Discuss Janie's various relationships in the novel. You may focus on her relationships with women (such as her grandmother and/or her female friend, to whom she is relating her story at the end of the novel) or focus on her relationships with men (such as her two husbands and her final lover, Tea Cake).
How do these relationships grow and change throughout the course of the novel?
How do these relationships shape how Janie understands herself and her life journey?
What specific relationship do you feel is the most important one in shaping Janie's life and her story?
You may bring in some of the concepts from the readings this week, such as Carol Bakter's discussion of the sexual politics of the novel in her article, "Love Me Like I Like to Be.
Resources :
1. How It Feels to Be Colored Me By Zora Neale Hurston
2. "Love me like I like to be":The Sexual Politics of Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God,the Classic Blues,and the Black Women's Clud Movement
3. Zora Neale Hurston: The Howard University Years by Valerie Boyd
4. "You Heard Her,You Ain't Blind":Seeing What's said in Their Eyes Were Watching God By Stuart Burrows
5. Should Their Eyes have Been Watching God?:Hurston's Use of Religious Experience and Gothic Horror