A Question on the True Path and the Moral Ambiguity

Moral ambiguity is a decision making problem between two possible moral imperatives, neither of which is unambiguously acceptable or preferable. In other words, it is when there is insufficient information on whether something is correct or incorrect. Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, is a book set during the early 1900s. Hurston has a character named Janie Crawford who goes through tough relationships. Many questions were raised when Janie acted a certain way in her relationships. Hurston does not establish moral ambiguity through Janie’s clear actions during the funeral.

In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston does not establish moral ambiguity through Janie’s clear actions during the funeral. In chapter nine, Jody dies from old age and everyone holds a funeral for him. Janie prepares herself for his funeral. “Janie starched and ironed her face and came set in the funeral behind her veil. It was like a wall of stone and steel.

The funeral was going on outside…. She did not reach outside for anything, nor did the things of death reach inside to disturb her calm. She sent her face to Joe’s funeral and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world” (9.88).

This does not demonstrates a morally ambiguous character because what Janie is feeling is typical of what people feel when their abusive partner leaves them. Even though she intentionally shows the rest of the world that she is grieving for Jody’s death via “behind her veil”, inside she is having a sensation of joy.

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It is expressed in the phrase “rollicking with the springtime”. The readers clearly understand that she is happy to be free from Jody, but she wants the world to assume that she is sad. She thinks that it is nobody’s business to know what she is emotionally going through because people gossip about her.

Hurston did not establish moral ambiguity because Janie’s actions during the funeral were comprehensible. Janie’s actions reflect how people usually act as a victim in abusive relationships. By reading books about these topics and analyzing what occurred, we can better understand how people act and help them out.