Download When I was about halfway through reading Their Eyes were

William V. Sinski
April 29, 2002
Comparison of Hurston's Their Eyes were Watching God to Homer's Odyssey
Or, How would a Poor, Unarmed, Uneducated, Lone, African/American Girl Child Stand-up to the Perils of the Odyssey?
When I was about halfway through reading Their Eyes were Watching
God (Their Eyes) by Zora Neale Hurston, I recognized the story. I had read it
before, in one form or another, many times. Hurston’s Their Eyes is a
wonderful adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey. Like Ulysses in the Odyssey,
Janie is sent on an odyssey of her own.
Ulysses has just come of age. He is a white man, and he is rich. He is
well armed and has an army at his command. He is a newlywed, and his
beloved wife has just given him a fine son. He has just become king of
Ithaca. He will not even have to worry about his ability to rule over his new
kingdom; because, his parents have not died. They have retired and are
available to offer advice.
Before Ulysses can enjoy his newly inherited world, in which he rules, the
leading Grecian King sends him off to war. He does well in his call to battle.
He defeats the city of Troy. As well as he does, he becomes overconfident
and commits an act of blasphemy when he refuses to acknowledge the
assistance he receives from the gods. "On their way home they sinned
against Minerva, who raised both wind and waves against them, so that all
his brave companions perished, and he alone was carried hither by wind
and tide," Calypso explains in book V of the Odyssey. His blasphemy
happens early in the story, and for many years his life becomes difficult.
He first follows the orders of his King, to conquer Troy, the threat to all of
the Greek community. After conquering the threat of Troy, he comes upon
the Cyclops: a man of limited vision who rules his home as an iron willed
master. He leaves the Cyclops, who would keep him for the rest of his life,
and comes upon Circe. He endures Circe as long as he has to, and when he
leaves her he must go into "Hades land of dread Proserpine to consult the
ghost of the blind Theban prophet Teiresias."(Homer book X). In Hades he
offers a sacrifice to the spirits of the dead, whereon the ghosts came
trooping up…from every quarter and flitted round the trench with a strange
kind of screaming sound that made me turn pale with fear. When I saw them
coming I told the men to…flay the carcasses…and at the same time to
repeat prayers to Hades and to Proserpine; but I sat where I was with my
sword drawn and would not let the poor feckless ghosts come near the
blood till Teiresias should have answered my questions. (Homer book XI).
After his trip into Hades, he meets the goddess Calypso. An act of the gods
separates him from the goddess. After Calypso, he returns home. He must
dispose of the suitors. He is reunited with his love and is once again in
command of his kingdom.
Janie has just come of age. She is a black girl child, and she is poor. She
is only sixteen. She is unarmed and has no friends. She has just become
queen of her newly discovered self-awareness. She can tell by watching the
natural state of other forms of life around her that nature must also have
human secrets waiting to be discovered by her. She will have to worry about
her ability to rule over her new kingdom; because, she has no parents. They
have left her with her aging grandmother. Her grandmother can only give her
limited advice; because, she has never known the love of a man. Her mother
and her mother’s mother were both victimized by men when they were
young and pretty. Janie’s grandmother’s worst fear is that the same thing will
happen again to Janie.
Before Janie can enjoy her newly inherited world, in which she rules, her
grandmother sends her off to "war." She must marry at once to fight the
ever-reoccurring threat to the women in her family. She does well in her call
to battle. She defeats the threat of becoming an un-wed mother. She has
married. If she has a child now, she will be wed. The cure for the threat is no
better than the stigma of being an un-wed mother.
The conquering of the threat of being an un-wed mother is her marriage to
the Cyclops: Logan Killicks. He is a man of limited vision who rules his home
as an iron willed master. She leaves the Cyclops-Logan, who would keep
her for the rest of her life, and comes upon Joe-Circe-Starks. It is during her
time with Joe Starks that Janie and everyone else commits an act of
blasphemy when they think to themselves "It was one of those statements
that everybody says but nobody actually believes like ’God is everywhere.’"
