Female Spirituality and Sexuality Explored Through Zora...

Zora Neale Hurston, while living in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was researching voodoo on the most scholarly level. She was studying with Haiti’s most well known hougans and mambos, or priests and priestesses. At this time she was gathering knowledge about voodoo so she could write the text, Tell My Horse. Also, at this same time Hurston had finished writing, Their Eyes Were Watching God in only seven short weeks. A close reading of this novel provides the reader with a relationship between voodoo and the text. Hurston not only explores female spirituality and sexuality in, Their Eyes Were Watching God, but weaves the two together revealing that voodoo culture plays an important role within the novel especially in the comparisons between the†¦show more content†¦Erzulie is the goddess that represents the ideality of love and the sanctity of motherhood. She is the female representation of strength and creativity. She tells of woman’s ability to endure and survive adv erse circumstances and she tells of their immense determination. Janie takes control of her situation as she finally calls Joe out. In front of the townspeople Janie tells Joe how ugly and controlling he is. Because of this strength and determination to humiliate Joe, Janie endures a harsh beating from him. Through this, however, she does not break down. Their marriage breaks down, but Janie keeps her dreams in focus. Instead, Joe begins to break down with their marriage and he becomes deathly sick. Erzulie has certainly captivated Janie as even on Joe’s deathbed she continues to chastise him for the way he treated her. She is no longer submissive or passive. Her strength has reached out and Erzulie has given her the power to stand up for herself. Because Hurston embodies Janie with the power of Erzulie, she creates a new African-American character. This is one that is heroic and one who masters her world and claims her place within it. This is how Janie most compares with th e female goddess Erzulie. Janie, with her newfound sense of self, moves on and marry’s Tea Cake. This becomes the talk of the town because Tea Cake is twelve years younger than Janie. This again compares Janie with Erzulie. Erzulie is a goddess of female power but she is also a