Teaching Their Eyes Were Watching God
Study Questions
Chapter 1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Hurston starts her novel with a description of ships on the
sea and the expansive horizon. What is the tone of the
opening paragraph, and why does Hurston start the novel
this way?
In the first paragraph, who is the “Watcher,” why does he
“[turn] his eyes away in resignation,” and why are “his
dreams mocked to death by Time”?
Why is the description in the first paragraph “the life of
men?”
Why do “women forget all those things they don’t want to
remember, and remember everything they don’t want to
forget”?
What is the significance of the statement, “The dream is
the truth”?
In what ways are men and women different, according to
Hurston’s opening page?
Chiasmus is a pattern in which two parts of a sentence are
balanced with the parts reversed. Hurston uses a
chiasmus in paragraph #2 on page 1: “Now, women
forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and
remember everything they don’t want to forget,” reversing
“women/remember” and “remember/forget.” What is the
effect of this literary device?
Janie Crawford, the heroine of the story, has returned to
town after burying someone. Whom has she buried, and
what do we know about her already from this information?
What is the effect of describing the dead as “sodden,”
“bloated,” and “sudden”?
Why is the sun described as having “footprints”?
16
17
How do the people on the porch change as the sun goes
down?
What do we know about the people on the porch by
reading that they are “tongueless, earless, eyeless
conveniences…[that] mules and other brutes had
occupied their skins’?
Why are the people referred to metaphorically as “skins”?
As “lords of sounds and lesser things”?
What does it mean that they “pass nations through their
mouths” and “[sit] in judgment?
What is the effect of including a biblical allusion to sitting in
judgment?
Why are the people envious?
Why is it “mass cruelty”?
18
How can words “[walk] without masters”?
19
On page 2, Hurston shifts from dialect to standard written
English. What is the effect of this shift?
Why do the people on the porch criticize the heroine for
her clothing, her hair, and her choice of a young man?
12
13
14
15
20
1
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Hurston chooses not to have Janie’s words revealed on
page 2. Why does she do this?
What is significant about the men noticing Janie”s
buttocks, hair, and breasts?
Why do the women “[lay the clothes] away for
remembrance”?
Why are the faded shirt and muddy overalls “a weapon
against her strength,” and why might the women want
Janie to “fall to their level some day”?
How do Pearl Stone, Mrs. Sumpkins, and Lulu Moss react
to Janie’s return?
How does Pheoby defend Janie to them?
What is the “booger man”?
Why does Pheoby enter by way of the “intimate gate”?
What is significant about her bringing a bowl of mulatto
rice?
What is the tone of Janie’s answer to Pheoby, “…Ah ain’t
brought home a thing but mahself”?
Why does Hurston include “cloud dust” in the setting for
their conversation?
The ritual of washing feet appears in the Bible. What is
the effect of using it here?
Why does Pheoby give Janie advice about what to tell the
townspeople? What is Janie’s reaction and why?
What is the significance of Janie’s comment, “Dat’s just de
same as me ‘cause mah tongue is in mah friend’s mouf”?
What is the difference between corn-meal dumplings and
a bed-quilt?
What is Janie saying when she comments. “Ah been a
delegate to de big ‘ssociation of life. Yessuh! De Grand
Lodge, de big convention of livin’ is just where Ah been dis
year and a half y’all ain’t seen me”?
Why is Pheoby worried that her interest might seem like
“mere curiosity”?
Why is “self-revelation the “oldest human longing”?
Comment on the last line in the chapter: “Time makes
everything old so the kissing, young darkness became a
monstropolous old thing while Janie talked.”
Analyze the shifts between dialect and standard written
English in this chapter. What is the content of each
section? When does Hurston make the shifts, and what is
their effect?
Chapter 2
1
2
Chapter 2 begins Janie’s tale, starting when she was a
child. What is the tone of the opening paragraph.
What is the effect of the comparison between Janie’s life
and a “great tree in leaf”?
3
Why are both “dawn and doom” in the branches?
4
What positive and negative experiences does Janie have
as a child?
2
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
What is the significance of Janie’s being called “Alphabet”
as a child?
Why do the others laugh at Janie’s surprise?
Why is Mayrella bothered by Janie’s wearing the
Washburns’ hand-me-down clothes and ribbons?
Why would the sheriff and Mr. Washburn hunt for Janie’s
father?
Why does Hurston use the phrase, “crumple mah
feathers,” to describe the intended hurt?
Why does Nanny, Janie’s grandmother, arrange to buy
land and get their own house?
How does Pheoby’s “hungry listening” help Janie talk
about her life?
Why does Janie believe that “her conscious life had
commenced at Nanny’s gate?
What does the pear tree represent, and how does this
symbol affect the reader?
What is the “mystery” that Janie sees in the first bloom?
How does it “stir” her?
Why does Hurston compare the call of the bloom to a
“flute song”?
Why does she use the phrase, “the rose of the world”?
What “[emerges] and [quests] about in her
consciousness”?
Why does Hurston focus on the bees, the sun, and the
breeze?
Why is the voice “inaudible”?
What is Janie’s perception of marriage at this point in the
book?
Why is there no answer for herself?
