Feminist or nah?
We discussed a lot in class about whether or not their Eyes Were Watching God could be considered a feminist novel. I wanted to talk about and continue some of that discussion in this blog post.
It's initially hard to believe the book could be a Feminist novel while almost exclusively focusing on Janie's relationships with men. Does this not dull down the primary female character in the book to her interactions with men, therefore disqualifying itself from a category all about women being on equal grounds with men? Does spending so much time on the men in her life instead of everything else mean the book is suggesting this is all there is / the most important thing there is to Janie?
There's a few things the book does have going for it however. It's not a love story between Janie and one man - although it is one man that takes up a significant portion of the book - It's about her relationships with three different men and their differences. What's important is that these differences don't stem exclusively (although there is definitely some of that too) from the differences among the men themselves, but also from the differences in Janie's attitude and experiences at different times in her life.
This brings us to one of the biggest reasons for considering the book a feminist novel - Janie shows significant character development. This suggests that Janie has to be at least somewhat of a fully fleshed out character - just to be able to even show change that isn't specifically related to the guy she's with at any point in time.
Along with that Janie's character and story itself has elements of female empowerment. She never completely submits her life and personality to the man she's with, or falls head over heels in love without thinking through it and the consequences.
There are still other complications - for example for Janie stays with and seemingly continues loving Tea Cake even after he is violent against her. Sure there's the historical context to consider, yet can we by modern standards still consider it a work of feminist literature even with this scene and the way it is (or more accurately isn't) handled? Or is this not the question we should be asking, and instead need to consider whether it was a feminist book at the time it was written?
I agree that the point of Tea Cake hitting her and her being alright with it complicates the novel a lot. I hesitate to say that historical context influences it that much, since Janie did see it as wrong even the very first time that Joe did it. Since she is able to recognize that marital abuse and violence is wrong, it's odd that she takes it with Tea Cake. To complicate it further, Tea Cake's "reasoning" and mentality behind it was completely different from Joe's. For him, it was kind of a "show" of possession to protect the pair from scrutiny from the town, for Joe is was about control itself. Just more factors to complicate it I guess, but of course this doesn't make the book not a feminist work, just adds some complexity. Good post!
ReplyDeleteMaybe us not knowing how Janie feels about the violence is there on purpose to show how little say/representation women have in society. this could just be me trying to excuse Hurston. You pose a great question and support it with great evidence.
ReplyDeleteI think Janie's relationships with men aren't really the main focus of the book, they are just a part of her life and influence her situation a lot. However, they clearly aren't as important to the novel as Janie is, and I think that's important to remember.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, this really is Janie's story. She's not just the main character, she is the center of the narrative and when everything else changes and things leave and enter the story she is the thing that is holding everything together. We also begin and end the book with Janie alone, which I think is also significant.
ReplyDeleteI think your post is really interesting and it reminded me a lot of the Bechdel Test, which you kind of made your own version of. I think that because the book is about Janie and her life it is a feminist novel, because while yes it is about her relationships, that's just what happened in her life.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what a feminist novel is so I don't really think that I can give a solid opinion on if 'There Eyes Were Watching God' is a feminist novel or not. I consider 'There Eyes Were Watching God' to be a African-American novel first, before anything. Some would say that this is obvious but I think some of the conversations in class overshadow what type of novel 'There Eyes Were Watching' truly is. Then again, now that I think about, by modern standards, I wouldn't call 'There Eyes Were Watching God' a feminist novel simply because of the abuse that Janie takes and the discrepancies in how men and women are treated in the book.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I could see this going both ways. I think the main theme of the novel focuses on Janie's development throughout the novel, and coming into her own as the self-possessed and assured woman we see at the end of the story. However, it is true that the narrative shows Janie's development through the men she is with. In addition, though Tea Cake helps Janie become a more confident version of herself, she is heavily dependent on him and pretty much done everything he says, not to mention her lack of reaction to his abuse (though that's all a whole other can of worms to discuss). I guess the question of if Their Eyes Were Watching God is a feminist novel depends on your definition of a feminist novel, which I can't say I have one concise description for. Great post!
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