Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Symbols and Imagery- The Hurricane


The hurricane scene in the novel symbolizes the arbitrary nature of God, and how he is indiscriminate in who he kills or saves. Hurston notes of the refugees that "their souls [asked] if He meant to measure their puny might against His."(160), so right from the outset Hurston makes it clear that the nature of the hurricane is meant to reflect God. In the midst of the hurrican, Janie sees "people trying to run in raging waters and screaming when they found they couldn't"(161). These are people who would be killed by the hurricane whether or not they were good, law abiding citizens or not. They were merely caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and would meet their doom in the impending lake.
However, Motor Boat ignores Tea Cake's warnings to run and instead decides to sleep in, not fully comprehending the danger he's in: "Tea Cake, Ah got tuh have mah sleep. Definitely."(164) He does not seem to have his priorities straight, yet by the end of the hurricane we find out that Motor Boat is left unscathed, since the house he was in simply floated away while he slept. To put it simply, he got lucky. This man, who didn't have the common sense to run away from an impending hurricane survived, yet many who tried to run for their lives died in the effort. This is an example of tragic irony, one that is comical yet unfair at the same time.
Tea Cake's encounter with the dog also serves as an example of indiscriminate death. Tea Cake jumped into the water to save Janie's life from the rabid dog, yet was not rewarded. To the contrary, he unwittingly contracted rabies and dies later on. The event is left as a question to the reader: what if he hadn't saved Janie? Instead of being punished for leaving her to die, it now seems as if Tea Cake would have been given the reward of life. This echoes the earlier conclusion by Janie, that the followers of God will accept anything if it means keeping the relationship: "It was inevitable that [Mrs. Turner] should accept any inconsistency and cruelty from her deity as all good worshippers do from theirs"(145). Thus, the hurricane is Janie's conclusion in action, that there is no system of reward or punishment. People die regardless of how good or bad they are.

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