Zora Neale Hurston’s novel is chalk-full of motifs, including the “road” and the “tree”. But one that stuck out the most to me was the fact that both the men and women are compared to animals, and at one point, an animal is compared to a human being.
Men have been compared to hogs, cats, and possibly a reference to a dog, though it could be a cat as well, “He [Joe] had crawled off to lick his wounds” (81), and this has a negative connotation to it because it gives the impression that Joe is spineless in this act of “lick[ing]…wounds”. The word usage of “crawled” also gives the feeling of cowardice. He had been defeated by Janie, his wife, in this situation, implying that men turn to cowardly creatures when overpowered by women. In another instance, Janie is being stared at by the men after her husband had died and “She felt like slapping some of them for sitting around grinning at her like a pack of chessy cats…” (90). The men are being compared to animals because they are gawking at Janie, and they do that to women normally as Ike Green explains to Janie, “They’s jes lak uh pack uh hawgs, when dey see uh full trough” (91). Ike Green uses a “full trough” when referring to women. It seems that in Hurston’s novel, men are always being compared to animals when dealing with women, especially when they are looking at women. Possibly, Hurston is trying to tell her readers that some men are “animals”, “dogs”, or “pigs” when it comes to women and that they cannot always be trusted.
Women are also continuously ascribed to animals throughout the story, and I noticed that in one section of the book it was mostly done by Joe, “Somebody got to think for women and chillum and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves” (71), commenting on women’s intelligence. He degrades women, comparing their intellect to that of a chicken. And then he goes on to say, “You ain’t no young pullet no mo’. You’se uh ole hen now” (77). Joe uses hens to demonstrate Janie’s aging, which is a negative thing; no one wants to grow older. So the comparisons of women and animals are negative also, just like that of men, yet it seems as though women are more innocent in this case and that the comparisons do not prove to be accurate.
One thing that particularly struck me in Hurston’s novel, was when she made the association between the mule and humans, “…with all four feet up in the air. That wasn’t natural and it didn’t look right, but Sam said it would have been more unnatural for him to have laid down on his side and died like any other beast. He had seen Death coming and had stood his ground and fought it like a natural man” (59). Since the beginning of the book I had been seeing humans being linked to animals, but not the other way around. It’s hard to decipher Hurston’s meaning in this passage, but what I took from it was that we are all creatures, all animals. Human beings are mammals. Humans, both man and woman, have qualities of other animals and vice versa. I then began thinking about Joe’s death and how he lived his last moments. It was almost opposite to that of the mule’s. The description of the mule sounded as though it fought Death, didn’t back down, and had humanistic traits when facing Death. Joe Starks on the other hand, has a lack of sangfroid and is afraid of Death, “A deep sob came out of Jody’s weak frame. It was like beating a bass drum in a hen-house. Then it rose high like pulling in a trombone” (86), and he goes on to say, “Janie! Janie! don’t tell me Ah got tuh die, an Ah ain’t used tuh thinkin’ ‘bout it” (86). Joe faced Death in a completely different manner than the mule. He was weaker and had less courage, and he can’t handle the truth! Janie is trying to explain to him the wrongs he has done, and he won’t take it. He died and his hands were left “…in a pose of agonizing protest” (87), in begging fashion, revealing his fear of Death.
Hurston’s novel does seem in favor of women, but she doesn’t leave all men in the dark, because she has some men in light in her book, such as Tea Cake (or of what I have read already…) and Ike Green who warns Janie to protect her. And there are some women who aren’t that great either, such as Mrs. Turner. But the motif of the comparisons of men and women to animals is everywhere throughout the book, and it is an important motif that’s complete meaning may be fully understood near the end of the novel.
