Janie's Chaotic Worldview

~By Elijah Neumann

Today is a confusing time to live. The American culture has become a chaotic, suffocating concoction of worldviews which are extremely different, yet are often used in the same sentence. A Christian must be outfitted with a solid worldview in order for his or her faith to survive. Close attention to the worldview Zora Neale Hurston portrays in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” will help Christian readers to better understand Janie’s actions, and perhaps to be guarded against false ideas that Zora may communicate. This can be accomplished by analyzing Janie’s beliefs on such points as the nature of God, the basis of morality, and the purpose of life.

Janie, like most other black Americans of the day, knows the Christian God. Her view of God is very much Christian in a number of ways. First, Janie recognizes God’s infinite power over nature. “The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His” (pp. 160). She also knows that God has the power to save her husband, Tea Cake, from danger. When he doesn’t come back from gambling one night, she prays that God will protect him. Finally, after hearing that Tea Cake is fatally sick, Janie looks up at the sky with her arms stretched heavenward, and asks for a sign. She concludes that “God would do less than He had in His heart” (pp. 178). By this we learn that Janie knows that God sees what happens on Earth, and cares. But she also knows that sometimes he chooses to let people suffer and die.

In all these ways, Janie demonstrates accurate Christian beliefs. However, Janie makes one fatal mistake: She does not acknowledge God’s daily presence in her life. Christians believe that God is more than an uninvolved superpower. Instead he is a God who wants to have a personal relationship with everyone. Christians believe that God is always there to help us with decisions, comfort us, and give us joy. Janie only cries out to God in moments of great trial, when she needs something from him. Janie’s un-involvement with God also causes her to have less than perfect beliefs about ethics, and causes her to make some poor choices.

Janie’s beliefs about ethics are reflected in who she admires. Her third husband, Tea Cake, is not a man of moral integrity. Prior to marrying Janie, he had been quite sexually immoral, (pp. 104). Even after marrying Janie, he continued to gamble, and seems fine with cleaning fellow gamblers from their last penny, (pp. 127). Still, Janie thinks the world of Tea Cake, and calls him “the son of the Evening Sun” (pp. 178). Janie also believes in revenge. She even prays to God to give her a chance to kill anyone who hurts Tea Cake, (pp. 126).

Janie’s moral beliefs are far shy of the Christian world view. She seems to believe in a sort of social standard of ethics, where everyone can do whatever they please, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. She believes that anyone who hurts another person, thus breaking the social agreement, should be subject to others hurting him/her. This is a very worldly view of ethics, and one that is very common today. Christians believe that in addition to not hurting others, a person should also obey God. For instance, God commands that we do things like observing the Sabbath, and refrain from taking his name in vain. Janie was guilty of breaking both of these commands throughout the book. Janie really only got half the picture; she never tried to hurt any person, but she did hurt God by disobeying his laws. Janie also seems to have a rather selfish view on the meaning of life, which cannot be considered moral.

Janie’s purpose in life was to find a good life through the love of a marriage partner. Her life was a journey to find the right relationship. Janie’s first two husbands, Logan Killicks, and Joe Starks both loved Janie, but not in the right way. Finally Janie found Tea Cake, who loved her for who she was, and enjoyed spending time with her. Janie seemed satisfied with this marriage, which indicates that this was her purpose in life. Janie states her worldview on the purpose of life this way, “Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (pp. 192). Christians most certainly believe that each individual must go to God to find fulfillment in life. Janie seems to acknowledge this in words, but she does not seem to have this relationship with God in her life. Instead, she tries to fill up the hole inside her soul with other people. With Tea Cake, she seems to finally succeed, which is a dangerous idea for naive Christian readers. The Christian worldview says that the purpose in life is to glorify God, and this is done only through our relationship with him. Janie thought that life was about living for herself, and only using God to help her through difficult times.

Overall, Janie’s worldview is a muddled assortment of Christian and Worldly teachings. Janie believes in God, but views him as distant, and only seeks him in times of great need. She believes in being kind to those around her, but neglects to obey all of God’s commands. And finally, her purpose in life was focused on herself, and she only used God, instead of serving him. Janie may have been a “good character”, and readers will no doubt be sympathetic to her emotions, and struggles. However, Janie’s life is not one that exemplifies the Christian life, and Christians reading “Their Eyes Were Watching God” should be cautious not to make the same mistakes as Janie did in the forming of her worldview.

References:

Hurston, Zora N. "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.