She endures Circe-Joe as long as she has to and when he dies, she is free
to leave. There is a foreshadowing of her leaving Joe. Before Joe passes
away, a mule he has adopted dies. Joe drags the dead mule out of the town
and holds a mock funeral for it. After everyone has gone, The already
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William V. Sinski
April 29, 2002
Comparison of Hurston's Their Eyes were Watching God to Homer's Odyssey
Or, How would a Poor, Unarmed, Uneducated, Lone, African/American Girl Child Stand-up to the Perils of the Odyssey?
impatient buzzards…closed in circles. The near ones got nearer and the far
ones got near…some of the more hungry or daring perched on the carcass.
They wanted to begin, but the Parson wasn’t there…the flock waited for the
white haired leader, but it was hard. They josted each other at pecked at
heads in hungry irritation…he finally lit on the ground…(Hurston 61-2). After
the Parson, the leading buzzard, comes and speaks, all the others can enjoy
the feast. They resemble the spirits in Hades who must wait for prophet
Teiresias to enjoy the feast.
After the mock funeral and the death of Joe Starks, Janie meets Tea
Cake-Calypso-Woods. An act of the God separates her from her god-like
lover. An act that may have been done to remind her "God is Everywhere."
A terrible storm and a bite from a rabid dog cost Tea Cake his life. After Tea
Cake, she returns home. She need not dispose of any suitors; they left when
she was no longer a prize. She does return to a home that is in bit of
disorder. Like a Greek Cores in a play, the townsfolk are still sitting on her
store porch. They make unkind accusations. Most of them are filled with
resentment. One old and true friend greets her and hears all about her
odyssey. Cyclopes = Kuk w es = Killicks (note that there is a Greek letter
missing before and after the "w" in this copy of the Greek spelling of
Cyclopes; I had to pencil them in for the paper).
The Cyclopes Polyphemus is a model for Logan Killicks in the story Their
Eyes Were Watching God. To begin, the Greek spelling for Cyclopes is
Kukwes. Like Killicks, it has two Ks. The symbol for pie looks a bit like two
hand-written Ls. It starts with K and ends with S.
Ulysses tells of coming upon the Cyclopes: "We sailed hence, always in
much distress, till we came to the land of…the Cyclopes (Homer book IX)
Once in the cave of the Cyclopes, Ulysses is not prepared to give his real
name: "Cyclops, you ask my name and I will tell it you; give me, therefore,
the present you promised me; my name is Noman;" (Homer book IX). The
description of the cave and Ulysses saying his name is Noman-or in some
translations of the Odyssey, Nobody-is reflected in Hurston’s line describing
Logan’s house as "a stump in the middle of the woods where nobody has
ever been" (Hurston 21).
The Cyclopes race are the rulers of their land. There are not enough of
them to be concerned about the rules of civilization. Now the Cyclopes
neither plant nor plough, but trust in providence, and live on such wheat,
barley, and grapes as grow wild without any kind of tillage, and their wild
grapes yield them wine as the sun and the rain may grow them. They have
no laws nor assemblies of the people, but live in caves on the tops of high
mountains; each is lord and master in his family, and they take no account of
their neighbors. (Homer book IX).
Ulysses is an intruder--almost with the boldness of a new bride, but one
who has caution-he request hospitality: We therefore humbly pray you to
show us some hospitality, and otherwise make us such presents as visitors
may reasonably expect….But the cruel wretch said, 'Then I will eat all
Noman's comrades before Noman himself, and will keep Noman for the last.
This is the present that I will make him. (Homer book IX).
Polyphemus, the Cyclopes, is a ‘man’ of limited vision. He is not so just
because he has only one eye. He rules his home with hard work and
discipline. He has no reason to look beyond his mountain. All that he needs
to maintain life can be found among his belongings on his mountain in his
cave.
