Garrett's Their Eyes Were Watching God Site

 

An Exception to the Rule

 "It was inevitable that she should accept any inconsistency and cruelty from her deity as all good worshippers do from theirs. All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood." (Pg. 145)

          Janie meets a woman in the Everglades named Mrs. Turner.  Mrs. Turner represents the exception the dichotomy that Hurston set up on the first page of the novel.  Mrs. Turner worships traits which she doesn't have and will never have.  And that puts her in the same group as the men who have given up on their dreams.   Another interesting meaning of this passage could be the comparisons between Mrs. Turners words and Janie's life. Mrs. Turner speaks of the suffering that her gods give her, and Janie's life has caused her to deal with suffering from her husbands and her killing Tea Cake. 

          Mrs. Turner's gods
           Mrs. Turner worships her gods because she feels inferior to people that are whiter than her.  She needs a way to feel like she is better than her peers.  However, the pain that her gods dish out on her, she enjoys on some level.  She believes that a real god is not caring, a real god is supposed to be destructive and evil.  Her gods give her a elevated sence of self-respect and self-importance. 


flickr.com (picture)