Ana ArellanoMrs. HladikAP Literature 7th13 January 2014Their Eyes Were Watching GodIn her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston introduces the theme of gender roles through the use of characterization. Gender roles were very important in 1930s African American culture. Hurston highlights the importance men place on feeling superior to their wives and forcing them into a submissive role. Southern men viewed women as property. Men were the masters of the house and women were the slaves in marriage. The novel is the story of Janie's awakening from this oppression to self-awareness and personal identity. Janie's journey to awakening was filled with oppression before she entered the pear garden of her self-fulfilling love dreams. The beginning of his awakening as well as the beginning of his enslavement begins with his grandmother. Janie experiences awakening to love in her grandmother's backyard as she gazes at a blossoming pear tree. “Oh, to be a pear tree, any flowering tree! With kissed bees singing the beginning of the world! He was sixteen. It had shiny leaves and burst buds and wanted to fight with life but it seemed to escape it. Where were the singing bees for her?" (Hurston, age 11) Janie's grandmother believes that Janie needs a husband, not a lover. She wants Janie to marry a rich man. The nanny chooses Logan Killicks, a man older than Janie, because he believes that he will provide Janie with all the material things she needs Janie has never been... center of the paper... in Troys, their town Janie is attacked by a wild dog and Tea Cake saves her from its powerful jaws, incurring a vicious bite on her face. Several weeks later, Tea Cake is diagnosed with rabies. Tea Cake's condition worsens to the point that, in her delirium, she tries to shoot Janie Per Self-defense Janie fires back and kills Tea Cake. Janie's final state of awakening occurs in Etonville, where she finishes telling her friend Phoebe her story and Tea Cake realizes that she has achieved her dreams having experienced them and still keeping them in his heart keeps the memory of Tea Cake alive in his heart. Through the realization of her dream of love, Janie discovers herself, and this self-discovery is a joy that she will carry with her throughout her life. He has peace, because he finally knows who he is, and he is strong enough not to walk away from that person.