Rising Action
Climax
Janie story started with the telling of her first
marriage. An arranged marriage that her mother had
set up to get her some security and social status.
Janie was never happy throughout this whole
marriage, saying he was unromantic and pragmatic.
She was not enjoying herself, until a charming man
Joe Starks came wandering past the farm and she
had starting flirting and enjoying herself with him.
After a while she ran off with Joe Starks and thought
that she had a perfect life. But Joe Starks become a
mayor and the biggest landlord in town and this
frustrates Janie. She started insulting his pride and
his manhood because of the so little respect he got
from her. She soon leaves Joe Starks and find herself
by herself again, but not for long. She meets a man
named Tea Cake, who was 12 years younger but she
had found the true love that she had been looking for.
She had started working in the everglades and in the
fields with him.
While trying to get away and hide from the hurricane Tea Cake and Janie
encounter a wild dog. In the attempt at saving Janie from the dog, Tea Cake gets
bitten and becomes infected with rabies. The already existing jealously Tea Cake
felt was amplified by the rabies and turned into aggressive suspicion and
paranoid of the thought that Janie was having an affair with another man. Waving
a gun and firing shots towards Janie, she was forced to kill Tea Cake in selfdefense.
Falling Action
After this tragedy, she changes because she finally found true love and
she was forced to kill him. She is taken into court for murder but comes out
innocent. Afterwards she attends Tea Cakes funeral.
Inciting Incident
Janie’s friend Phoebe came into her house and asking her about
what had happened. This is Janie started telling the story.
Everything that is unknown becomes clear from after this point, and
the story starts building with tension and suspense from then on.
Conclusion
Exposition
Janie Crawford an attractive and very confident black woman has just returned
to her hometown after quite some time away. She was now a middle-aged
women with nothing much going on in her life. All the black people in town
were gossiping and wondering what made her come back and where her
young husband had gone Tea Cake.
With nothing left to live for outside of Eatonville, Janie returns to her hometown. Everyone
was talking badly about her and creating rumors except for her friend Phoeby who
approaches her and asks of her story. The story then concludes with Janie ending the story
she was telling to Phoeby. She asks Phoeby to tell others in the town of her life story and
how she learnt what true love is and all her experiences. That same night, Janie goes to bed
feeling at peace with herself.
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD
DEFINITION OF TERM
Plot is the sequence of events that happens in a story. There are 5 stages of plot and it
includes characters as well as suspense and surprise.
TERM IN NOVEL
The exposition of novel introduces Janie as the protagonist and her desire to find true love. In the beginning of the novel she has returned to her hometown Eatonville. The inciting
incident occurs rapidly when she starts talking to her friend Phoeby and from this point on the rising action starts. The question what happened to Tea Cake is asked and it’s the point of
no return. Janie starts the story with her first marriage, an arranged marriage that her grandmother had set up to get her some security and social status. She was not enjoying herself,
until a charming man Joe Starks came wandering past the farm and after a while she ran off with Joe Starks. Joe Starks become a mayor and the biggest landlord in town which
frustrated Janie. She started insulting his pride and his manhood because of the so little respect he got from her. She soon leaves Joe Starks and find herself by herself again, but not for
long. She meets a man named Tea Cake, who was 12 years younger but she had found the true love that she had been looking for. She had started working in the everglades and in the
fields with him. The climax is when a hurricane hits the land and a dog bites Tea Cake giving him rabies. Janie is then forced to shoot Tea Cake out of self-defense. The falling action is
when Janie has to go to court and attends Tea Cakes funeral. The novel concludes when Janie comes back to reality where she finishes the story she was telling Phoeby.
CONNECTION TO AFRICAN AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY NOVEL
BALCK RIGHTS
MELODRAMA
SLAVE NARRATIVE
DOUBLE COUNCIOUSNESS
Throughout the whole story Janie is less in
control of her life one because she is
female but the second is because she is
partly black. When she was in court, she
was against an all white jury. The outcome
of the case was not guilty and she was
treated normally with no bias towards white
people.
Janie has three husbands one after another
and ends up having to kill the last who she
actually loved. This is fairly exaggerated
which is an element of African Amercan
literature.
The author Zora Hurston also tried to find
herself and her unique identity. This can be
portrayed in this novel because she wrote
about a Janie, a woman about the same age
looking for herself and her true love. In
African American novels it is common that
the authors base a character on themselves.
In this case Janie represents Zora. In addition
slave narratives write about freedom and in
the end Janie isn’t controlled by anyone and
feels at peace with herself.
Without Janie the plot would not occur,
therefore her desire to find herself and true
love is essential towards the development if
plot.