Their Eyes Were Watching God Symbol Analysis

“The secret of happiness is freedom the secret to freedom is courage”- Anonymous. People all around the world are being deprived of their freedom today. Individuals make efforts to be given freedom and equality all the time and are often not successful. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is deprived to be given the feeling of freedom from her second husband, Joe Starks. Janie’s hair is a symbol of her power and unconventional identity. Joe takes this quality from her by forcing her to wear a headwrap, making Janie lose her power in her relationship with Joe. Hurston’s symbolic use of the hair and the headwrap helps support the idea of freedom and it being seized from an individual, causing Janie to be unhappy …show more content…
The headwrap is a symbol which constraints imposed on subjugated women by men in power. Joe forces Janie to wear the headwrap due to the jealousy he has, he wants Janie all to himself, “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was not going to show in the store. It didn’t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was. He never told her how often he had seen the other men figuratively wallowing in it as she went about things in the store” (Hurston 31). Joe only makes Janie wear the head-rag because he has concrete evidence to confirm his fears of jealously. He is very selfish and does not want anyone to notice her beauty besides him, he does not realize Janie is a human and should be able to express who she is along with the traits she carries. She was trapped and was finally let free when Joe died “Before she slept that night she burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist” (Hurston 31). The headwraps served as a symbol of being trapped and not being able to express values. She had a feeling of relief the day Joe died, knowing she will no longer be isolated from society. The headwrap was one of the most important symbols in the narrative because it serves as an important meaning and what some

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