In Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author reinvents how America views and distinguishes between right and wrong using a feminist consumerism perspective. Hurston does this by portraying consumerism as virtuous and capitalism as evil. The author's use of characters like Logan, the nanny to the protagonist Janie and, to a lesser degree, Joe, who are preoccupied with material possessions and seeking to advance their goals in society serves as evidence of this. In a town with a majority of white residents, everyone wants to lead a good existence. However, Janie falls in love with Tea cake, a character that represents freedom, and an approach towards consumerism. In this regard, Hurston portrays that in a racially divided country, America should achieve equality where even the African Americans can enjoy the same freedoms and rights as their white counterparts that could be symbolized by capitalist approaches.
On the other hand, Hurston also discusses concepts of power in regards to how it is defined, given and taken. Firstly, the author shows this through the nanny's desire for Janie to get married to a wealthy person, as a way to secure financial power. Through Joe’s character, Hurston defines power as domineering through authoritative positions of the mayor. However, for Janie, real power rests on the relationship between individuals and their experiences rather than material possessions. In this regard, it reflects the American society that power should be a means to represent the needs of the people rather than a conservative idea of capitalist gains and discrimination on equality. Therefore, the position could represent democratic advancements of the way the minority communities in America are treated by two political parties of the US.
Work Cited
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. Print