25
Some critics have said that Janie experiences her first
orgasm in this scene. Do you agree or disagree?
Hurston uses a series of questions on page 10: “What?
How? Why?” She uses a second series of questions on
the next page: “When? How?” What is the effect of this
questioning, repetitive structure?
Why is it the “beginning of the world”?
26
Why does Janie want to “struggle with life”?
27
How does the scene beneath the pear tree affect Janie?
28
29
31
What does Johnny Taylor represent for Janie?
What are the connotations of “lacerate,” and why is
Johnny Taylor “lacerating her Janie with a kiss”?
Why does Nanny react so strongly to seeing Janie kiss
Johnny?
Why is Nanny’s voice so weak when she calls to Janie?
32
Why is it “the end of her childhood”?
24
30
3
33
34
35
36
The scene with the pear tree is rich and sensuous. The
description of Nanny on page 12, however, describes a
different kind of tree. What details does Hurston include to
describe Nanny as a tree, and how does this image affect
the reader?
Why does Hurston describe Nanny in a Medusa-like way?
Why are the leaves “palma christi” leaves?
37
38
39
Why does Janie have trouble thinking of herself as a
woman now?
Why does Nanny want Janie married right away?
How do Nanny’s words about Johnny Taylor affect Janie?
What prayer has Nanny said to God, and why?
40
41
How does Janie react to Logan Killicks’ name?
What is Nanny’s version of “[marrying] off decent”?
42
What does nanny mean when she said that Janie wants
her to “suck de same sorrow” that her mother did?
In what ways would Logan Killicks “desecrate the pear
tree”?
Why does Nanny cry?
How does Nanny see the role of the white man, and why?
43
44
45
46
50
How does nanny see the role of the black woman, and
why?
According to Nanny, what are the benefits of marriage?
What is the effect of including the Biblical allusion to “de
angel wid de sword”?
What is the effect of the image, “Us colored folks is
branches without roots”?
How does Nanny’s childhood compare to Janie’s?
51
Why does Nanny “hate the way [Janie] was born?
52
Why does Nanny want to “preach a great sermon about
colored women sittin’ on high”?
What is the effect of the Biblical allusion, “a highway
through de wilderness”?
What “text” is Nanny saving for Janie?
47
48
49
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
What “stand on high ground’ does Nanny want Janie to
make?
What are “mind-pictures” that Nanny sees?
Nanny is raped by the slaveowner, and his wife later
threatens Nanny and her newborn baby. Why does Mistis
slap her and say that the overseer will whip her the next
day?
Hurston spends much of the end of this chapter recounting
the story of Nanny’s life. Why does she do this, and what
is the significance of the story?
What is the effect of the phrase, “spit cup”?
Why does Nanny say she is a “cracked plate”?
4
Chapter 3
1
What is meant by the statement, There are years that
ask questions and years that answer”?
2
What does Janie expect from marriage to Logan
Killicks?
3
How does his house appear to Janie?
4
Why does Nanny feel “beaming pride”?
5
Why does Nanny wonder if Logan has “done took and
beat [Janie] already?
6
What does Logan do for Janie around the house, and
why does Janie mention it?
7
Why is Nanny’s description of Logan kissing Janie’s foot
both funny and poignant?
8
What is Nanny’s attitude toward love?
9
Why is love a “prong” that black women get “hung on”?
10
Why is Nanny impatient with Janie in this scene?
11
What is the importance of Logan Killicks having a house,
sixty acres, and the only organ in town?
What is Nanny criticizing in her comment about the man
who keeps looking at the sole of his shoe?
Why is Janie unhappy with Logan?
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
What does Nanny think while she prays after returning
from talking with Janie?
What is the tone of the description of Nanny’s death?
What has Janie learned by the end of the chapter?
Why does she speak to the seeds?
Why is the world “a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of
ether”?
Why does God tear down the world each evening and
build a new one the next morning?
Why have he familiar people and things…failed her?
Why does her new knowledge lead her to “[become] a
woman”?
Chapter 4
1
How has married life changed for Janie?
21
2
3
4
5
6
7
What does Janie do to stand up for herself, and why
does Logan back down?
Why is Logan buying a second mule, what reaction does
he expect from her about it, and what is the nature of her
response?
What is Janie’s first impression of Joe Starks, and what
contributes to this impression?
Why does Janie think Joe acts like Mr. Washburn?
Why does Hurston emphasize Janie’s hair when she is
pumping water?
What does Joe see when he “[looks] hard”?
5
Why does Hurston repeat Joe’s desire “to be a big voice”
twice on one page?
9
Why has Joe come to Florida?
10
What is the tone of Janie and Joe’s first conversation?
11
If Joe does not “represent sun-up and pollen and
blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon,” why does
Janie go with him?
12
How does Janie’s hair affect Joe?
13
Why is Logan critical of Janie’s background?
14
Why does Logan say, “Thought Ah’d take and make
somethin’ outa yuh” to Janie?
15
Why doesn’t he think other men would trust Janie?
16
Why does Logan want to hurt Janie?
17
Why is the sun “threatening the world with red daggers”?
18
Why is Logan angry?
19
Janie responds to Logan with a commentary about
marriage. What does her speech reveal about her verbal
abilities and desires to speak at this point in the story?