Janie’s first husband is Logan Killicks. There is a foreshadowing, of
hurriedness and distress as Janie travels to Logan’s land, because there
was nothing "on the seat of Logan’s wagon to make it ride glorious on the
way to his house. It was a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the
woods where nobody has ever been" (Hurston 21).
Logan is much older than Janie. He has arranged for his marriage to
Janie by dealing with her grandmother. Logan is a good man; he has sixty
acres and a home. Logan makes a living off-of his land, in the best way it
can provide for him. He does plant and plow, and his crop is potatoes. He
relies on the toil of his tillage.
He intends to have Janie help with the tillage: "Mah husband is gone to
buy a mule fuh me tuh plow," she tells a stranger passing by (Hurston 29).
Janie is not friend nor foe, not company nor intruder. She is not a neighbor;
she is family now. Logan is the first who will take possession of Janie. Logan
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William V. Sinski
April 29, 2002
Comparison of Hurston's Their Eyes were Watching God to Homer's Odyssey
Or, How would a Poor, Unarmed, Uneducated, Lone, African/American Girl Child Stand-up to the Perils of the Odyssey?
is ruler of his family and takes no account of his neighbors. Logan is not a
good looking man: "his head is so long one way and so flat on de sides and
dat pone uh fat back uh his neck" (Hurston 24).
Logan is also a man of limited vision. His hard work and discipline have
reaped a life of security. He lives alone but in a society of lower-middle class
farmers. They may not socialize, but they will come running if he needs
them, just as the other Cyclopes people came to help Polyphemus. We can
feel sorry for Polyphemus as well as Logan. Neither may be pleasant
company, but except for in their own homes, they do not impose a threat to
anyone. Janie was invited into Logan’s life. She was not prepared to spend
her life living as Logan’s wife. With no hard feelings, she was free to leave.
Janie came upon Logan during the odyssey of her coming of age. Ulysses
was in intruder who came upon Polyphemus during his odyssey to return
home. "Janie, if you think Ah aims to tole you off and make a dog outa you,
youse wrong. Ah wants to make a wife outa you." (Hurston 29) Circe is the
Model for Joe ‘Jody’ Starks
Circe is a goddess with the power to change any creature into another
kind of animal. Wild animals are tamed into guarding her compound. She
can change a man into an animal: There were wild mountain wolves and
lions prowling all round it- poor bewitched creatures whom she had tamed
by her enchantments and drugged into subjection…she came down…and
bade them (Ulysses’ crew) enter. They, thinking no evil, followed her…When
she had got them into her house, she set them upon benches and seats and
mixed them a mess with cheese, honey, meal, and Pramnian but she
drugged it with wicked poisons to make them forget their homes, and when
they had drunk she turned them into pigs by a stroke of her wand, and shut
them up in her pigsties. They were like pigs-head, hair, and all, and they
grunted just as pigs do; but their senses were the same as before, and they
remembered everything. (Homer book X)
Joe Starks can change people. Though he promises not to change Janie
into a dog, he changes her into a "trophy wife." Like a trophy, she is to be
admired, flaunted, displayed, and most of all possessed. Just as Circe
possesses Ulysses as a trophy man, Joe possesses Janie. There was no
spell on Ulysses; he stayed and behaved because he gave his word to save
his men: And I answered, 'Circe, how can you expect me to be friendly with
you when you have just been turning all my men into pigs? And now that
you have got me here myself, you mean me mischief when you ask me to
go to bed with you, and will unman me and make me fit for nothing. (Homer
book X) Ulysses also had a clear goal in mind. He had a family and life to
return to. He was never held by the same magic that Circe could use on
others.
Janie is not charmed in the same way the town people are. Unlike
Ulysses, she has no clear goal or life to return to. She does realize early in
the relationship that Joe has a power to charm. She is not so charmed, but
until she clearly sees another life that is better, she puts her ‘inner-self ’
away. Her goal, for the time being, is to protect her inner-self and not let Joe
change her soul. Things packed up and put away in parts of her heart where
he could never find them. She was saving up feelings for some man she had
never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew
how not to mix them (Hurston 72).
