Their Eyes Were Watching God: The Use Of Clothing Essay, Research Paper

Their Eyes Were Watching God: The Use of Clothing

by Zora Neale Hurston

In the novel Their Eyes were watching God Zora Neale Hurston portrays a woman

named Janie’s search for love and freedom. Janie, throughout the novel, bounces

through three different marriages, with a brief stint at being a widow in

between. Throughout these episodes, Hurston uses Janie`s clothing as a visual

bookmark of where Janie is in her search for true love and how she is being

influenced by those around her.

Janie’s first article of clothing is an apron that she wears while married to

Logan Killiks as a hard working sixteen year old. Logan, who Janie describes as

looking like “an `ol skullhead in de grave yard,” (pg. 13) marries Janie to

fulfill the role laid down by Janie’s grandmother, a mule. Janie goes along with

this for nearly a year, until change comes walking down the road in the form of

Joe Starks. Joe is a “citified, stylish man with a hat set at an angle that

didn’t belong in those parts,” and he wants to take Janie away. Joe’s dream is

to become “big man” and pleads Janie to take part in his dreams of the future.

He proposes marriage to her, and arranges a rendezvous at the bottom of the road

at sunup the next morning. Janie is torn because Jody “does not represent sun-up

pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke of the far horizon….The memory of

Nanny was still strong.” (pg. 28) When Janie decides to leave the next morning

for, if nothing else, a healthy change, she looks down and sees the apron which

has stood for all the things she has had to do for Logan,” and flung it on a

small bush beside the road. Then she walked on, picking flowers and making a

bouquet.” (pg. 31) When Janie threw the apron on the bush, it represented a

major change in Janie’s life, and a progression from Logan. Janie is continuing

her search for true love, although she knows already that Jody is not the

perfect fulfillment of her dream, and how she has been affected by Jody already.

Life with Jody was a disappointment from the beginning of their marriage. As

soon as they arrived in the sleepy burg of Eatonville, Jody was trying to gain

power and clout in the town, and had a clear image of where he wanted Janie in

that equasion. Jodie built the town’s first store, and soon had Janie working in

“exalted” position of shopkeeper. After one incident where one of the store

regulars was witnessed by Jody feeling Janie’s luxurious hair without her

knowledge, Jody, overcome by jealousy, forced her to wear her glorious tresses

in a head rag, like those worn by old women with hair that really needed to be

kept in a head rag. This head rag came to typify their whole marriage, with

Jody’s selfish appearance loving demands taking precedence over Janie’s needs

and dreams. Obviously Janie had not found true love with Jody either, for soon

their marriage broke down into a silent stalemate. After dying a broken man,

Janie faced life as a young and well off widow. The head rag through the “Jody”

period of her life clearly showed her position is her search for love and how

she was influenced by those around.

After Jody died, Janie began to be the object of the “aims” of other men, mainly

because of her dollar value. Janie dismisses most of these claims, but

eventually a man named Tea Cake came along, and brought another phase of her

life into swing. “She couldn’t make him look like just another man to her. He

looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee in blossom–a pear

tree in blossom in the spring. he seemed to be crushing the scent out of the

world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. he

was a glance from God.” (pg. 102) When the author uses words like these to

describe the thoughts of Janie towards Tea Cake, the conclusion can be safely

made that Janie was well down the path to love with tea Cake. And travel that

path she does. It is now that Janie changes her attire from the garments of

widowhood to something a little brighter. “”Folks seen you out in colors and dey

thinks you ain’t payin’ de right amount of respect tuh yo’ dead husband.” “Ah

ain’t greivin so why do I hafta mourn? Tea Cake Love me in blue, so Ah wears it.

Jody ain’t never in his life picked out no color for me. De worl’ picked out

black and white for mournin’, Joe didn’t. So Ah wasn’t wearin it for him. Ah was

wearin it fo’ the rest of y’all.”" (pg. 107-108) In this passage, Janie clearly

moves on from Jody by shedding the husk of mourning black and emerging wearing a

blue dress and in love. Tea Cake represents the first man who truly appreciates

Janie for who she is, and enjoys her for herself. Every other Significant Other

in her life previously has tried to shape her into a mold; Logan into the role

of the housewife or mule, and Jody as an accessory, much like an ottoman. With

Tea Cake, Janie experiences true love and self expression, both of which are

symbolized by the blue dress.

Eventually, Janie and Tea Cake get married and move away, down “on the muck” in

the “‘glades.” There, Janie and Tea Cake have a house which is a “magnet, the

unauthorized center of the “job.”" There, many gather to have fun and gamble.

“Sometimes Janie would think of the old days in the store and the big white

house and laugh to herself. What if Eatonville could see her now in her blue

denim overalls and heavy shoes?” (pg. 127) This passage is a slice of Janie’s

new life on the muck, but is catalogs her change of clothes again into blue

denim overalls and heavy shoes. This type of clothing was practical for working

on the muck, so she wore them. At this time she began to work with Tea Cake in

the fields because Tea Cake couldn’t bear to spend a whole day without her.

Janie goes along willingly because “It’s mo’ nicer than sittin round these

quarters all day. Clerkin in dat store was hard, but heah, we ain’t got nothin

to do but work and come home and love.” (pg. 127) This passage is almost a

summary of their time on the muck, for it was full of love and hard work. This

whole time can be summarized by the blue denim overalls and heavy shoes, for

they represented Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake and showed that she had

found true love and it was blind.

All of Janie’s clothes represent her search for true love and her relationships

with those around her. When you look around, that is true most of the time in

the real world, too. We all wear our clothes a silent messengers, and Hurston

used this tool clearly and well in her novel.