The difference between Janie’s desire for freedom and her agreement to her transition from marriage to marriage shows a contrast in her attempt to balance multiple identities. The entirety of Their Eyes Were Watching God emphasizes Janie’s struggle to become both a woman and black person in a society that does not allow either to exist at the same time. Janie went through several marriages before she found her ultimate happiness. In her attempt to reject her Nanny’s pairing of herself and Logan Killicks, her Nanny explains that “de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out”
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie has allowed us to better understand the restraints that women in society had to deal with in a male dominated society. Her marriage with Logan Killicks consisted of dull, daily routines. Wedding herself to Joe Starks brought her closer to others, than to herself. In her final marriage to Vergible Woods, also known as Tea Cake, she finally learned how to live her life on her own. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie suffered through many difficult situations that eventually enabled her to grow into an independent person.
Janie’s first husband, Logan Killicks, is a wealthy old man. In the beginning of their marriage, he treated her alright, but then he called her spoiled and expected her to work like a slave in the fields. Janie’s second husband, Joe Starks, started out poor and treated Janie with
She marries him because he starts seeing her secretly at her current home with Logan Killicks. He convinces her to run away with him to Eatonville where they establish a town. Their relationship starts very loving and close, but as time passes their love fades away slowly. Jody is a man who needs power and rule to satisfy him; therefore, he seems to be a bit bossy. He was in charge of the town, the store and more and “They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the own bowed to him.” (Their Eyes Were Watching God 50). At the end of their marriage Jody gets sick and dies. Janie is left a widow for six months until she meets Tea Cake, a store
From the beginning, Janie’s happiness is abundantly clear in her relationship with Tea Cake. Although she is now a woman in her forties, Janie acts very youthful and unrestricted with him. She wears “new dresses and...comb[s] her hair a different way nearly every day (111)”. Tea Cake allows for Janie to be herself, in stark contrast to misogynistic Joe who constrained her individuality daily. Janie reports that “Tea Cake love[s] me in blue, so Ah wears it (113)”.
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
Marriage means something different to everyone.The role of marriage is vastly different to everyone around the world. A Streetcar Named Desire and Their Eyes Were Watching God are very similar in how they portray the roles of husband and wife.
Janie’s love life was not always the (Perfect Love Story) in all three of her marriages something was always missing. Zora Neale Hurston,Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie,Tea Cake,Killicks,Jody Starks In this novel Janie marries 3 different men and she faced many difficulties in each of her marriages she married Logan Killicks first then Janie’s first love Jody starks and her second love Tea Cake.In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston uses symbolism to illustrate difficulties through Janie’s marriages.
Janie struggles with her marriages with Logan Killicks and Joe Starks throughout the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, but finds a good man and husband in Tea Cake. Logan goes to marry Janie because Janie’s grandmother forces her to marry him because Nanny wants her to have a good marriage and thinks Logan can give it to her. While Joe comes in and shows Janie he has authority and is loving, but later tries to control her and what she does. Tea Cake on the other hand show Janie love and is willing to let Janie be herself and do the things she likes to do. Janie doesn’t love Logan or Joe because they try to change and control her, while Tea Cake loves her for who she really is.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their eyes were watching God the main character Janie is on a quest for self-fulfillment. Of Janie’s three marriages, Logan and Joe provide her with a sense of security and status. However, only her union with Teacake flourishes into true love.
Although her marriages end for different reasons, they all lack unconditional love. Janie’s first marriage was not even her choice; Janie’s grandmother married her off when she was young because she saw Janie kissing a boy named Johnnie Taylor. "Dat’s what makes me skeered. You don’t mean no harm. You don’t even know where harm is at. Ah’m ole now. Ah can’t be always guidin’ yo’ feet from harm and danger. Ah wants to see you married right away." (31). It is impossible to give and receive unconditional love in a forced marriage. “Some people could look at a mud puddle and see an ocean with ships.” (34). Janie tries to see the good in the person she is married to. She wants the marriages to work, but they never do because of her partner. Janie’s third marriage with TeaCake is good because she finally finds someone she truly loves, but not long after they are together TeaCake becomes abusive. “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches” (57). Janie’s true vision of love and marriage is revealed through a pear tree in the novel. The pear tree reveals Janie’s sexual identity and helps her come to terms with what she thinks is love. Janie sees the things she enjoys within the pear
Over the course of the novel, Janie is married three times to three drastically different people. First is Logan Killicks, whom she has no choice but to marry; soon Janie discovers that she could never have loved Logan because he treats her as less than him. She leaves Logan for Joe “Jody” Starks because initially, she believes that she loves him. However, after he gains power in their community and his true opinion of Janie as less valuable than any man is revealed, Janie begins to hate him and she isn’t affected much when he eventually dies. After Jody’s death, Janie falls in love with Tea Cake, who treats her better than either of her previous husbands. He makes Janie feel valued and practically equal to him and other men for almost the first time in her life. Each marriage brings Janie closer to realizing her role and identity in society. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston explores each of Janie’s three husbands’ different opinions on gender roles in society and relationships to construct the idea that, in life, it is absolutely necessary to find your role in the world -- especially as a woman.
In the book “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, the main character, Janie Mae Crawford, explains her life story in a flashback to her best friend, Pheoby Watson. Throughout her flashback, she experiences life and marriage with three different men named Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Vergible Woods. These three marriages were all different in their own ways, but they all aid in Janie’s maturity and illustrate her quest for independence.
The film and novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, shows the three kinds of romantic relationships Janie endures throughout her life. The cinematographers clearly had the goal of the film concluding with a happy ending. To do this, they eliminated many of Tea Cake flaws in the relationship. Many details are lost in films based off novels because the time is limited to explain the story given. The author in of the novel can express their emotions
In the novel "Their Eyes were Watching God," the main character, Janie, faces an inner battle in her three marriages, to speak or not to speak, which manifests itself differently with Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. In her first marriage to Logan Killicks, Janie has her idea of what a marriage should look like shattered, as she failed to fall into the romantic idea of love that she held dear (Myth and Violence in Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God). In her second marriage, to Joe “Jody” Starks, Janie buried her fight and spirit within herself, as she attempted to fit into the mold of the “perfect wife” Joe imagined (In Search Of Janie). Finally, in her marriage to Tea Cake, she feels the love she has longed for, and is accepted as the strong, independent woman she is (Janie Crawford Character Analysis). In every marriage, Janie feels the various effects of each man, as they either encourage or diminish her voice and inner spark.