Their Eyes Were Watching God Novel Synopsis
The main character, Janie, longs for love and at first, thinks marriage equals love, until her first husband begins to expect the unreasonable from her (21-31). Janie runs off with Joe Starks who seems to be a promising man, only to find he is selfish and violent (32-80). After twenty years of marriage, Joe dies and Janie is free, once more, to pursue her dream of becoming the pear tree she once saw- a picture of marriage and love- that first gave birth to her desire for love and marriage at sixteen (87). Janie meets Tea Cake who truly loves her, and they marry (94-116.) Janie is now the pear tree that she has longed to be for so long, and though there are trials that lead even to Tea Cake’s death, Janie’s dream has come true: she has found true love.
The main theme in Their Eyes Were Watching God, seems to be that there are risks to living, and through those risks, one must always keep their eyes on God. In the end of the book, Janie tells Pheoby, “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” (192).Though Janie doesn’t always seem to have her eyes set on God and there are consequences for her actions, Janie learns from her circumstances and learns to trust God in the roughest of situations.