20
How does Logan respond to Janie’s speech?
21
Why is his “last sentence…half a sob and half a cry”?
22
What is going on in Janie’s mind at the end of this
chapter?
23
Why isn’t Janie angry?
24
What does it mean that Logan is “accusing her of her
mamma, her grand-mama and her feelings”?
25
What “feeling of sudden newness and change” comes
over Janie, and why?
26
What does the apron symbolize?
27
What expectations does Janie have when she leaves
with Joe Starks?
28
Why doesn’t Janie feel the need to divorce Logan
Killicks before marrying Joe?
29
What “old thoughts [are] going to come in handy now,”
and what “new words” will Janie need?
30
The porch is a recurring setting in Hurston’s novel. What
is the function of the porch at the end of this chapter?
Chapter 5
1
How does the beginning of Janie’s second marriage
compare and contrast with her first?
8
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
What is Janie proud of when she looks at Joe?
Why are the houses “shame-faced”?
Joe says, “I god, where’s de Mayor?” What is the effect
on the reader of his “I god” opening?
What does it suggest when Lee Coker and Amos Hicks
are “sitting on their shoulder blades”?
Why does Amos Hicks immediately lose interest when
he finds out Janie is Joe’s wife, not his daughter?
What is the significance of Joe’s comment, “Ain’t got no
Mayor! Well, who tells y’all what to do?
What is the role of women in Joe’s world?
What do Amos and Lee think about Joe?
What is Amos’ opinion of himself?
6
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
What does Amos mean by the comment, “Mah co-talkin’
is too deep. Too much co to it”?
Lee is Amos’ straight man when Amos talks about his
talents with women. Yet what is the effect when Lee
says, “Ah’s much ruther see all dat than to hear ‘bout it”?
What are the dynamics of the conversation between
Amos and Lee?
Joe is holding court on the porch. What are the content
and tone of the conversation?
What is Janie doing while Joe is talking?
Why does Joe say, “Lemme speak to mah wife a minute
and Ah’m goin’ see de man”?
Why do the men “want to laugh” when Joe says he
intends to buy the land from Captain Eaton?
Why does Amos Hicks return to the house?
Why does Amos think Janie needs “waking up”?
What is the tone of Janie’s responses to Amos?
How does Amos rationalize his change of attitude toward
Janie, and why?
How does Lee counter Amos’ blustering?
Why is Amos irritated with Jody?
Why isn’t Amos Hicks “ready to think of colored people
in post offices yet”?
Why does Amos think Joe is lying?
Why does Amos think that black people are “too envious
of one ‘nother”?
Why does Lee finally say “Aw, git reconciled! Dat woman
don’t want you”?
Amos and Lee go to find Joe. What do you notice about
Joe’s description when they locate him?
Why does Joe say he wants the store built first?
What does it show about Joe that he counts the lumber?
Why does Jody want Janie to stand in the store the
whole evening?
How does Jody want the other townspeople to look upon
Janie?
What is the significance of Tony Taylor’s comment to
Joe, thanking him for bringing “yo’ belov-ed wife, yo’
store, yo’ land”?
What is the nature of the group dynamics during this
meeting on the porch?
Why does Hurston include the Biblical allusion to Isaac
and Rebecca at the well?
Why does Jody end his remarks with “Amen”?
Why doesn’t Jody let Janie speak on the porch, and how
does Janie react?
How does Jody make the lamplighting an event?
In what ways is Jody like Logan Killicks?
Jody’s speech at the lamplighting has a Biblical ring to it,
echoing Genesis 1 where God says, “Let there be light.”
Why does Hurston use this technique here, and how
does it add to the meaning of this scene?
How does Janie look upon Jody after the lamplighting?
7
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
Why does his new house bother the town?
What is implied in the statement, “It weakened people”?
Why do the others feel as if “they had been taken
advantage of. Like thing had been kept from them”?
What is the “familiar strangeness”?
How does the town regard Jody’s domineering ways,
and why do they give in to him?
Why do people regard the statement, “Our beloved
Mayor,” the same way they regard “God is everywhere”?
Why do the townspeople begin to turn against Joe?
Why does Joe “[love] obedience”?
In what ways is Joe the wind and the people the grass?
What is the significance of the comment, “He’s got uh
throne in de seat of his pants”?
Why are the men critical of Janie’s wearing a headrag?
Why do the men say Joe is “ungodly” at times?
Why do the people bow down to Joe?
Chapter 6
1
Comment on the effect of the first sentence of this
chapter: “Every morning the world flung itself over and
exposed the town to the sun.”
2
What is the tone of the following description: “People sat
around on the porch and passed around the pictures of
their thoughts for the others to look at and see…the
thought pictures were crayon enlargements of life.”
3
In what ways are Lige and Sam teasing Matt Bonner,
and why does Matt fall for it?
4
Why is the comment about the “wash board,” the “rubboard,” and the “hock-bones” funny?
5
Why is Matt’s response humorous?
6
Why is the mule “next to the Mayor in prominence?
7
Why doesn’t Joe want Janie to take part in the mule
stories on the porch?
8
What does Joe mean when he says, “They’s jus’ some
puny humans playin’ round de toes uh Time”?