When Joe enters Eatonville, an all black community, the townspeople are
all in their natural state of existence. They have no leader. They do not
suspect that they really need one. Joe changes the town of Eatonville. He is
compelling. He can look at a person and talk him or her into doing what is
needed for the town. He does not need to use magic with drugs to charm
them. There was something about Joe Stalks that cowed the town. It was
not because of physical fear. He was no fist fighter. His bulk was not even
imposing as men go. Neither was it because he was more literate than the
rest. Something else made men give way before him. He had a bow-down
command in his face, and every step he took made the thing more tangible
(Hurston 47). It is irony that the townspeople think Janie has resorted to a
spell and potion to cause his death when it happens.
Joe can not only change people into whatever he wants them to be, he
can change a mule into a respectable member of his society. When Joe
buys an old mule that has been mistreated, the owner taunts Joe for buying
an animal too old and week to work. Joe has other plans: "Didn’t buy’im fuh
3
William V. Sinski
April 29, 2002
Comparison of Hurston's Their Eyes were Watching God to Homer's Odyssey
Or, How would a Poor, Unarmed, Uneducated, Lone, African/American Girl Child Stand-up to the Perils of the Odyssey?
no work. I god, Ah bought dat varmint tuh let’im rest" (Hurston 58). Joe plans
to retire the mule and treat it with the respect any man or woman would want
and deserve after working like a pack animal most of its life.
The crew of Ulysses, when under the spell of Circe still has "their
senses…the same as before, and they remembered everything. (Homer
book X). When they were discontented, Circe tended to them: "Thus then
when they shut up squealing, and Circe threw them some acorns and beech
masts such as pigs eat. (Homer book X).
The people of Eatonville also have "their senses…the same as before,
and they remembered everything." They admit that there is a less than
healthy relationship between the town and the Mayor. What Ah don’t lak
‘bout de man is, he talks tuh unlettered folks wid books in his jaws…Ah often
wonder how dat lil wife uh hisn makes out wid him, ‘cause he’s uh man dat
changes everything, but nothin’ don’t change him…the town had a basketful
of fellings good and bad about Joe’s positions and possessions, but none
had the temerity to challenge him (Hurston 49-50).
Janie makes a final desperate attempt to communicate with Joe as he is
dying. "Ah knowed you wasn’t gointuh lissen tuh me," she pleads, "You
changes everything but nothin’ don’t change you-not even death" (Hurston
86). After Joe dies, Janie is not sure where to go next. She is not sure if she
has to go anywhere. She is sure that she may now let the person inside of
her be free. She does so, allowing "the dream" to be "the truth" (Hurston 1)
Calypso is the model for Tea Cake Woods
We must realize that the differences between Ulysses and Janie are as
important as the similarities; Ulysses had Penelope. He loved her dearly. His
love for his wife was such that even the goddess Calypso could not have the
love in his heart. Janie was a widow when she met Tea Cake Woods: her
Calypso. Ulysses came, by providence, upon Calypso. At her home in the
woods, she gave him wine (drink), meat (food), and herself. Tea Cake
Woods came, by providence, upon Janie. As Calypso had no concern for
the possessions of Ulysses, Tea Cake has no concern for any of the
possessions of Janie. Tea Cake’s name suggest to us that as long as Janie
is with him, she will have tea (or drink), cake (or food), and living anywhere
with this god of a man will be like a luxury home in the woods
Janie is alone when she meets Tea Cake Woods; she has gone through a
change, "The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her
place" (Hurston 87). He came into her store for a Coca-Cola. At first, she is
careful; she has many suitors since her husband has passed away. (And,
the comparison of the sleazy suitors in Janie’s store to the sleazy suitors
who tormented Penelope while her husband was away is also remarkable.)
After he has wooed her for a while, she embarks on an adventure with him.
