering and wisdom of Janie.
“The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in the shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”
Spoken in Chapter eighteen, this passage summarizes the entire conflict of the book, when Janie, Tea Cake and Motor Boat seek solace from the disastrous hurricane. Their struggle speaks volumes of the plight of man against nature and the struggles between man and God. It is huge that Motor Boat joins Janie and Tea, and assists them in the struggle. At this exact moment, everyone is considered equal and the bond between men in their darkest hour is unwavering.