Understanding Zora Neal Hurston's, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”

In Zora Neal Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Hurston tells the life-story of Janie Mae Crawford in the African American locale of the South.  Janie is a young woman who starts out living with her grandmother and dreams of experiencing freedom; freedom from living the oppressed life of an African woman living in the white South.  Even more hardships Janie must face in her struggle to find freedom is true love.  For that to happen, Janie must first experience the journey so that she can truly understand and appreciate what it is she is striving towards.  Hurston navigates Janie’s journey by introducing oppressive characters such as her husbands, Logan and Joe.  It is when Janie meets Tea Cake, (Vergil) that she finds an equal; someone who values her and allows her to be an individual with no expectations, except love. Hurston brilliantly empowers symbolism into the story that seems to level the playing field of power between Janie’s strong willed manor and the oppressive situations and characters.  Hurston makes Janie a true heroine by giving Janie the ability to climb a tree and watch the bees consummate as a sign of love and allows her to see the horizon; it being a symbol of freedom.  Hurston shows us that not only can individuals be controlling but the status of women as viewed by society can be obscured by what it deems appropriate.  She also magnificently brings Janie full circle to not only give her a journey, but bring her back home.  And home is where Janie returns, tattered and hair disheveled, but with a story of fulfillment.