The Cult of True Womanhood in "Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a bildungsroman novel about Janie, a mixed-race woman from Florida in the mid-1930s. Her story consists of her life with her grandmother, and three consecutive husbands, all of whom can be used to represent different phases of her life under the ideals of the Cult of True Womanhood. The Cult of True Womanhood encouraged ideals of purity, domesticity, and submission among others, and ultimately resulted in the suppression of women of color (Dickerson 179). Hurston’s novel deals with big issues of the Cult of True Womanhood in general and specifically in relation to Janie’s intersectionality. Intersectionality is a theory coined by feminists in the late 1980s in an attempt to better understand the struggles that all women face. It is based on the idea that no woman is just a woman, they at all time are part of several different categories of identity such as race, gender, sexuality, and so on, that each come with their own forms of oppression (Phoenix, 187-188). Their Eyes Were Watching God was written in a time when the Black Feminist Movement was pushing for literature with women who found self-fulfillment in life. It was looking for women who found their voice and used it (Jordan 107). In Hurston’s novel, Janie story portrays the oppression Cult of True Womanhood imposed on women through the oppression of Janie’s sexuality, her voice, and her search for self-fulfillment.

Janie was raised by her very conservative grandmother, a woman who saw the status quo as a means of survival. She strongly encouraged Janie into the Cult of True Womanhood with the hopes that it would lead her granddaughter to a life with a kind husband with land to leave her granddaughter. An important reason why the Cult of True Womanhood was a practice for so long is because a woman’s survival was directly linked to her husband, it made sense to live in a way that could make him as happy as possible. This mentality of doing what is necessary to survive can also explain the very strong reaction that Janie’s grandmother has to her first kiss, “[Nanny] bolted upright and peered out of the window and saw Johnny Taylor lacerating her Janie with a kiss…That was the end of [Janie’s] childhood” (Hurston 25-26). This is both the beginnings of Janie’s sexual awakening as well as when the ideals of “True Womanhood” are first imposed on Janie. Her first kiss with Johnny Taylor is her first act of deviancy and marks the beginning of her awakening into womanhood. Based on the dictation that Hurston uses in this instance, moments like these are not treated lightly. Janie’s grandmother wakes up from a nap like she is scared, and immediately reacts as if she witnessed her granddaughter being attacked. The word “laceration” gives the image that Johnny Taylor’s mouth is some kind of horrible weapon being used to hurt Janie. Janie’s grandmother loves her granddaughter very much and is very protective over her, and saw this as an assault to the purity that her granddaughter previously possessed. Based on the language it is as if Janie’s grandmother just watched the murder of Janie as a child, it is the loss of her Janie. Before Janie could even really speak for herself her grandmother began to make decisions for her, which resulted in Janie’s marriage to Logan Killicks, an older man that Janie did not love. Early in her marriage to Logan, Janie comes to a realization about love, “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 44). Janie falls now, for an unclear period of time, into the routine of an ideal housewife. She does as her husband asks, she goes day in and day out staying in the same home doing as she is told. Her dreams of marrying for love has died and with that she became a woman. This started with the first loss of her innocence with Johnny Taylor, and completed with the final loss of her first childhood dream. Based on this, being a true woman means the loss of hope. It means not having anything for herself and living and working for her husband. Furthermore, there is an expectation that she should be grateful for everything in her life and not complain. Any unhappiness that Janie feels with Logan she is expected to ignore and instead think about how fortunate she is to have a husband with land. Ultimately Janie cannot handle this and escapes the first chance she gets. Unfortunately, Jody Starks is there to take her away. Jody, while a lot of things, is also Janie’s first major act of independence, “A feeling of sudden newness and change came over her. Even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good” (Hurston 54). Janie is unhappy, so she leaves. This is the first time in her life where she makes a major decision for herself, and it is a decision that her grandmother would not approve of, but it is a choice that makes her happy. This goes against what is expected for her as a woman, the expectation is that she should sacrifice her own happiness for her husband’s. Hurston condemns this idea in Janie’s first marriage by showing how extremely unhappy she is with Logan. Hurston is demonstrating that happiness is actually a crucial part of survival. The expectation to keep her husband happy is one that Janie has lived with her entire life, and during her first marriage pushed her towards depression. By deciding to make a take action that will make herself happiest, Janie takes her first step in rejecting the Cult of True Womanhood. The lightness and newness she feels represents the change that came about her, and is actually the first time she is really a grown woman.

