Their Eyes Were Watching Hair
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Throughout the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, a woman named Janie Crawford experiences many difficulties and has to persevere through them. Despite Janies rough life, she still possesses a highly important symbolic figure: her marvelous hair. As she matures during the novel, Janies hair acted as a crucial symbol that exemplified her true identity and consisted of three main concepts: her beauty, strength, and her freedom. In novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston displays Janies hair as a recurring symbol within the novel.
Janies hair played a significant role in representing her true beauty as her life progressed. The only time she could show her true beauty was when she could let her hair down. Ever since the beginning of the story, Janies long, luscious, and black hair consistently exhibits how men have a strong affection for it. “Why, Tea Cake? Whut good do combin mah hair do you? Its mah comfortable, not yourn.” “Its mine too. Ah aint been sleepin so good for moren uh week cause Ah been wishin so bad tuh git mah hands in yo hair. Its so pretty. It feels jus lak underneath uh doves wing next to mah face.” (Hurston 103). Tea Cake is attracted to Janies hair and he enjoys touching it. Janies hair served as a pleasure for him to touch because of her extraordinary hair. The quotes also served as an example of a man in the book who falls in love with Janie and her hair. However, during Janies marriage with her second husband Joe Starks, she is forced to tie her hair up with a head rag because Joes dominance feels threatened and that her hairs feminine beauty makes him fear that she will leave him.
This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didnt seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was. He never told her how often he had seen the other men figuratively wallowing in it as she went about things in the store. And one night he had caught Walter standing behind and brushing the back of his hand back and forth across the loose end of her braid ever so lightly so as to enjoy the feel of it without Janie knowing what he was doing. Joe was at the back of the store and Walter didnt see him. He felt like rushing forth with the meat knife and chopping off the offending hand. That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others. (Hurston 55)
This quoted scene in the novel depicts how Joe forces Janie to tie one of her greatest displays of womanhood, and hide her true beauty as a beautiful woman. During Janies first marriage with Logan Killicks, his old and unappealing figure was sharply contrasted with Janies angelic hair that deeply expressed her beauty. “His belly is too big too, now, and his toe-nails look lak mule foots.”(Hurston 24). The quote displays how Logan unattractiveness is genuinely contrasted with Janies elegant hair. Not only does Janies hair represent her beauty, but also how her hair is used to give her the strength to endure her trails.
Janies hair is what makes her unique and special in society. Her long, luscious, and black hair and is primarily a feminine trait, which reinforces womens power opposed to mens. It is what most of the men characters notice right away about her appearance and are very attracted to it. Joe Starks tries to take away her power and freedom by having her tie up her hair. In contrast, Teacake loves everything about Janies