9
If Joe thinks so little of the mule stories, why does he
listen to them himself?
10
Why does Joe “hustle [Janie] off” the porch and “look like
he took pleasure in doing it” whenever the men start
telling tall tales?
11
What privileges does Joe want Janie to use, and what
“rock” dos she feel “battered against”?
12
Why is Jody jealous of what the other men might think
about Janie’s hair?
13
Why doesn’t he explain to Janie why he wants her to
wear a headrag?
14
Why do the men bait the mule, and how does Janie
react?
15
Why does Janie want to “fight about it” but decide but
decide to remain quiet nonetheless?
16
Why does Jody decide to buy the mule?
8
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Why does Janie decide to speak out, and how does
Hambo react to her words?
What does Jody think about Janie’s comments?
Why do the men tell “new lies” about the mule, and why
are those stories funny?
How is the mule personified in describing its death?
Why is the mule’s death “like the end of a war”?
Why is Jody surprised at Janie’s request to attend the
mule’s burial, and why doesn’t he want her to go?
What is the function of the mock burial scene put on by
the men of the town?
What is the function of the buzzards’ mock burial after
the men have left?
Why do the men mock “everything human in death” in
the mule’s burial?
What elements of parody are present in each mock
burial, and what is the purpose of the parody?
What is the effect of juxtaposing the human version of
the burial with the buzzard version?
In what ways is the Parson in the buzzards’ burial like
Jody in the men’s burial?
Why do the buzzards repeat the refrain, “Bare, bare fat”?
The buzzards are a parody of a parody. Why does
Hurston do this?
Why does Joe resent Janie’s behavior when he returns
to the store?
Joe has created a “high chair” for Janie, similar to the
one Nanny envisions when she says she wanted to
“preach a great sermon about colored women sittin’ on
high.” Why doesn’t Janie want to sit in it?
Why does Joe think he should “box [Janie’s] jaws”?
What is the meaning of Janie’s comment, “Everybody
can’t be lak you, Jody. Somebody is bound tuh want tuh
laugh and play”?
Why does Janie decide not to argue with Joe in this
scene?
The lying sessions with Sam and Lige are “a context in
hyperbole and carried on for no other reason.” How
does the hyperbole add to the effectiveness of the
scene?
Analyze the group dynamics during the scene on the
porch. Who is acting in what role, what subjects are
being discussed, what points are made about each topic,
and what is the relationship of the players to the
audience listening to the stories?
Why are the men “the center of the world”?
What is the effect of describing Joe sitting in his “high
chair”?
What story do they tell about Big John the Conqueror,
and why does Hurston include this tale?
What is the purpose of the “acting-out courtship”?
How does Daisy’s hair compare to Janie’s?
9
43
62
63
In what ways is this mock courtship functioning as a
play?
How does the audience around the porch respond to the
action?
What is the purpose of the hyperbole as the men
compare how much they would do for Daisy?
Why does Jody ruin the moment for Janie?
In what ways is Mrs. Bogle “the wind on the ocean”?
Why does Jody tell Janie to help Mrs. Bogle?
Why do the men participate in “play-acting,” as Janie
describes it?
Why does Janie venture her thoughts when she says,
“You sho loves to tell me whut to do, but Ah can’t tell you
nothin’ Ah see”?
What is the significance of Jody’s response, “Somebody
got to think for women and chillum and chickens and
cows”?
What “inside state of her marriage” is Janie thinking of?
What happens to the “spirit” of their marriage at this
point?
Why does Hurston use the image of a “daisy field” to
describe the marriage in its earlier days?
What is the effect of the phrase, “petal-open”?
Why does Jody slap her?
What is Janie thinking as she stands in the kitchen after
Joe leaves it?
What “inside” and “outside” if Janie thinking of?
What dreams does she have that are not being fulfilled?
What “bow to the outside of things” does Janie make?
What does Hurston mean when she writes that Jody was
“longing for peace but on his own terms”?
Why does Mrs. Robbins call Joe “noble”?
What is ironic about her statement, “You’se uh king”?
64
65
Why does she act offended when Joe cuts the meat?
How does each man react to her behavior?
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
What is Joe Lindsay’s attitude toward hitting a woman?
Why does Janie decide to speak for the first time?
Comment of the significance of her words: Sometimes
God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His
inside business. He told me how surprised He was ‘bout
y’all turning out so smart after Him makin’ yuh different;
and how surprised y’all is goin’ tuh be if you ever find out
you don’t know half as much ‘bout us as you think you
do. It’s so easy to make yo’self out God Almighty when
you ain’t got nothin’ tuh strain against but women and
chickens.
69
Why does Joe react by telling her to get both the
checkerboard and the checkers?
Chapter 7
1
Janie is around forty as this chapter opens. How have
the years affected her?
66
67
68
10
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Janie is “giving away what she [doesn’t] value.” What
does she not value?
Why does Janie say, “Ah’ll lie and say he is”?
In what ways is Janie “the world and the heavens boiled
down to a drop. Man attempting to climb to painless
heights from his dung hill”?
Sisyphus was a Greek character condemned to push a
rock up a hill each day, only to have it roll back down just
before he reached the top. Why does Hurston include
an allusion to Sisyphus in question #4 above, and what
does it add to the story?
