Their Eyes Were Watching God

“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.”

Hurston’s opening lines introduce both the importance of differences between men and women’s experiences, and the horizon, which symbolizes the possibilities that are excluded and implied by the one’s identity. A “Watcher,” Janie transitions from passively waiting for life to happen to becoming a woman who acts. This quote previews of the arc of her character and the plot.

“It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt power and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.”

Hurston introduces the porch, the gathering place for the town of Eatonville. The power and ability of the porch-sitters to pass judgment shows the centrality of the storytelling culture to the identity of the people who sit there—mostly working-class people who expend much of their energy just surviving.

“Ah don’t mean to bother wid tellin’ ’em nothin’, Pheoby. ’Tain’t worth de trouble. You can tell ’em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat’s just de same as me ’cause mah tongue is in mah friend’s mouf.”

Janie’s trust shows the importance of Pheoby’s friendship. Janie’s statement also shows her willingness to violate community norms no matter what: She is a free woman.