Ana ArellanoMrs. HladikAP Literature 7thJanuary 13, 2014Their Eyes Were Watching GodIn his novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston introduces the theme of gender roles through the use of characterization. Gender roles were very important in African American culture in the 1930s. Hurston emphasizes the importance men placed on feeling superior over their wives and forcing her into a submissive role. Southern men viewed women as property. Men were the masters of the house and women were the slaves of marriage. The novel chronicles Janie's awakening from this oppression to her own self-awareness and personal identity. Janie's journey to enlightenment was filled with oppression before she entered the pear garden of her realized dreams of love. The beginning of his awakening as well as the beginning of his slavery begins with his grandmother. Janie experiences the awakening of love in her grandmother's garden while looking at a blossoming pear tree. “Oh, to be a pear tree, any tree in flower!” With the kissing bees that sing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen years old. She had shiny leaves and vibrant buds and she wanted to fight against life, but it seemed to elude her. Where were the singing bees for her? (Hurston, age 11) Janie's grandmother thinks Janie needs a husband, not a lover. She wants Janie to marry a rich man. Nanny chooses Logan Killicks, a man older than Janie, because she believes he will provide Janie with all the material things she needs. Janie was never in the middle of paper......troys their town. Janie is attacked by a wild dog and Tea Cake saves her from its powerful jaws, delivering a savage bite to her face. Several weeks later, Tea Cake was diagnosed with rabies. Tea Cake's condition worsened to the point that in his delirium he attempted to shoot Janie. In self-defense, Janie fought back and killed Tea Cake. Janie's final waking state occurs at Etonville, where she finishes telling her friend Phoebe the story of her and Tea Cake. Janie realizes that she made her dreams come true, that she lived them and that she still keeps them in her heart. She keeps the memory of Tea Cake alive in her heart. Through the realization of her dream of love, Janie discovers herself, and this self-discovery is a joy that she will carry throughout her life. She has peace, because she finally knows who she is, and she is strong enough not to back down from this person..