Why does Janie imagine herself under a tree?
Janie is splitting her consciousness into two parts: one
stays in the store and tends to business while the other
lies under a shady tree. Why does she do this?
In what ways is Janie showing “indifference” now?
Janie notices “something dead” about Joe. What is it?
Why is Janie able “for the first time [to] see a man’s head
naked of its skull”?
Why and how does Joe’s “hurting inside” affect Janie?
How does Janie react to Joe’s continuing criticism in the
store?
What is the significance of the men laughing at the way
Janie cuts the chewing tobacco?
How is Jody reacting to Janie’s relative youth?
Why does Janie decide to speak up to Jody in front of
the others?
Joe wanted to be a “big voice” when he established
Eatonville. What is ironic now about Janie’s reference to
his “big voice”?
What is the effect of Janie’s comment, “You look lak de
change uh life,” on both Jody and the other men?
Why does Joe’s “vanity [bleed] like a flood”?
How does the use of the Biblical allusion to Saul’s
daughter and David enhance this scene?
Comment on the statement, ”And the cruel deceit of
Janie! Making all that show of humbleness and scorning
him all the time!”
Is Joe’s response excusable? Why or why not?
Chapter 8
1
What is the atmosphere around the house and the store
as this chapter opens?
2
What is suggested by the phrase, “the sleep of swords”?
3
4
5
6
What “new thoughts” and “new words” are there, and
why?
What does Janie mean by the statement, “Well, if she
must eat out of a long-handled spoon, she must”?
Janie describes Joe’s baggy, flabby skin and body.
What is the effect of this description?
Why does Janie say she doesn’t want to hurt Jody when
she has already humiliated him in front of his friends?
11
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Why does Pheoby tell Janie about the local gossip that
Joe was “fixed” and that Janie did it?
Why does Janie feel “sorrow dogged by sorrow”?
Two-headed doctors are part of voodoo. Why does
Hurston include a two-headed doctor in this story?
How does Janie conceive of Death?
Why is the two-headed doctor looking for something
buried against Jody?
Why is rumor a “wingless bird”?
Why does Janie think, “Jody, no Joe”?
Comment on the description of Joe’s look: “A look with
all the unthinkable coldness of outer space.”
Why does Janie decide to come into Joe’s bedroom and
talk?
Why does Janie say she never had a chance to use the
sympathy she feels?
Why does Hurston use the musical images of a bass
drum and trombone to describe Jody’s sob?
What does Janie mean when she says, “Mah own mind
had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room
for yours in me”?
What is Janie finally able to say to Joe?
What “futile fight” is taking place?
Why does Janie finally pity Joe?
In what ways does the final conversation between Janie
and Joe mirror their life together?
Why does Janie let down her hair?
Why does she “starch” and “iron” her face?
How does she feel when Joe dies?
Chapter 9
1
What is Joe’s funeral like?
9
Why is he referred to as the “Little Emperor”?
Why does Hurston repeat the sentence, “Janie starched
and ironed her face,” from the previous chapter?
Compare what is happening on the outside at the funeral
to Janie’s feelings inside.
Hurston uses a series of words and phrases in the
following quotation: “Finish. End. Nevermore.
Darkness. Deep hole. Dissolution. Eternity.” Why does
she do this, and what is the effect of this syntax and
word choice?
Why does Hurston use the diction, “herself went,” in
describing what Janie is doing inside?
Why does she burn all her head rags and have her braid
swinging down below her waist?
Comment on the statement, “She would have the rest of
her life to do as she pleased.”
What “inside” does Janie find?
10
Why does Janie hate her grandmother?
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
12
11
What “things” has Janie been forced to seek?
12
Hurston mentions the sea and ships again. Compare
her mention of this with her first description on page 1.
13
Why does Janie think that “Nanny belonged to that other
kind that loved to deal in scraps”?
14
What is the “mislove” that Janie remembers about
Nanny?
15
Why does Janie feel she was “set for still-bait”?
16
What view of creation does Janie relate, and what is her
role in it?
17
Why do people in the community think she needs a
man?
18
What does Janie think about Hezekiah’s behaving like
Joe?
19
What is Pheoby’s function during the time after Joe’s
death?
20
What does Janie mean when she says to Pheoby, “To
my thinkin’ mourning oughtn’t tuh last no longer’n grief”?
Chapter 10
1
What are Janie’s first impressions of Tea Cake?
2
Why is it significant that Tea Cake suggests playing
checkers?
3
How does Janie feel when Tea Cake shows her how to
play?
4
What does Tea Cake think about Janie’s ability to play
checkers?
5
Verigible is the vernacular for veritable. Why does
Hurston name him that?
6
How does Janie’s first meeting with Tea Cake compare
to her first meeting with Logan Killicks and Joe Starks?
7
Compare Janie and Tea Cake’s conversation with the
content and tone of the men playing the dozens on the
porch.
8
What does Janie think about her evening with Tea
Cake?
Chapter 11
1
What mixed emotions does Janie have about Tea Cake?
2
3
4
5
In what ways does Tea Cake’s sense of imagination
compare with that of Logan Killicks and Joe Starks?
