God and Nature

While the title suggests that God would play a significant role in the novel, there are very few direct references to any deity or religious practice. God is noticeable absent from the first two thirds of the book. It is not until chapter 16 that Hurston begins to incorporate ideas about God. In this chapter the narrator explains Mrs. Turner’s idolization of white features by incorporating an extended metaphor about vengeful gods and their adoring worshipers. The narrator notes, “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 of altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood” (145). It is this passage that helps to define the role of God in the novel.

Moments before the hurricane hits the everglades, the group huddles into Janie and Tea Cakes home and stare though the door toward the storm. The narrator informs us “Six eyes were questioning God” (159). Monuments later when the hurricane hits and the narrator states, “they seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (160). In this chapter Hurston makes a direct correlation between God and the hurricane. Throughout the novel Janie is looking for a link to nature. It is in this chapter that God becomes linked to and is in many ways represented by nature.

God is only prevalent in the end of the novel because it is the only point when Janie is at one with nature and the world around her. While nature and therefore God in the novel do appear to be cruel and inspire fear in Janie, this fear leads to a sense of spiritual fulfillment. Although Tea Cake dies as a result of events that occurred because of the hurricane, her new found connection with the world around her gives her an eternal link to Tea Cake. It is this link to the natural world and God that finally allows Janie to be content with herself and not feel alone.