It will be an adventure for her; because, she will leave home and most of her
possessions safely in Eatonville. Tea Cake never stops wooing her. As she
explains to Mrs. Turner: "He kin take most any lil thing and make
summertime out of it when times is dull. Then we lives offa dat happiness he
made till some mo’ happiness comes along" (Hurston 141).
Calypso comes with her own physical pleasures and comforts. There was
a large fire burning on the hearth, and one could smell from far the fragrant
reek of burning cedar and sandal wood. As for herself, she was busy at her
loom…singing beautifully. Round her cave there was a thick wood of alder,
poplar, and sweet smelling cypress trees, wherein all kinds of great birds
had built their nests- owls, hawks, and chattering sea-crows that occupy
their business in the waters. A vine loaded with grapes was trained and grew
luxuriantly about the mouth of the cave; there were also four running rills of
water in channels cut pretty close together, and turned hither and thither so
as to irrigate the beds of violets and luscious herbage over which they
flowed…such a lovely spot (Homer book V) Wherever Tea Cake is becomes
a pleasure for Janie. For instance during the summer when she heard the
subtle but compelling rhythms of the Bahaman drummers, she’s Walk over
and watch the dances. She did not laugh the "Saws" to scorn as she had
heard the people doing in the season. She got to like it a lot and she and
Tea Cake were on hand every night till the others teased them about it.
(Hurston 139)
Ulysses was not free to love Calypso; every day he was unable to leave
her island he cried: "he was on the sea-shore as usual, looking out upon the
barren ocean with tears in his eyes, groaning and breaking his heart for
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William V. Sinski
April 29, 2002
Comparison of Hurston's Their Eyes were Watching God to Homer's Odyssey
Or, How would a Poor, Unarmed, Uneducated, Lone, African/American Girl Child Stand-up to the Perils of the Odyssey?
sorrow (Homer Book V). When Calypso offered Ulysses immortality and a
goddess, he explained to her why he must leave. "Goddess," replied
Ulysses, "do not be angry with me about this. I am quite aware that my wife
Penelope is nothing like so tall or so beautiful as yourself. She is only a
woman, whereas you are an immortal. Nevertheless, I want to get home,
and can think of nothing else.
Janie was free to love her god like man. She had two years with him
before an act of God took him away.
Mrs. Turner and her husband have a restaurant, which serves mostly the
migrant workers in the Everglades. For Janie, it is difficult to go into or go by
Mrs. Turner’s restaurant without having to hear a message. Turner has a
special message for Janie and others like Janie. Janie has light skin and thin
lips like Mrs. Turner. Mrs. Turner is filled with hatred for people of color who
have the more traditional darker skin and African facial features. Ah can’t
stand black niggers. Ah don’t blame de white folks from hatin’ ‘em ‘ cause
Ah can’t stand ‘em mahself. ‘Nother thing, Ah hates tuh see folks lak me and
you mixed up wid ‘em. Us oughta class off. If it wun’t for so many black folks
it wouldn’t be no race problem. De white folks would take us in wid dem. De
black ones is holdin’ us back. (Hurston 141) Mrs. Turner continues to "singthe-praises" of a life for light skinned blacks that would be as good as life is
for white folks. Janie believes her life is just fine and has never been better
than it is now with Tea Cake Woods. Mrs. Turner did not know that Tea
Cake was in another room and over herd her.
Ulysses had a warning about the Sirens he would run into. He prepared
himself for their song. It too promised utopia. When we had got within
earshot of the land, and the ship was going at a good rate, the Sirens saw
that we were getting in shore and began with their singing. Come here,' they
sang, …and listen to our two voices. No one ever sailed past us without
staying to hear the enchanting sweetness of our song- and he who listens
will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we know all the ills that
the gods laid upon the Argives and Trojans before Troy, and can tell you
everything that is going to happen over the whole world. They sang these
words most musically, and as I longed to hear them further I made by
frowning to my men that they should set me free; but they quickened their
stroke, and Eurylochus and Perimedes bound me with still stronger bonds till
we had got out of hearing of the Sirens' voices. Then my men took the wax
from their ears and unbound me (Homer BOOK XII) The black community
discovers that this light skinned woman, who is black, hates the people who
keep her in a profitable business. Because she was unable to lure Janie
over, and because Janie returns to her true love, the black community uses
a clever device to destroy her restaurant.
