A Very Lit Blog

 The hurricane arc in Their Eyes Were Watching God is a wholly unique part of the book. All of a sudden, our mostly down-to-earth story about self-fulfillment turns into a feet-to-the-pavement battle with nature reminiscent of the chaotic disasters in  Invisible Man. While I at first found the hurricane to kind of come out of nowhere, after looking into it further, it is actually Janie's final test towards total self-acceptance. First of all, there's Tea Cake's unwise response to the hurricane. When people in the muck start leaving for fear of being swept away, Tea Cake decides he and Janie will stay, as he doesn't see the hurricane as a threat. This boldfaced opinion is a representation of Tea Cake's fatal flaw; sly confidence and a delusion of power in the face of things he absolutely cannot control. The same trait that caused him to hit Janie is what keeps her and Tea Cake in the town, even as the water rises. Eventually, they too realize that they won't be a

 Throughout the novel, Hurston makes it clear that speech is a very integral part of the environment. Rumours get twisted, gossip is spread, and the dialect of the novel is very clearly articulated. Every line of dialogue is carefully crafted to be correct to the time period and accurate to the novel. While Hurston could have very easily just written the dialogue in an unaffected manner and allowed the reader to make their own connections, she instead chooses to put in the extra work to enhance the experience herself.   This is done not only to make a sort of time capsule out of the novel, but also to bring the concept of speech to the forefront of the novel, as a recurring theme throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God  is the concept of words being stifled or brought to light. Every relationship Janie has in the book is based around this central theme of vocal expression. Throughout the beginning of Janie's life, she is constantly being stifled by those around her: her grandmother