Home
This symbolic image appears throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God to represent the fluid and ever-changing nature of Janie’s relationship with “home.”
Horizon
Hurston is the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God and this literary movement.
What is the Harlem Renaissance?
Janie is married this many times.
3
When Janie returns home in overalls, the townspeople react with this emotion.
What is judgment or gossip?
One of the novel’s core themes involves Janie’s search for this.
What is independence or voice?
NAME MOVIE FROM AUDIO
CHANGES
Janie’s return to Eatonville at the end of the novel reflects this deeper truth about Tate’s quote, “home will never leave you.”
What is that “home” shapes identity and remains emotionally significant, even after personal growth or distance?
Hurston’s use of Southern Black dialect helps establish this literary effect.
What is authenticity or cultural voice?
Janie’s final and most fulfilling relationship is with this man. (nickname and real)
Tea Cake Vergible
“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board” is a metaphor for this.
What is hope or dreams?
“Home” is often in conflict with this social expectation.
What is conformity or gender roles?
NAME THE BAND
CHANGES
This setting symbolizes Janie’s loss of voice and independence, making it a “home” she must escape.
What is Joe Starks’ house/store in Eatonville?
By starting and ending the novel in Eatonville, Hurston uses this narrative structure, used as a story, this is the device used:
What is FRAME NARRATIVE
After living with Joe Starks, Janie learns this truth about identity and control.
What is that love cannot exist without freedom or voice?
Janie says this when reflecting on Tea Cake and her journey.
What is “He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking”?
Janie’s voice represents this symbolic idea throughout the novel.
What is power or selfhood?
THE THREE POWDERPUFF GIRLS
BLOSSOM, BUTTERCUP, BUBBLES
Janie’s eventual return to Eatonville, in overalls, symbolizes this.
What is her rejection of societal expectations and her full self-acceptance?
Hurston’s emphasis on Janie’s personal journey challenges these dominant expectations for women in literature of the time.
What are traditional gender roles?
Janie’s changing idea of “home” reflects this larger AP Lit theme.
What is the search for self or self-realization?
This quote about Janie being “a rut in the road” reveals this about her internal state during her second marriage.
What is her emotional stagnation or loss of agency?
Janie’s story highlights this message about love.
What is that love must be mutual, free, and without domination?
NAME THREE PEOPLE'S MIDDLE NAMES NOT IN YOUR GROUP.
SA
Hurston uses “home” as a flexible symbol that represents not just place, but this internal condition.
What is identity or spiritual peace?
Hurston blends personal growth with community roots to show this philosophical theme embedded in the concept of “home.”
Figure it out, then write a thesis.
SA autonomy and belonging balance
Janie’s emotional return to Eatonville shows that “home” is not just a place, but this layered force in the novel.
What is a psychological and cultural anchor?
Name one quote that symbolizes Janie’s evolving sense of home and self.
Acceptable examples: “She was full of the oldest human longing…” OR “The muck meant Tea Cake and love and the work and the sun and the storms.”
Hurston uses Janie’s return to Eatonville to argue this deeper commentary about human experience.
What is that identity is a combination of personal growth and cultural roots?
Which song knocked Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable” off the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007, marking the first U.S. chart-topper for a Barbadian artist — and kicking off one of the most iconic pop careers of the 21st century?