Why does Hurston use a Biblical allusion to Peter
walking on the water at the Sea of Galilee?
Why does Janie let Tea Cake sit on the porch?
6
Why does she hold her breath when she asks Hezekiah
if Tea Cake has a wife?
Why doesn’t Hezekiah like Tea Cake?
7
Why does Hurston focus on Janie’s hair?
8
What is the effect of the expression “dove’s wing” to
describe the feel of Janie’s hair?
13
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles. Why does Hurston
use this reference?
Why does Janie refer to Tea Cake’s “lady friend”?
What does Tea Cake mean when he says, “You got me
in de go-long”?
What is Janie’s reaction to his comment?
What does Tea Cake mean when he says, “Look lak we
done run our conversation from grass roots tuh pine
trees”?
Why is Janie so drawn to Tea Cake?
In what ways does Tea Cake offer her the hope of
fulfilling her dream under the pear tree?
Why doesn’t Tea Cake come to visit that night, and why
does he come early the next morning?
What “daytime thoughts” does Tea Cake have?
Why does Janie let Tea Cake “leap forth and mount to
the sky on a wind”?
What is the effect of Hurston’s simple sentence: “That
was the beginning of things”?
Dante’s Inferno describes the nine circles of Hell, each
one worse than the one before. What “ninth darkness”
does Janie descend to, and why does Hurston use this
allusion?
What is the significance of Tea Cake’s comment, “Have
de nerve tuh say whut you mean”?
What does the reference to the keys to the kingdom add
to the scene?
How does Tea Cake allay Janie’s fears?
Chapter 12
1
Why is the town mad?
2
Why do the townspeople refer to Janie as Mrs. Mayor
Starks?
3
Why does Sam Watson comment on Janie’s hair?
4
What does Pheoby think of the undertaker?
5
Is the town being reasonable in suspecting Tea Cake of
wanting Janie for her money?
6
Is Pheoby accurate in her comment about “jealousy and
malice”?
7
What does Pheoby think about Janie’s activities?
8
What is the tone of Tea Cake’s behavior when he
returns?
9
Why does Tea Cake feel like “letting folks know who he
was”?
10
What do you think of Tea Cake’s decision to spend the
money?
11
Why does he arrange for a free dinner for everyone?
12
13
14
Comment on Tea Cake’s desire to find out “how rich
people feel.”
Why doesn’t Tea Cake come back from the party to get
Janie?
What is the significance in Tea Cake’s comment, “So
you aims tuh partake wid everything, hunh”?
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Why doesn’t Janie object to Tea Cake’s gambling, and
why is she instead excited about it?
Why does Tea Cake cut nine hairs out of the mole on
Janie’s head?
Why does Janie think, “Tea Cake wasn’t doing a bit
more harm trying to win hisself a little money than they
was always doing with their lying tongues”?
Why does Tea Cake tell Janie to put the $200 back with
the rest she has in the bank?
Why does Tea Cake want to take Janie to the muck?
What is Janie feeling at the end of this chapter?
Chapter 14
1
Janie and Tea Cake have moved to the Everglades to
work on the muck planting and picking beans. Why
does Tea Cake suggest the move?
2
What feeling is suggested by saying that the “people
[are] wild too”?
3
What does Tea Cake want to do at night after he finishes
working?
4
Why does Tea Cake want Janie to learn how to shoot a
pistol, shot gun, and rifle?
5
What is the significance of Tea Cake’s statement, “Even
if you didn’t never find no game, it’s always some trashy
rascal dat needs uh good killin’”?
6
Why does Hurston say, “Work all day for money, fight all
night for love”?
7
What is the workers’ attitude toward the future?
8
Joe Starks’ store is the magnet for Eatonville; Tea
Cake’s house is also a “magnet, the unauthorized center
of the ‘job’.” What is the difference between the two?
9
Why does Tea Cake want Janie to join him working on
the muck, and how does his suggestion differ from Joe
Starks’ and Logan Killicks’ attitudes toward Janie
working?
10
Why is Janie not well received on the muck at first, and
how does that change by the end of the day?
11
What clothing does Janie wear to work, and what is its
significance?
12
What role does Janie play in the evening discussions,
and how does it differ from Joe’s?
13
The men play cards and the people in the Everglades
gather one night to watch. Describe in what ways this
scene compares to similar evening gatherings at Joe
Starks’ store.
Chapter 15
1
What “seed of fear was growing into a tree”?
2
Why is Tea Cake “shame-faced”?
3
Why does Janie strike Tea Cake?
4
Why does their argument end with a love-making scene?
5
What is the tone of Tea Cake’s comment at the end,
“You’se something tuh make uh man forgit tuh git old
and fogit tuh die”?
15
Chapter 16
1
What attracts Janie to the Bahaman dances?
2
Why would the Bahaman workers be called the “Saws”?
3
What does Mrs. Turner think about her own looks and
why?
4
What things “set her aside from Negroes”?
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Why does Mrs. Turner admire Janie’s skin and hair?
Why doesn’t Mrs. Turner agree with Janie’s marrying
Tea Cake?
Why does Mrs. Turner say she wouldn’t marry a black
man?
In what ways is Mrs. Turner prejudiced?