The following is a description of Mrs. Turner. With her wide, flat, oval
shaped face having a pointy nose that almost touches her chin, her mouth
with her thin lips hardly show. With her curved body and rounded shoulders,
she resembles a bird. Mrs. Turner was a milky sort of a woman…Her
shoulders rounded a little…she must have been conscious of her pelvis
because she kept it stuck out in front of her…Tea Cake…claimed that she
had been shaped by a cow kicking her from behind…That same cow took
and stepped in her mouth when she was a baby and left it wide and flat with
her chin and nose almost meeting (Hurston 139-40). The following are
definitions of the Sirens depicted in Homer’s Odyssey. There is also a
definition of Omniscience. Omniscience is used to describe the promises
made by the Sirens. The Sirens claim to have all the knowledge of creation.
With their knowledge, a person is promised a better life. The definitions are
taken from The Oxford English Dictionary and The Oxford Classical
Dictionary. Sirens, Enchantresses who live on an island near Scylla and
Charybdis in Homer’s Odyssey…In art, they are usually represented as
birds with women’s heads…Sailors charmed by their song land and
perish…The attempt to lure Odysseus by claiming omniscience…The
escape of Odysseys…leads t their death, as does their defeat in a singing
contest…(Hornblower 1413 and OEC ON CD-ROM)
In a judgment from Zeus, after hearing other gods defend Ulysses, The
gods--the ones the sirens promised him he could live with--have judged him.
Ulysses was permitted to return to his home and family.
They will send him in a ship to his own country, and will give him more
bronze and gold and raiment than he would have brought back from Troy, if
5
William V. Sinski
April 29, 2002
Comparison of Hurston's Their Eyes were Watching God to Homer's Odyssey
Or, How would a Poor, Unarmed, Uneducated, Lone, African/American Girl Child Stand-up to the Perils of the Odyssey?
he had had had all his prize money and had got home without disaster. This
is how we have settled that he shall return to his country and his friends
(Homer book V) To realize his wish, Ulysses returns home on a ship as
instructed by his gods. It is appropriate. Hurston begins Their Eyes with the
passage, "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," as they almost did not land for Ulysses, "until the
Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked by death
and time. That is the life of men" (Hurston 1).
In a judgment from her trial for the murder of Tea Cake Janie is free to go
home. The white people-the ones that Mrs. Turner promised her she could
live with--have judged her. There will be no ship to take her; she is on her
own. Before she leaves the muck of the Glades, she pays for a grand
funeral for Tea Cake. Janie wants Tea Cake in a strong vault in West Palm
Beach because he "was the son of the Evening Sun" (Hurston 189). In
Greek Mythology, Atlas holds up the sky. The Atlas Mountains are named
after the Mythical god. The range is on the western, Roman side of Africa.
As the Sun sets the last view of the Evening Sun would be on top of the
Atlas Mountains. Calypso is the daughter of Atlas. "Greek legend converted
them," the Atlas mountains, "into the bowed shoulder of the god who held up
the heavens" (Hornblower 117). I would associate the Evening Sun with
Atlas the god who permits his followers the last view of the sun at the end of
the day.
Janie returns home to Eatonville. With Tea Cake she has learned the selfawareness she was denied at the age of sixteen. Now she is free to "forget
all those things" she does not "want to remember, and remember everything
"she does not" want to forget. The dream is the truth. She will "act and do
things accordingly" (Hurston 1).
Works Cited
Homer. The Odyssey, translated by Samuel Butler. 2001.
Hornblower, Simon. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1996.
Hurston, Zora Neale. There Eyes Were Watching God, New York:
HarperPerennial, 1990.
Oxford English Dictionary, 2ed. Ed. On Cd-rom ver 3.0, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2002.
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