Their Eyes Were

Watching God
MARRIAGE, GENDER, AND LOVE
Lecture by Miss Rosangelica Lopez
Grade 11
American Literature

Title Page

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Objectives for this lecture:
• Students will be able to identify how
love, marriage, and gender affects
the characters and the plot.
• Students will be able to summarize
and show how these elements and
theme are crucial to the novel.

Lecture Objectives

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Standards Addressed:
California State Standards for Reading and Writing Grades 6-12

College and Career Readiness Anchor College and Career Readiness Anchor
Standards for Reading Standards for Writing
Key Ideas and Details: Text Types and Purposes:

 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences
from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions
drawn from the text.
 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development;
summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
 1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using
valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
 2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and
information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and
analysis of content.

 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the Production and Distribution of Writing:
course of a text.
 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style
are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Craft and Structure: Research to Build and Present Knowledge:

 5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and  9. Draw evidence from literary and/or informational texts to support analysis, reflection,
larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and research.
and the whole.

 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

 8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the
validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

 10.Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and
proficiently

Taken from https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf

Standards

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Quick Summary of Novel via YouTube channel: 60 Second recap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgzgr3d3EgE

Animation/ Dual Coding

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Take two minutes and write any relationship
that the topics have with the characters
and/or plot from the novel.

Educational hook. Mastery hook.

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Summary of topics with
relationship to characters • Janie and Logan
and plot. Killicks
• Janie and Jody
Marriage Starks
• Janie and Tea
Cake

• Janie and Nanny

Characters and Plot Love • Janie and Logan Killicks
• Janie and Jody Starks
• Janie and Tea Cake

Gender • Janie's view on it

• Jody’s view on it
• Logan’s view on it
• Tea Cake’s view on it

Smart Art/ Dual Coding

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Marriage in the novel

Janie

1.Logan 2. Jody 3. Tea

Killicks Stark Cake
• First marriage • Second Marriage • Third Marriage
• Lasted a little • Lasted over 20 • Lasted a little
over a year. years until over a year,
• He wanted her husbands death until his
to work • Build a town untimely death
around farm together • Moved out of
and home • He was older than town together
• He was much her • He was
older • Janie was younger
• Janie was unhappy • She was happy
unhappy Smart Art/ Dual Coding

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Marriage in the novel

Janie and Logan

• Safe marriage

• Set up by grandmother – arranged

• Typical marriage for one year

• Janie took care of home while Logan took care of land and income

• Janie was unhappy when Logan asked her to help out on land too

• Failed marriage.

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Marriage in the novel

Janie and Jody

• Janie agreed for prospect of better life
• Started off great
• They built a town together with a post office and a convivence store
• Jody became mayor
• They were wealthy

• Jody became very jealous and manipulating

• Forced Janie to wear a hair turban to cover her beautiful hair.

• Janie did not have freedom

• Janie did not feel sorry when he died

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Marriage in the novel

Janie and Tea Cake

• Started off as harmless flirting
• Started a relationship
• Moved out of town that Janie and Jody built
• Worked together in the fields
• Were practically equals
• Tea Cake did not take any money from Janie
• Felt like a real relationship
• Ended tragically due to a rabid dog

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Quote about marriage:

“There are years that ask questions and

years that answer. Janie had no chance
to know things, so she had to ask. Did
marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the
unmated? Did marriage compel love like
sun the day?” (Hurston, 21)

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Do you think marriage is seen as a
positive life style in the novel or
not?
Take a few minutes to discuss within your group. Be ready to share
with the class after. This Photo by Unknown
Author is licensed
under CC BY-NC-ND

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Gender in the novel

“… Ah aims tuh run two plows, and dis man Ah’m

With talkin’ ‘bought is got uh mule all gentled up so even
Logan uh woman kin handle ‘im” (Hurston, 27).
(In regards to Janie working the field with him)

“…A pretty doll-

baby lak you is
made to sit on
de front porch
and rock and
With “Dats all Ah wants tuh know. From
Tea
fan yo’self and With Gender
Cake
now on you’se mah wife and mah
woman and everything else in de
eat p’taters dat Stereotypes
other folks plant Jody world ah needs” (Hurston, 124).
just special for
you” (Hurston,
29).

Smart Art/ Dual Coding

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Gender in the novel

Janie and Logan

• At first was traditional.
• Woman work at home, men work on field and
provide income
• Switched and wanted woman to work on field
and at home
• Prompted Janie to leave him

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Gender in the novel

Janie and Jody

• Felt that woman should stay at home

• Woman had a role
• Woman were only as good as their husbands
• All about image
• Very controlling

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Gender in the novel

Janie and Tea Cake

• Equal
• Worked side by side
• No one was above the other
• Mentality changed when Tea Cake was bit by
dog
• Rabies made him more aggressive

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Why do you think Jody felt
obligated to keep Janie
restrained?

Take a few minutes to discuss within your group. Be ready to share with the
class after.

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Love in the novel

Tea Cake

Logan Jody

Janie

Smart Art/ Dual Coding

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Love in the novel

Janie and Logan

• “Cause you told me Ah mus gointer love him,
and, and Ah don’t. Maybe if somebody was to
tell me how, Ah could do it” (Hurston, 23).
• Conversation between Janie and Nanny about her marriage with
Logan

• She did not love Logan during the whole

marriage.

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Love in the novel

Janie and Jody

• “… Listen, Jody, you aint de Jody ah run off tuh keep
house wid. You’se whut’ left after he died. Ah run off tuh
keep house wid you in uh wonderful way. But you
wasn’t satisfied wid me de way Ah was. Naw! Mah own
mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make
room for yours in me” (Hurston, 86).
• Conversation between Janie and Jody on Jody’s death bed.

• Janie is stating that she never loved him

• She fell in love with his promises that he never really kept
• Fell in love with an illusion.

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Love in the novel

Janie and Tea Cake

• “Janie, Ah hope God may kill me, if Ah’m lyin’. Nobody else on earth kin
hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom” (Hurston,
109).
• Conversation between Janie and Tea Cake

• Tea Cake expresses his love to Janie with lovely words

• Show admiration to her constantly
• Janie truly loves him.

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Do you think Janie ever loved Jody?
Do you think Janie will ever find love again, after
loosing Tea Cake?
Take five minutes to discuss in your group then get
ready to share with the class.

Progress Monitoring Question

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 Final Discussion
Answer two of three questions in your groups.
Write a summary answering the questions. (One paper per group)

1. How does Janie interact with Tea Cake in regards to their genders? Compare and
contrast it with Janie’s previous relationships.
2. Does Janie value love in the novel?
3. At the end of the novel, do you think Janie values marriage? Why or why not?
4. How does each relationship affect Janie?
5. Do you think Janie has grown to be a strong person? Why or why not?
6. Do you think Janie was too harsh with Jody during his death?
7. Why is Tea Cake so important to the novel?
8. How does marriage, gender, and love affect the plot?

Be ready to share your thoughts with the class.

Culminating Activity/Question

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