How does Janie react to Mrs. Turner’s spewings of
hatred?
Why does Mrs. Turner’s brother deliver a speech
criticizing Booker T. Washington?
Why doesn’t Tea Cake speak his mind to Mr. Turner
when they meet on the street?
Why is Mr. Turner’s laugh “powerless”?
Why does Mrs. Turner feel “honored by Janie’s
acquaintance”?
How does Mrs. Turner justify her cruelty to others?
What are Mrs. Turner’s religious beliefs?
Who “desecrates” the world, according to Mrs. Turner,
and how does this compare to Logan Killicks’
“desecration” of Janie’s dream?
17
Why does Mrs. Turner have a feeling of “transmutation”
when she is with Janie?
18
In what ways does Tea Cake “[defile] divinity”?
19
What comment is Hurston making about blacks like Mrs.
Turner?
Chapter 17
1
Why does Tea Cake feel justified in whipping Janie?
2
Why does the beating “[arouse] a sort of envy in both
men and women”?
3
Why does Tea Cake “pet and pamper” Janie?
4
The description of the beating and the men’s
conversation afterwards is noteworthy for the absence of
Janie’s reaction. Why doesn’t Janie respond?
5
Why does Sop-de-Bottom say, “Tea Cake, you sho is a
lucky man…Uh person can see every place you hit her”?
6
What does Tea Cake mean when he says, “Mah Janie is
uh high time woman and useter things”?
7
What is the significance of his comment, “Jane is
wherever Ah wants tuh be”?
8
What is the significance of his statement, “Ah beat her
tuh show dem Turners who is boss”?
9
What does Tea Cake mean by his comment about Mrs.
Turner, “She ain’t a fact and neither do she make a good
story when you tell about her”?
10
How to the men orchestrate what happens at Mrs.
Turner’s?
16
16
11
12
13
What role does Tea Cake play in the fight?
Why does Mr. Turner just sit down and watch?
What does Mr. Turner mean when he says, “Yeah, and
you see how Ah did swell up too, didn’t yuh?” You tell
Tea Cake he better be keerful Ah don’t swell up again”?
14
How do the men rub salt into the wound when they visit
Mrs. Turner at the end of this chapter?
Chapter 18
1
Why are the Bahamas now included in the social life of
the Glades?
2
Why are the Indians leaving?
3
Why does Janie think, “Indians were dumb anyhow,
always were”?
4
What is the tone of the weather that morning?
5
Comment on Tea Cake’s statement “Indians don’t know
much uh nothin’, tuh tell de truth. Else dey’d own dis
country still.”
6
Why does ‘Lias say, “If Ah never see you no mo’ on
earth, Ah’ll meet you in Africa”?
7
What image is suggested in the phrase, “stuffing
courage into each other’s ears”?
8
Who are the “flame-throwers,” and what stories are they
telling?
9
What is the meaning of the song that everyone sings?
10
Comment of the statement, “It was art.”
11
What is the effect of describing the clouds “gathered in
the west…to arm themselves with thunders and march
forth against the world”?
12
In this chapter Hurston personifies Lake Okechobee as a
monster. How does this personification add to the
meaning of the work?
13
Which “people” do the folks let “do the thinking”?
14
Why is Motor “angel-looking”?
15
What question are they asking God?
16
How does Janie look at death?
17
18
19
20
What are their souls asking?
The first reference to the title of the novel appears in the
sentence, “Their eyes were watching god.” Why does
Hurston include this reference to the title here, and what
does it add to the meaning of the work as a whole?
Why does Tea Cake say, “Fix,” the way he does?
Hurston continues the personification of the lake and its
waters in the passage, “…the muttering wall [of water]
advanced before the braced-up waters like a road
crusher on a cosmic scale. The monstropolous beast
had left his bed. The two hundred miles an hour wind
had loosed his chains. He seized hold of his dikes and
ran forward until he met the quarters; uprooted them like
grass and rushed on after his supposed-to-be
conquerors, rolling the dikes, rolling the houses, rolling
the people in the houses along with other timbers The
sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel.’ What
tones are conveyed by the personification and diction?
17
21
23
In what ways does the flood in this chapter parallel the
story of the Flood in the Bible, and why does Hurston
imply this comparison?
Hurston continues the figurative language about the lake
in the section, “The lake was coming on. Slower and
wider, but coming. It had trampled on most of its
supporting wall and lowered its front by spreading. But it
came muttering and grumbling onward like a tired
mammoth just the same.” What is conveyed by the use
of the word “mammoth”?
Why can’t they stay on the bridge at Six Mile Bend?
24
Why does “common danger [make] common friends”?
25
26
What is noticeable about the dog’s behavior?
How does Tea Cake react to the dog bite?
22
What “wheel” keeps “turning round and round”?
How has the journey to escape the flood taken its toll on
Janie and Tea Cake?
29
Why does Janie say, “But you come ‘long and made
somethin’ outa me” to Tea Cake?
30
Why does Tea Cake say at the end of the chapter,
“…Ah’m heah, and then Ah want yuh tuh know it’s uh
man heah”?
