2. Apply this quote to one or more of Janie's relationships: ". ..[L]ove ain't somethin' lak uh grindstone dat's de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore" (Their Eyes 182).

3. After listening to Janie's story, "Pheoby breathed out heavily, ‘Ah done growed ten feet higher from jus' listenin' tuh you, Janie. Ah ain't satisfied wid mahself no mo'" (Their Eyes 182). What impact do you suppose Hurston hoped her story would have on readers? What impact did it have on you?

4. When Joe dies, Janie mutters out loud, "Dis sittin' in de rulin' chair is been hard on Jody," and then we read: "She was full of pity for the first time in years. Jody had been hard on her and others, but life had mishandled him too" (Their Eyes 83). What does she mean? How would you assess Joe’s character and the possible causes for his behavior and attitudes?

5. What goes wrong in the relationship between Joe and Janie?

6. What does the mule represent?

7. Why does Janie seem to lose her "voice" in her relationship with Joe? Does she

regain it?

8. Is there a turning point in their relationship? If so, what and when does it occur? What are the results?

9. What kind of woman is Janie? How would you describe her?

10. What is the significance of the settings in the book: the all-black town of Eatonville and the community down in the Everglades, on "the muck"?

11. What role do storytelling and language play in the novel?

12. In her autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road, Hurston describes the relationship she had with a man she calls "A.W.P." that ended just previous to her writing Their Eyes in Jamaica during six short weeks:

If he could only have realized what a lot he had to offer, he need not have suffered so much through doubting that he could hold me. ...

He begged me to give up my career, marry him, and live outside of New York City. I really wanted to do anything he wanted me to do, but that one thing I could not do. He felt that he did not matter to me enough. He was the master kind. All, or nothing, for him.

The terrible thing was that we could neither leave each other alone, nor compromise. . . .One night (I didn't decide this) something primitive inside me tore past the barriers and before I realized it I had slapped his face. ...He paid me off then and there with interest. No broken bones, you understand, and no black eyes. . . .

Then I knew I was too deeply in love to be my old self. For always a blow to my body had infuriated me beyond measure. ..But somehow, I didn't hate him at all. We sat down on the floor and each of us tried to take all the blame. He went out and bought some pie and I made a pot of hot chocolate and we were more affectionate than ever. The next day he made me a bookcase that I needed and you couldn't get a pin between us.

But fate was watching us and laughing. (Dust 186)

Zora then describes A.W.P.’s continuing jealousy, their alternating hurt feelings and ecstasy, her doubts about the relationship, and her final departure.

Some critics have compared A. W. P. and Tea Cake. How would you compare or contrast the two relationships, Zora and A. W. P. and Janie and Tea Cake?

13. How would you interpret the scene when Tea Cake hits Janie?(Chapter 17) What precipitates the beating? How do you view the incident? Did it seem to affect their relationship afterwards? Why or why not? What role does domestic violence play m the novel? How does it affect the characters' experience of love and relationship?

14. What role does racism or internalized racism play among the characters on the muck? After Tea Cake's death, why do the inhabitants from the ‘Glades judge Janie so harshly?

15. What role does the hurricane play in the novel? What might it symbolize?

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on the Road. Harper & Row, 1942.

---. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.