Throughout the novel, Janie grows from having everyone telling her what to do, to standing up for herself, and doing what was best for herself in the end. In the Novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie did as her Nanny told her to do not having a second opinion about it. Eventually she stood up for herself when she yelled at Joe on his deathbed. She takes charge of her life completely when she is forced to shoot Tea Cake. Janie moves from being a passive character to taking charge of her life completely. Janie in her youth she is passive because, she is always being bossed around by her Nanny, because she believed to know best. Her Nanny thought that Janie had to be taken care of because she was getting older. Nanny decided it was time …show more content…
She started out as a passive character but finally stood up for herself. Janie at the start of their marriage was always doing as she was told by Joe. Joe didn't like other guys giving her attention so he had Janie tie her hair back, so other guys wouldn't look at her, “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Joby was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to how in the store. It didn't seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Jodie how jealous he was.”(55). Joe was not going to have other guys look at her so he had to tell her to put her hair up, even if she didn't want to. Jody continues to be a passive character in the beginning of the marriage so she could keep her husband happy. Towards the end of their marriage Janie finally stands up for herself. Janie when Joe was on his deathbed, went in there even though Joe didn't want her in the room, and told Joe everything that she hated about him, “ Tain’t really no need of you dying, Jody, if you had of-de doctor-but it don’t do no good bringin’ dat up now. Dat’s just whut Ah wants tuh say, Jody. You wouldn’t listen. You done lived wid me for twenty years and you don’t half know me atall. And you could have but you was so busy worshippin’ de works of yo’ own hands, and cuffin’ folks around in their minds till you didn’t see uh whole heap uh things yuh could have.”(87). Janie finally lets loose and tells Joe everything that he
Joe is power hungry and seeks to dominate Janie, who cannot be held back and craves the freedom to manage her own life. With such caustic tension, it seems odd that Janie would stay with Joe until his death. Clearly, she was not afraid to walk out on a husband, so why did she choose to stay? Though Joe was frequently an oppressive dictatorial husband, he still offered more love to her than the cold, quasi-emotionless Logan Killicks. Only after finding love with Tea Cake, however, would Janie realize one of the major themes of the novel: in order to gain true happiness, you cannot sacrifice one desire for another, in her case freedom from oppression for love.
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.
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.
Often in literature, the author sets the main character on a physical journey to divert attention away from the main character’s spiritual journey. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie, goes on a physical journey that not only challenges her sense of self, but also is vital in her life-long spiritual journey to personal liberation and self-empowerment. Janie’s relationships mark Janie’s migration toward fulfilling Hurston’s purpose of the piece: Janie becoming empowered and finds personal liberation. Hurston proves Janie’s physical journey plays a central role as Janie completes her spiritual quest to personal liberation and self-empowerment.
Janie’s Grandma plays an important outward influence from the very beginning. Her perspective on life was based off of her experience as a slave. “Ah was born back due in slavery so it wasn’t for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do.” (16) She felt that financial security,
Janie is married to two men, before she finds Tea Cake, that both suppress her individuality in their own ways. Janie's first husband, Logan Killicks, suppresses her by keeping her in a marriage that she can't fully, or at all, love the man she's married to. "Cause you told me Ah wuz gointer love him, and, and Ah don’t. Maybe if somebody was to tell me how, Ah could do it." Janie says she needs to be told how to feel about Logan in order for her to be able to love feel anything towards him at all. Janie is a mixture of the people around her because they're telling her to live and how to think. Janie can't bring herself to figure out how to do these things on her own so she ends up looking for the answers in the man she married, her grandmother, and her society. Joe Starks, Janie's second husband, keeps her from showing who she really wants to be by
Janie’s character shows many strengths throughout the course of the movie Their Eyes Were Watching God. However, most of the strengths that Janie shows in the movie never appear in the book. In the beginning of the movie, the audience sees Janie working in the fields and hog pens with Logan. Doing this gives her strengths in self-dependency. This trait appears later when Janie almost leaves Joe Starks in the movie. Joe changes her mind
Janie) in a sexual manner. It also shows how jealous Joe was of Janie and her youthfulness, as Jody was 10 years her senior. The head rag “irked her endlessly” (55), however she submits to Jody’s control. With Joe Janie must hide her real self, being what her husband wishes her to be, presenting a façade to the outside world of whom they think she should be, not who she really wants to be.
Another one of the things Jody did that really hurt Janie was when Joe would constantly ridicule her and the like. Essentially, Joe made remarks about Janie not being able to think for herself as well as other little sarcastic, ignorant comments. And Jody actually believed things like women cant think for themselves. “Dat’s cause you need tellin’…somebody got to think for women and chillins and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none themselves”
All through the novel Janie travels through valuable life experiences allowing her to grow as a woman. Janie at first has a difficult time understanding her needs rather than wants, but as she continues to experience new situations she realizes she values respect. Janie’s first two marriages turned out to be tragic mistakes, but with each marriage Janie gained something valuable. When Janie is disrespected in her second marriage with Joe Starks, he publicly humiliates her, disrespecting her as a wife and woman. This experience forced Janie to come out of her comfort zone and stand up for herself.
Instead of treating Janie like the beautiful woman that she is, he uses her as an object. Joe was a man who “treasured [Janie] as a posession” (Berridge). Joe’s demanding nature suppresses Janie’s urge to grow and develop, thus causing her journey to self-realization to take steps backward rather than forward. In Janie’s opinion, “he needs to “have [his] way all [his] life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh let [him]self heah 'bout it” (Hurston 122). It is almost as if Janie loses sense of her own self-consciousness due to the fact that she becomes like a puppy being told what to do by her master. The death of Jody is actually a positive thing. Joe’s controlling nature stifles Janie’s inner voice. While married to Jody, Janie became closer to others, however, she did not become closer to herself. Being on her own again gave her another chance to embark on her journey and realize who Janie Crawford really is.
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
"Jody told her to dress up and stand in the store all that evening" (Hurston 58). That must've been Jody Starks' most said command to Janie throughout her marriage. He only used her because she was so pretty, and didn't want much more. Being proud of Janie as his wife, the mayor's pretty wife, he himself built the image for Janie as 'trophy wife'.
Janie's quest is for self-discovery and self-definition, but she encounters many obstacles while trying to win this quest.