Chapter 19
1
Hurston opens this chapter with a reference to God:
“And then again Him-with-the-square-toes had gone
back to his house. He stood once more and again in his
high flat house without sides to it and without a roof with
his soulless sword standing upright in his hand. His pale
white horse had galloped over waters, and thundered
over land. The time of dying was over. It was time to
bury the dead.” What tones are conveyed by the diction,
detail, and organization of this description of God?
2
What does Janie mean by a “poor man’s trial” and Tea
Cake by a “common trial”?
27
28
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Why does Tea Cake think he won’t have to help bury the
dead because he has money?
Comment on Hurston’s use of the images “hand of
horror” and “mother of malice.”
Why do the white men call Tea Cake “Jim”?
The second reference to the title appears in the
sentence, “Death had found them watching, trying to see
beyond seeing.” What is the significance of this
statement?
What comment is Hurston making about the attitude of
the whites in the story toward blacks in the scene about
burying the dead?
Why do the guards say to check the hair on the
corpses?
Why does Tea Cake comment, “Look lak dey think god
don’t know nothin’ ‘bout de Jim Crow law”?
18
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
What does Janie mean by her statement, “De ones de
white man know is nice colored folks. De ones he don’t
know is bad niggers, “ and why does Tea Cake laugh
and respond, “each and every white man think he know
de GOOD darkies already. He don’t need tuh know no
mo’”?
Why do Janie and Tea Cake return to the Everglades?
Why is Tea Cake jealous of Janie’s shooting ability?
Tea Cake becomes sick four weeks after their return to
the Everglades. What symptoms does he have?
Why does Janie say, “Ah loves him fit tuh kill”?
Why does she think, “…that big old dawg with the hatred
in his eyes had killed her after all”?
Why does Janie think of Tea Cake as “the son of
Evening Son”?
The third reference to the title occurs in the following
passage. What is the significance of Janie’s reflections?
“She looked hard at the sky for a long time. Somewhere
up there beyond blue ether’s bosom sat He. Was He
noticing what was going on around here? He must be
because he knew everything. Did He mean to do this
thing to Tea Cake and her? It wasn’t anything she could
fight. She could only ache and wait. Maybe it was some
big tease and when he saw it had gone far enough He’d
give her a sign. A star in the daytime, maybe, or the sun
to shout, or even a mutter of thunder. Her arms went up
in a desperate supplication for a minute. It wasn’t
exactly pleading, it was asking questions. The sky
stayed hard looking and quiet so she went inside the
house. God would do less than He had in His heart.”
How does Janie perceive God?
What connection does Tea Cake think exists between
his being sick and the arrival of Mrs. Turner’s brother?
What is Janie referring to when she says to Tea Cake,
“God snatched me out de fire through you”?
Why does Tea Cake have a pistol under the pillow, and
what is Janie’s reaction to it?
Why does Janie think, “Tea Cake was gone. Something
else was looking out of his face”?
How does Tea Cake change as the illness takes over his
mind?
Why does she put the rifle in the kitchen?
What emotions go through her mind before she decides
to shoot?
Why does she decide to shoot Tea Cake?
What “loving service” is Janie grateful for?
Why do they try Janie for murder when the doctor tells
the sheriff and judge about Tea Cakes’ illness?
Why is everyone on the jury white?
How does the courtroom appear to Janie?
Why does Janie want to convince the white women of
the truth?
Why are the black people in the courtroom all against
her?
19
Why are their tongues “the only real weapon left to weak
folks”?
34
Why is Janie “the relic”?
35
Why are the blacks described as moving like palm
trees?
36
Why doesn’t Mr. Prescott let Sop-de-Bottom speak?
37
What “lying thoughts” is Janie fighting in the courtroom?
38
What is the tone of Janie’s story?
39
Why does Hurston choose to relate Janie’s testimony
from a third-person point of view instead of Janie’s firstperson narration?
40
Why is it “not death” but “misunderstanding” that Janie
fears?
41
How do the men rationalize the jury’s decision?
42
Why does Hurston repeat the description of Tea Cake as
“the son of the Evening Sun”?
43
Why does Janie forgive the behavior of the blacks in the
courtroom?
44
Why does Janie wear overalls to the funeral?
Chapter 20
1
Why do the men take a stand against Janie?
33
2
Why is two days’ worth of anger “too much of a strain”?
3
4
Hurston returns to the frame of the story when Janie
finishes telling her story to Pheoby. What is the effect of
this frame technique on the novel?
Why is Janie now content to “live by comparison”?
5
What does Janie want Pheoby to tell the others?
6
What is Janie’s definition of love?
7
Why does Pheoby say, “Ah done growed ten feet higher
from jus’ listenin’ tuh you, Janie. Ah ain’t satisfied wid
mahself no mo’. Ah means tuh make Sam take me
fishin’ wid him after this. Nobody better not criticize yuh
in mah hearin’”?
What is the significance of Janie’s comment, “It’s uh
known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know
there…They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find
out about livin’ fuh theyselves”?
What is Janie thinking at the end of this chapter?
8
9
12
Why does a sigh come to Janie’s mind as she reflects on
here life?
What is Janie’s perspective on the horizon at the end of
the story?
What is the effect of the image, “a great fish-net”?
13
What is the tone of the last line of the novel?
10
11
20