Character Analysis Of Janie From 'Their Eyes Were Watching God'

When Janie is about sixteen her grandmother finds her in the act of kissing a boy, and afraid for Janie, she arranges for Janie to be married to Logan Killicks, who is an older man with vast property to his name. Nanny, as Janie calls her, is unable to wrap her mind around the idea of marrying for love and mocks Janie saying, "So you don't want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh?" (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 13). Her grandmothers’ gift of life is different from the life that Janie wants to live. She tells Janie, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.'” (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 11). Nanny doesn’t believe that trying to find love and make a better life for you will succeed, she tells Janie that marrying and older man with land to his name will bring security, and she shouldn’t want more than that. Because of this Janie agrees and goes along with the plan. She is depicted as very compliant and rarely speaks her mind, even saying “But Ah hates disagreement and confusion, so Ah better not talk. It makes it hard tuh git along” (Their Eyes Were Watching God, 90).

Janie Mae Crawford started off as a girl who spoke her mind, but she soon began to stop whenever she discovered that she could be punished for speaking her opinions. In chapter two on page fourteen of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie says, “Naw, Nanny, no ma’am! Is dat whut he been hangin’ round here for? He look like some ole skullhead in de grave yard.” This was Janie’s response when Nanny tells Janie that she is planning on marrying her off to Logan Killicks. When Janie speaks her opinion, Nanny becomes very upset. Nanny responds to Janie with outrage by saying, “So you don’t want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and

She ended up living a life full of manipulation and mediocrity. While living with Joe, she had to tend to many different tasks as his wife.  She wasn't independent with him either.  She was Joe's tag-a-long.  'She went through many silent rebellions over things like that.  Such a waste of life and time.  But Joe kept saying that she could do it if she wanted to and he wanted her to use her privileges.  That was the rock she was battered against.' (Hurston, 51)  Janie always had to wear her hair a certain way, always up in a head rag, in order not to attract attention to other men and women. She was always in a state of loneliness with herself.  While married to Janie, he would not allow her to attend the people's gatherings believing that she does not belong to such a group of lower class people.  Joe was depriving Janie of her independence and sanity.  "Naw, Ah ain't no young gal no mo' but den Ah ain't no old woman either.  Ah reckon Ah looks mah age too.  But Ah'm us woman every inch of me, and Ah know it.  Dat's uh whole lot more'n you kin say.  You big-bellies round here and put out a lot of brag, but 'tain't nothin' to it but yo' big voice.  Humph!  Talkin' 'bout me lookin' old!  When you pull down yo' britches, you look lak de change uh life." (Hurston, 75)  This quote spoken by Janie proves that she was getting sick and tired of being pushed around by Joe and his stuck-up ways.  This was a slow

People grow and develop at different rates. The factors that heavily influence a person's growth are heredity and environment. The people you meet and the experiences you have are very important in what makes a person who he/she is. Janie develops as a woman with the three marriages she has. In each marriage she learns precious lessons, has increasingly better relationships, and realizes how a person is to live his/her life. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie's marriages to Logan Killicks, Jody Starks, and Tea Cake are the most vital elements in her growth as a woman.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Janie Crawford has experienced and had interactions with the nature around her. These interactions symbolised Janie’s quest for love, her own independence and personal freedom through each endeavor. Janie’s quest for her womanhood was directly influenced by the natural environment around her. For instance, the novel states that Janie “Saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a blossom” (11).

Throughout the book Janie struggles to find the true definition of love and how to make herself happy with her relationships. She goes through several different ideas of love before finding that it is mutual compassion, understanding, and respect that makes her the most happy.

During the beginning of Janie’s Journey to be an independently minded woman, she loses her grandmother and moves away from her first failed relationship,. After Hurston sets the scene and Janie begins to tell her story, Janie mentions her grandmother from a young age raised her. Her grandmother, Nanny, is protective of Janie and disapproves of Janie having any type of romance outside of marriage. (19). Hurston alludes to the archangel Michael, the angel that guides the dead back to heaven, to prove Nanny is nearing death, “One mornin’ soon, now, de angel wid de sword is gointuh stop by me” (15). Clearly, Janie must come to terms with the fact that Nanny will not always be there and Janie will have to watch over herself. Even though Janie knows Nanny is dying, she still argues with Nanny about being married off, “Please don’t make me marry Mr. Killicks” (15). Through this argument, Janie proves that while she may not be ready to completely disobey Nanny, Janie begins to have her own voice. Notwithstanding Janie’s opinion, Nanny marries her off anyways. After reluctantly marrying Killicks, Janie realizes she does not like being bossed around, “Youse mad ‘cause Ah don’t fall down and wash-up dese sixty acres uh ground yuh got” (31). Janie empowers herself by standing up for herself in the face of her aggressor. While living with Nanny, Janie realizes that she does not agree with Nanny’s choices for Janie, but Janie stays silent. However, in the case with Killicks, Janie not only realizes that she does not agree with