Janie most often confronts issues with her being mixed-race during her marriage with Jody Starks. Starks founds the black and African American town of Eatonville, in which he is the mayor. Despite the town consisting only of people of color, Jody encourages Janie to observe practices that seem white, primarily because the way Jody expects Janie to separate herself from the townspeople and be above them instead of equal. Starks works tirelessly to set himself and his wife apart from the rest of the townspeople, “The rest of the town looked like servant’s quarters surrounding the ‘big house’” (Hurston 75). In agreement with Wendy McCredie, Starks uses Janie’s silence to establish his authority and respect in the town of Eatonville. He uses her as a prized possession, as a living symbol of his “aboveness” between him and the rest of the town. (McCredie 27). To go a step further, Jody is not only concerned with utilizing Janie to establish dominance but to also create and maintain the image that the Starks’ and therefore their town, is just as sophisticated as white society. Because Janie is mixed she spends a lot of her life being torn between her “blackness” and “whiteness” and Jody really pushes her into the role of a white mayor’s wife. This also forces her to be silent, and to follow in the Cult of True Womanhood in a new way. Janie is now being oppressed in her self-expression through dress and voice. Starks takes advantage of every opportunity presented to him to present Janie as the ideal wife in town, “Jody told her to dress up and stand in the store all that evening. Everybody was coming sort of fixed up, and he didn’t mean for nobody else’s wife to rank with her. She must look herself as the bell-cow, the other women were the gang” (Hurston 66). Jody considers Janie too good to wear a handmade dress, she is above the rest of the women in the town. Starks believes himself to be above the townspeople, and while he never says it outright, Janie is crucial to subtly portraying this to Eatonville. He uses Janie to maintain an image of contemporary perfection. Jody Starks silences Janie in several ways, in this instance he silences her by separating her. He has ranked the women in town, presumably by both looks and status and intends to keep Janie in the number one position. Despite how highly it can appear that Jody thinks of Janie, in actuality he still sees her as far below him. Part of her position is as his property. Like his home, Janie is crucial in maintaining his image. He cares for her in ways that a farmer might care for his prized cattle. Jody sees the town as his possessions, there to affirm his position as the most powerful person in the town. Janie is her husband’s most valuable possession, and because of that he also becomes very easily jealous and possessive, “The business of the head-rag irked [Janie] endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store…She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others” (Hurston 86-87). Jody is so possessive over the people and objects in his life, and so personally insecure that he feels the need to brand Janie. The emphasis that Hurston places on the words “not” and “his” have that quality to stress how strongly Jody felt on this subject. He lacks the ability to see any compromise, he does not stop to say, “wear your hair up,” he jumps straight to, “hide it from the world.” In this instant Jody has silenced Janie as much as he is capable. He has taken her voice, removed her from common society, and executed her self-expression. In the true spirit of the Cult of True Womanhood, she has become a piece of property to Jody Starks. Hurston uses Janie’s marriage to Jody Starks to demonstrate, again, how a woman constantly sacrificing her own happiness for her husband just leads to misery.

Hurston portrays people’s reactions to Janie’s search for self-fulfillment in the early stages of Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake, before they leave Eatonville. When Janie first begins to spend time with Tea Cake the initial reaction from the town is very negative. The townspeople still views Janie as Starks’ wife, but in Janie’s mind this could not be further from the truth, “‘I always did want to git round uh whole heap, but Jody wouldn’t ‘low me tuh. When Ah wan’t in de store he wanted me tuh jes sit wid folded hands and sit dere wid de walls creepin’ up on me and squeezin’ all de life outa me’” (Hurston 169). The initial reaction to Tea Cake by the townspeople is one clouded by the idea that Janie is still very much Jody Starks’ wife. That she belonged in her home, above the rest of them, when in fact she wanted nothing more than to be out with everyone else. However, this is also Janie’s movement away from the Cult of True Womanhood, a practice that was killing her. Hurston is making a strong statement here, that when the world expects women to live and behave as items of possession, based on the expectations of their husbands, it will kill them. From the very beginning, Janie has been happiest when she was making choices for herself. When she was living how she desired. We as readers see it when she first kisses Johnny Taylor, again when she leaves her first husband, and then for a majority of her relationship with Tea Cake. Ultimately Janie’s decision to run off with Tea Cake is exemplified when she says, “‘Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine’” (Hurston 171). Despite the whole town being against it, Janie finally finds some real love and happiness with Tea Cake. She walks out again, but this time on a much bigger life that was built around her, but she had no part in it. Her last stand against Jody Starks and the image that he built of her, is to live her life how she wants to. Janie’s grandmother very much wanted her to live in the way that the rest of the world expected. Janie’s chances of survival, in her grandmother’s eyes, relied on it. However, her grandmother’s way also meant living in the Cult of True Womanhood, which was killing her in a different way. Janie finds fulfillment with Tea Cake, and she has to again go against what is expected of her to find happiness in life.

Janie’s journey through life was filled with a great deal of obstacles, and through an extraordinary amount of strength she was able to survive it. Hurston’s portrayal of this one woman’s life can be used to understand how woman truly felt with the Cult of True Womanhood, the novel can be used to understand the real affects it has on women. Janie’s grandmother is first enforcer of the cult that Janie encounters in life. It began for her with her sexual oppression, and arranged marriage. By writing Janie as a mixed-race woman it also attempts to understand the struggles of intersectionality. In Jody’s own personal struggle for power, he attempts to get them to behave in a way that separates and distinguishes them from the rest of the town. With this comes at the price of Janie’s silence, a price Jody is very comfortable paying. Later, when Janie finally makes choices for herself again she is met with resistance by the town. Holistically Hurston is alerting readers of the dangers of the Cult of True Womanhood, and saying also that while what women at the time seem to want most, is also what probably scares them the most. There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding Tea Cake, but in the end it is the leap of faith that Janie takes that makes her happiest. In the end of the novel, Hurston is encouraging her readers to take that same leap. She is showing to them how dangerous it can be to live under that much oppression, and so Janie’s story is one of encouragement for women looking to escape. Like Janie when Jody Starks first entered her life, once you decide to make a big change for yourself in life, you just have to do it, and there is no greater joy than living your life in your own way.

Works Cited

Dickerson, Glenda. “The Cult of True Womanhood: Toward a Womanist Attitude in African-american Theatre”. Theatre Journal 40.2 (1988): 178–187. Web

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. U of Illinois, 1980. Print. Fifth Printing.

Jordan, Jennifer. “Feminist Fantasies: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God”. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 7.1 (1988): 105–117. Web

McCredie, Wendy J.. “Authority and Authorization in Their Eyes Were Watching God”. Black American Literature Forum 16.1 (1982): 25–28. Web.

Phoenix, Ann. "Intersectionality." European Journal of Women's Studies 13.3 (2006): 187-92. Web.

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