It tells the story of Janie, a young African-American woman on a social and emotional journey, from adolescence to maturity. Raised by her grandmother, a former slave, she has led a relatively sheltered existence when her narrative begins. The men she encounters seem to represent the various stages of her love life. Her first kiss with Johnny Taylor. Her first marriage with Logan Killicks. Afterwards, Joe Starks and Tea Cake, arguably the most important male characters in the book, take her to different towns and on different adventures. The former, an ambitious man from Georgia, takes Janie to Eatonville. The latter, young and uneducated, takes Janie to Jacksonville and to a territory called “the muck”, (between Clewiston and Belle Glade).
Feelings and impressions are musical. For instance, the young woman's sensual awakening is triggered by Nature’s “flute song,” (23). As teenage Janie is contemplating early spring under a pear tree, she marvels at the unknown effect the scene has on her. She then asks herself a series of profound questions that will take a lifetime to answer. In an eerie sentence, the author tells us that the chant she hears exists outside of the world’s acoustic reality.
Sorrow also takes the form of an otherworldly murmur.
Later in the book, Janie’s traumatic memories begin “to sing a sobbing sigh out
of every corner of the room” (286). This acoustic description is precise:
the main character is surrounded by the sorrowful sounds. Inanimate
objects seem to come to life and join the chorus. The following sentence offers
a poetic variation of the initial quote, an approach to writing that is itself musical.
Let's now focus on the two main male characters. Joe Starks has power, vision and is, quite literally, the bearer of light. The inauguration of Eatonville’s first street light is cause for celebration (73). Mrs. Bogle intones the hymn “Jesus, The Light of The World” with her alto voice. The townspeople join in and sing it till it is “wrung dry,” meaning that they have gone through every conceivable variation of the musical material.
As she later describes a funeral, the author mentions the hymn “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” (136). But more importantly, the event gives Janie the opportunity to reflect on human nature and its divine component (138). The magic that God gave men as He created them (out of a fabric that “sung all the time and glittered all over”) made some angels jealous. The latter proceeded to beat the magic out of humans. Though they ended up permanently damaged, humans retained a fraction of their original divine quality. It is this vestige that draws us towards one another. To Hurston, the very concept of life and creation is associated with music.
An introduction of Tea Cake is in order. This new suitor has musical talent, but since he is poorer than Janie’s previous husbands, he has no musical instruments to woo her. But that doesn’t stop him. During their second encounter, he pretends to be carrying a guitar. His “air tuning” (my quotation marks) draws a smile from Janie. Only when he is done does he allow himself to sing a note, which the author identifies as middle C (152). Inside Janie’s Eatonville home, he lulls her to sleep with his piano blues (156). All the while, he is “throwing grins across his shoulder”.
It is probably the same grin we see on his face when he returns with an actual guitar to the Jacksonville house. The author then uses the same verb (to hang from) for both the instrument and the young man’s smile, connecting music and satisfaction (180-181). After having apologized for his absence, Tea Cake proceeds to tell the story of how he bought the instrument (185).
The “muck” is the closest Janie gets to a communal life. This favors musical exchange. The first natural place for such activity is the jukes. These places come alive when the workers start to arrive, (196-197). Here is the author’s description of the phenomenon: “All night now the jooks clanged and clamored. Pianos living three lifetimes in one. Blues made and used right on the spot.” In three little sentences, the author addresses the sonic environment, the instruments, their treatment, the genre, and its relation to people’s lives.
The “muck” also gives Janie the opportunity to discover the music and dance of the Bahamas. While the immigrant workers seem at first uneasy about sharing their traditions, the “Saws” (as they are called in the book) eventually open up to their African-American counterparts. When the cultural exchange takes place, Janie and Tea Cake have central roles. (228).
A hurricane triggers a theological and musicological discussion. While the workers are sheltering together, they start debating whether “John de Conquer” played the mouth organ harp or the guitar. (232-233). The discussion makes the crowd thirsty for some music, so they turn to Tea Cake. When the latter agrees to play for them, the author, who uses no quotation marks, writes: “Well, alright now, make us know it.” It is as though Hurston herself is encouraging her character to pick up his instrument. Muck-Boy, Tea Cake’s friend, eventually wakes up and starts adding his profane lyrics: “Yo ‘mama don’t wear no Draws.” Italics at the end of every line indicate that the whole crowd is singing the last word in a joyous raucous.
While this musical interlude is a form of reprieve for the scared workers, they do have to face the natural disaster and its many consequences. Through these events, readers will not only witness the fates of the two main characters, but also, the fate of Tea Cake’s guitar. Readers will have to wait for the end to grasp the symbolic significance of the instrument.
Hurston, Zora Neale, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Virago, 2004
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