Janie went on a long journey to obtain womanhood. Janie grew up living with her grandma, who always wanted her to get married at a young age. Janie eventually did marry Logan Killicks when she was 18 years old. However, she hated living with him. He was described as a shallow, unlovable human being. This was when Janie became a woman because she realized that marriage does not assure love. Janie then married Jody Starks. At first, he seemed like a good person because he offered her a new life, but over time grew worse. Jody would constantly restrict what Janie could do, and would beat her for simple errors. It was not until late in their marriage that Janie finally spoke out to Jody of the way he treated her. Jody would soon die, and Janie

In the novel “Their eyes were watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s love changes throughout the course of her three marriages from security to actual love. Throughout time Janie was seeing changes in her first marriage. “Long before the year was up, Janie noticed that her husband had stopped talking rhymes to her.” “He had ceased to wonder at her long black hair and finger it”( Hurston 26). Since Logan stopped showing interest in her, like not showing the love he once did, Janie knew that she wasn’t in love with logan and he was not the one for her. This shows that Janie has yet to feel in love with someone. In Janie’s second marriage she has a feeling of betray. Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it

At the same time, however, Janie begins to confuse this desire with romance. Despite the fact that nature’s “love embrace” leaves her feeling “limp and languid,” she pursues the first thing she sees that appears to satisfy her desire: a young man named Johnny Taylor (Hurston 11). Leaning over the gate’s threshold to kiss Johnny, Janie takes the first step toward her newfound horizon. Nanny sees this kiss and declares Janie’s womanhood. She wants Janie to marry Logan Killicks, a financially secure and well-respected farmer who can protect her from corruption. The marriage of convenience that Nanny suggests is “desecrating … [Janie’s] pear tree” because it contradicts her ideal vision of love (Hurston 14). Because she did not have the strength to fight people in her youth, Janie’s grandmother believes that Janie needs to rely on a husband in order to stay safe and reach liberation. Ironically, Janie’s adherence to Nanny’s last request suppresses her even more because it causes her to leave behind her own horizon.

     The plan for Janie’s future begins with her lack of having real parents. Hurston builds up a foundation for Janie that is bound to fall like a Roman Empire. Janie’s grandmother, whom she refers to as “Nanny” takes the position as Janie’s guardian. The problem begins here for Janie because her Nanny not only spoils her, but also makes life choices for her. Nanny is old, and she only wants the best for her grandchild, for she knows that the world is a cruel place. Nanny makes the mistake of not allowing Janie to learn anything on her own. When Janie was sixteen years old, Nanny wanted to see her get married. Although Janie argued at first, Nanny insisted that Janie get married. “’Yeah, Janie, youse got yo’ womanhood on yuh… Ah wants to see you married right away.’” (Page 12). Janie was not given a choice in this decision. Her Nanny even had a suitor picked out for her. Janie told herself that she would try to make the best of the situation and attempt to find love in her marriage to Logan Killicks. But, as time went by, Janie realized that she still did not have any feelings of what she had considered to be love in her husband.

The world of Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God was one of oppression and disappointment. She left the world of her suffocating grandmother to live with a man whom she did not love, and in fact did not even know. She then left him to marry another man who offered her wealth in terms of material possessions but left her in utter spiritual poverty. After her second husband's death, she claims responsibility and control of her own life, and through her shared love with her new husband, Teacake, she is able to overcome her status of oppression. Zora Neale Hurston artfully and effectively shows this victory over oppression throughout the book through her use of

Logan simply amplifies the negative effect Nanny has on Janie. Rather than showing affection or love towards Janie, as a husband should, Logan is constantly passing judgment on Janie, and mistreating her. He accuses Janie of having an entitled attitude, and says to Janie, “You think youse white folks by de way you act…Ah’m too honest and hard-workin’ for anybody in yo’ family.” (Hurston 32) Not only does Logan insult Janie and her family, but he provides no compassion towards Janie, nor encouragement for her to try to become a better person. In her relationship with Logan Killicks, Janie is constantly unappreciated and looked down upon. Rather than being offered constructive criticism, she is constantly surrounded by negativity and recognition of her faults rather than her strong points, thus preventing her from developing into a better person or finding happiness.

    In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford is the heroine. She helps women to deal with their own problems by dealing with hers. She deals with personal relationships as well as searches for self-awareness. Janie Crawford is more than a heroine, however, she is a woman who has overcome the restrictions placed on her by the oppressive forces and people in her life.

Janie's grandmother was one of the most important influences in her life, raising her since from an infant and passing on her dreams to Janie. Janie's mother ran away from home soon after Janie was born. With her father also gone, the task of raising Janie fell to her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny tells Janie "Fact uh de matter, Ah loves yuh a whole heap more'n Ah do yo' mama, de one Ah did birth" (Hurston 31). Nanny's dream is for Janie to attain a position of security in society, "high ground" as she puts it (32). As the person who raised her, Nanny feels that it is both her right and obligation to impose her dreams and her ideas of what is important in life on Janie. The strong relationship between mother and child is important in the African-American community, and the conflict between Janie's idyllic view of marriage and Nanny's wish for her to marry for stability and position is a good illustration of just how deep the respect and trust runs. Janie has a very romantic notion of what marriage should be. "She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace . . . so this was a marriage," is how the narrator describes it (24). Nanny's idea of a good marriage is someone who has some standing in the community, someone who will get Janie to that higher ground. Nanny wants Janie to marry Logan Killicks, but according to her "he look like some ole