Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

     In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, illness is a reoccurring theme that Hurston utilizes to convey her overall message that one's happiness in life becomes dependent on others. Throughout the course of the novel, Janie witnesses illness take her love ones and impact her life and overall happiness. The majority of Janie's family succumbs to illness within the piece, including Nanny, Jody, and Tea Cake. With each death, Janie's happiness is directly effected. With the death of Nanny, Janie is forced to honor her grandmothers dying wish and marry Logan. This leads Janie to lose her childhood, representative of freedom and happiness, in order to have the life her grandmother wanted for her. Similarly, Janie's relationship with Jody hinders her happiness as Jody becomes controlling and jealous of Janie's happiness. But, once Jody passes, Janie once again, feels freedom as the part of her life that made her unhappy no longer was present. In contrast to these deaths through illness, when Tea Cake dies from Janie's shot, Janie loses the happiness she had during her marriage to Tea Cake due to the fact that she took his life. She feels remorse as well as the loss she has suffered, unlike the feelings she had with the death of Nanny and Jody. Because Janie allows her relationships to govern her happiness, each loss effects her happiness differently.
     Hurston's purpose through writing Their Eyes Were Watching God was to prove to her audience that nothing in life is permanent, and as a result, happiness should not be one's dependent on others in due to the lack of stability. By having three separate characters die from different illnesses, Hurston exemplifies the various curveballs in life to illustrate to the reader that life is unpredictable. Similarly, Huston has Janie react to each death in a different was depending on the type of relationship they shared to prove her message that happiness depends on the relationships shared between people. By having Janie be unhappy, Hurston demonstrates a deeper message that people should not allow their happiness to depend on others, rather have happiness come from within dependent on oneself. In conclusion, through illness, Hurston proves her message that happiness should be free from dependence on others due to the unpredictability of life.