Symbolic Representation of Identity in Hurston’s THEIR EYES WERE

WATCHING GOD

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the celebrated novel by Harlem Renais-
sance writer Zora Neale Hurston, the audience is provided a window into the
development of the black female psyche through specific symbols. Hurston’s
reliance on symbolism in her literature has been emulated by writers such as
The Color Purple author Alice Walker and studied by numerous researchers
such as Rachel DuPlessis and Lillie Howard. These individuals and others
have examined the symbols used in Hurston’s literature and the personal rel-
evance of symbols in the author’s life, but they have not explored the relation-
ship of these symbols to the main character, Janie—or what Hurston might
call the New Negro Woman.1 Through the symbolic use of the pear tree, mule,
and hair, Hurston shows the development of her main character’s identity as a
woman and an African American.
By the end of the novel, Janie realizes that a woman is to be loved, respect-
ed, and self-sufficient, which is manifested through Hurston’s use of the pear
tree symbol. An anthropologist by training and practice, Hurston may well
have known that “in primitive cultures pear trees [. . .] symbolize the sexual-
ity/fertility of women” (Howard 47). The young Janie’s sexuality takes shape
as she relaxes underneath a pear tree: “She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the
sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace
and the ecstatic shiver” (Hurston 11). Attuned to the connection between man
and woman. Janie desperately wants the love and affection from a man that
the tree receives from the pollen-bearing bee: “Oh to be a pear tree—any tree
in bloom!” (11). As the novel progresses, this connection becomes fleshed
out as she experiences marriage with Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake. Her first
marriage with Logan is devastating: “Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear
tree” (13). Janie recognizes that, along with being sexually desired, a woman
should be treated with respect and dignity. In Janie’s next marriage, with Jody,
Hurston builds on the symbolism of the pear tree. Although Jody provides for
her financially, he is jealous of the attention Janie receives from other men.
In this marriage, Janie realizes that a man should have faith in his wife and
give her freedom to experience life: “Janie pulled back a long time because
[Jody] did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees” (28). It is not
until her final marriage that the dream of the tree is realized. This realization
is important because it comes when Janie is nearly forty years old, ripe with
life and experience. With Tea Cake, Janie achieves womanhood: “[Tea Cake]
looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom—a
pear tree blossom in the spring” (101). Not only does he appreciate Janie’s
beauty, intelligence, and independence, but he also shows her tenderness,
trust, and respect.

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 One of the most curious symbols in Their Eyes is that of the mule, which
Hurston uses to develop female identity. Early in the novel, Janie’s grand-
mother explains, “De nigger woman is de mule of de world so far as Ah can
see” (Hurston 14). Nanny provides Janie with old-fashioned insight while try-
ing to explain Janie’s place in the world as a woman. This correlation between
woman and mule appears repeatedly, but never with more meaning than
when Janie tires of her first husband, Logan, and runs off with Jody Starks to
Eatonville for a life where she is only expected to “sit on de front porch and
rock and fan” (28). In Eatonville, she is again disappointed—it is a town full
of men who believe that “[s]omebody got to think for women and chillun and
chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none themselves” (67). Matt
Bonner, one of the residents, is ridiculed for his failure to control his stubborn
mule, which is also taunted and abused by the townspeople. Hurston inserts
this subplot as a metaphor of Janie and Jody’s marriage. Janie expresses
empathy for the animal and this is often seen as Janie’s “own sense of gender
entrapment” (DuPlessis 112). It is interesting to note that once Jody dies and
Janie is free to do as she pleases, there are no further references to mules;
Janie is free of her “load,” no longer required to bear the expectations of
men or others. Janie can escape her grandmother’s words and realize her true
power as a woman and human being—she belongs to no one but herself.
Hair is the most prominent symbol used throughout the text to expound
femininity and identity. Janie’s hair is what makes her stand out as indepen-
dent and powerful, as demonstrated when she returns to Eatonville: Hurston
notes “the great rope of hair swinging to her waist” (2). The townpeople won-
der, “[w]hat dat ole forty year ole “oman doin’ wid her hair swingin’ down
her back lak some young gal?” (2). While married to Jody Starks, the most
domineering of Janie’s husbands, she was made to bind up her hair up: “Joe
never told Janie how jealous he was. He never told her how often he had seen
the other men figuratively wallowing in it [. . .]” (51). When Jody dies, “[s]he
tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair” (83). Dur-
ing their twenty-year marriage, Jody asserted himself over Janie: “The tying
up of Janie’s hair is clearly an exertion of power on Joe’s part [. . .] he sends
a message to Janie that her hair is not hers to wear the way she wants” (Ashe
3). The last man in Janie’s life is unlike her first two husbands. He says to her
shortly after their first meeting: “Ah ain’t been sleepin’ so good for more’n
uh week cause Ah been wishin’ so bad tuh git mah hands in yo’ hair. It’s so
pretty. It feels jus’ lak underneath uh dove’s wing next to mah face” (Hurston
99). Tea Cake treats Janie’s hair (womanhood) with considerate devotion, and
it is under these circumstances that Janie’s identity is her own. One scholar
notes, “Tea Cake is expressing his love by glorifying in Janie’s beauty. He is
loving her as she is—not trying to make her into a creation of his own” (Ashe
4). Janie’s hair is also a marker of her ethnic identity. She is different from

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the rest of the Eatonville citizens and those in the muck because she is three-
quarters Caucasian and one-quarter African American. Mrs. Tucker, a black
woman who “can’t stand black niggers,” admires Janie’s “coffee-and-cream
complexion and her luxurious hair” (Hurston 135, 134). Despite Mrs. Turner’s
request to “class off,” Janie refuses. “Janie’s reaction to Mrs. Turner’s racial
bias, however, indicates that, although Janie’s hair is vital to her self-esteem,
her racial identity is intact” (Ashe 5).
Examining these significant symbols in Their Eyes is necessary to fully
understand Hurston’s development of the black female. Historically, these
women had been treated like animals, more specifically mules, to carry the
burdens of men. Hurston encourages women to rise above this situation; she
shows women that it is possible to realize their potential and achieve their
aspirations.

—KEIKO DILBECK, Northern Arizona University

NOTE
1. Male authors of the Harlem Renaissance often contemplated the struggles and examined the
development of the “New Negro.” Philosopher and critic Alain Locke stated the New Negro “had
to ‘smash’ all of the racial, social and psychological impediments that had long obstructed black
achievement” (Institute for International Visual Arts).

WORKS CITED
Ashe, Bertram D. “‘Why Don’t He Like My Hair?’: Constructing African-American Standards of
Beauty in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watch-
ing God.” African American Review 29.4 (1995): 579–92.
DuPlessis, Rachel Blau. “Power, Judgment, and Narrative in a Work of Zora Neale Hurston:
Feminist Cultural Studies.” New Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Michael Awk-
ward. New York: Cambridge UP, 1990. 95–123.
Howard, Lillie P., ed. Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston: The Common Bond. Westport:
Greenwood, 1993.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York City: Perennial, 1990.
Institute of International Visual Arts. “The New Negro.” Harlem. 8 May 2007 <[Link]
.org/harlem/[Link]>.

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