Critical Analysis of Chapter 14
Annotated Passage
Annotated Links and Credits
About This Site
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God,
Hurston uses the theme of gender roles within marriages to develop the character
and the relationships of the protagonist, Janie, with her different husbands.
Throughout the novel, Janie is married three times to three completely different
men, but in each case the issue of gender roles becomes a key element in
the development of her relationships with these men. Janie goes from
being forced into certain gender roles in her first two marriages to being
given the opportunity to decide upon her own gender roles after experiencing
both male and female gender roles voluntarily in her last marriage.
Through her open relationship with her last husband, Tea Cake, in chapter
fourteen, Janie realizes how her concepts of her gender roles need to be
redefined in order to develop a satisfying marital relationship.In chapter fourteen, after her third marriage to Tea Cake, Janie really begins to discover what it feels like to determine her own gender roles and to have the freedom to explore gender roles voluntarily, which is in sharp contrast to her previous two marriages. This gives her the opportunity to determine a new definition of what her gender roles should be in order to develop the healthy and happy relationship that she was unable to obtain in her first two marriages. Only in her relationship with Tea Cake is Janie able to do this because he does not seem to have any predetermined views about gender roles between a man and his wife, and he even encourages her to try new things that she wouldn’t have had a chance to try with anyone else. In chapter fourteen we see that Janie assumes the roles of both the male and female gender because Tea Cake does not control her gender roles and appreciates what she does for him through whatever roles she plays. This dual gender role playing by Janie can clearly be seen as stated in this chapter that, “Sometimes she’d straighten out the two-room house and take the rifle and have fried rabbit for supper when Tea Cake got home. She didn’t leave him itching and scratching in his clothes, either” (132). As can be seen by this statement, Janie is allowed to hunt, a role traditionally played by the male, and she still cleans his clothes and has dinner ready for him after his work, which are activities traditionally done by women. Janie even goes to do manual labor out in the fields with her husband because he tells her that he misses her. This is in contrast to her earlier preconception of what she thought her gender roles ought to be, as can be seen in her failed marriage with Logan Killicks in preceding chapters. This shows an example of how her concept of her gender roles has been redifined from the trial and errors of her first marriage to this successful marriage with Tea Cake in chapter fourteen. Tea Cake sometimes even plays the female gender role by helping with dinner as can be seen by the statement, “Then Tea Cake would help get supper afterwards” (133). Contrary to her second marriage in which Janie was practically muted by her husband, Joe Starks, Tea Cake allowed Janie to “listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to” with the rest of the community (134). This free exchange of gender roles between the two of them allows for the development of a healthy and rewarding relationship for both parties. Thus after experiencing the ideal gender roles that lead to the development of a positive relationship, as in chapter fourteen with Tea Cake, the need for Janie to redefine her gender roles from her failed marriages in preceding chapters can be realized.
In the chapters leading up to chapter fourteen, Janie’s views of her roles and the roles that are expected of her as a woman and a wife vary greatly. These inconsistencies are in contrast to the ideal definition of her gender roles that she discovers in chapter fourteen, and thus they cause problems in the development of positive relationships with her husbands. This in turn leads to Janie redefining her existing ideas about gender roles. For example, in her first marriage, Janie’s views of her roles as a woman and a wife originate from Nanny. Growing up with Nanny, Janie only sees the roles of a woman to be that of housekeeping, child-bearing, and child-raising, because that is all Nanny ever did. But in her first marriage with Logan Killicks, Logan tries to impose male gender roles upon Janie and this does not seem right to her. In chapter four Logan states, “If Ah kin haul de wood heah and chop it fuh yuh, look lak you oughta be able tuh tote it inside. Mah fust wife never bothered me ‘bout choppin’ no wood nohow. She’d grab dat ax and sling chips lak uh man” (Hurston, 26). By this statement Logan implies that Janie should help out with roles that to Janie are traditionally male roles. In another instance when Logan tries to make Janie help him with some manual labor outdoors Janie replies, “You don’t need mah help out dere, Logan. Youse in yo’ place and Ah’m in mine” (31). Thus, as can be seen by this statement, Logan’s expectations of Janie’s gender roles differ from her preconceived views of the roles that a housewife should assume. The development of this unhappy marriage due to problems in gender roles causes Janie to search for another definition of the gender roles she is to play that will make her happy. And so this already deteriorating relationship ends and she runs off and marries another man named Joe Starks.
In Janie’s marriage to Joe Starks, the gender roles assumed and expected of her develop her relationship with him from something that Janie initially believes is right for her to something totally different that ends up suffocating her freedom. Her failure to develop a positive relationship in this marriage, which is again in contrast to her ideal relationship in chapter fourteen, causes Janie to redefine her gender roles. Joe’s expected role for his new wife is that of a proper and ladylike woman that does not act like or associate with common folk. This can be seen when Joe says, “Janie, if you think Ah aims to tole you off and make a dog outa you, youse wrong” and, “You ain’t never knowed what it was to be treated lak a lady and Ah wants to be de one tuh show yuh” (29). So it seems that Joe doesn’t want Janie to assume any male gender roles such as manual labor, and that he wants her to only play the feminine gender roles of a proper lady. This is in sharp contrast to Janie’s first husband, Logan, and initially this seems like what is right to Janie, but later this is one of the eventual causes of the demise of Joe and Janie’s relationship. As part of the ladylike gender role that Joe expects her to play, Janie is not allowed to speak freely or interact openly with the rest of the community, which Joe considers as, “trashy people” (54). As stated in chapter six, “Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories… but Joe had forbidden her to indulge. He didn’t want her talking after such trashy people” (54). The restrictions attached to Joe’s expected gender roles for Janie develop into problems in their relationship and play a major role in the loss of love between them leading up to Joe’s death from kidney failure. Thus Janie realizes from her relationship with Joe that his defined gender roles for Janie are not in favor of the development of a positive relationship because she is so restricted and she does not even get the chance to see what gender roles will make her happy.
In Chapter fourteen, Janie is in the ideal atmosphere condusive to the development of a positive relationship with her third husband, Tea Cake. After experiencing such an atmosphere in which she can experience many gender roles, we see how she redefines her gender roles from her previous marriages to those that lead to a healthy relationship. In the chapters preceding chapter fourteen, the gender roles imposed upon Janie by her first two husbands lead to the development of unsatisfactory relationships and the need for her to redefine the gender roles that fit her. This in turn leads her to search for a new relationship in which she can explore gender roles for herself and voluntarily assume the roles that please both her and her husband. She is able to do this in chapter fourteen because here she is finally given the chance to explore different roles and then define her ideal gender roles that allow for a positive relationship. She realizes in this chapter how Tea Cake’s open mind to her gender roles permit the development of a mutually open and spontaneous relationship; an ideal relationship without role expectations or constraints.
UW Home
Back to Top