Essay - Their Eyes Were Watching God

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.

Janie recollects her image on love when she leaves with Joe which signifies that she values love over the stable life that she had already possessed.

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

Then, Janie finally stands up for herself and tells him that he was always trying to change her and control her. She yells at him until she dies. When Jody dies, Janie lets her hair down, symbolizing her newfound freedom.

Joe constantly felt the need to make Janie feel horrible about herself. He would take control of everything she would do and Janie couldn’t do anything but feel sad. Hurston says, “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did she said nothing” Saying nothing showed her husband that she let this mistreatment happen to her without speaking up for her rights. Being gone from her sole shows that Janie didn’t even know who she was anymore because she couldn’t even make simple choices for herself. This becomes a problem because Janie couldn’t even find happiness in her relationship, which is far from self-actualizing. These two quotes both show Janie’s passivity through silence and the feeling of worthlessness. This may be an example from Janie’s life, but this became a problem for many women whose husbands follow gender hierarchies to feel like they have more power over their wife. Society always views men to have more power and to be a more powerful figure than women which causes uncomfort in relationships. This strive of power stops people from reaching self-actualization because they are always looking for others to be better than instead of looking to reach their fullest potential. Reaching self-actualization is a big goal for many people because you

Even before Joe’s death, Janie “was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew not how to mix them.”(75) Joe’s influences controlled Janie to the point where she lost her independence and hope. She no longer knew how to adapt to the change brought upon her. When she finally settles and begins to gain back that independence, the outward existence of society came back into play. “Uh woman by herself is uh pitiful thing. Dey needs aid and assistance.”(90) Except this time Janie acted upon her own judgment and fell for someone out of the ordinary. Tea Cake was a refreshing change for Janie, despite the society’s disapproval. “Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.”(128) This was what she had always dreamt of. When she was with Tea Cake, she no longer questioned inwardly, she simply rejected society’s opinions and acted upon her own desires.

Janie's hair along the story represented more than her beauty, it helps show her identity and how women are unfairly treated. Hurston states, “That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store”(page 52).Jody shows his jealousy by making Janie cover her hair because he believed that he is only one who should see it. She states, “That was why she sought out Janie to friend with. Janie’s coffee-and-cream

At the beginning of the book, when Joe Starks and Janie get married, Janie's hair gives a direct representation of how her identity and freedom can become tied up or freed, the way that Janie’s hair can be tied up or let loose. For example, after Janie marries Joe, she is unable to do the things she

Throughout Janie’s relationship with her next husband, Joe, she continued to keep her strong voice but showed weakness emotionally. Speaking of "change and chance", Janie was immediately attracted to Joe Starks. This is exactly what Janie wanted at the time: a change from her life with Logan and a second chance at life and love. But the change and chance that Joe was speaking of was very different than what Janie wanted or expected. He was not looking for love or a companion, but instead wanted to use Janie to promote his image as a leader for his new plans to start a black community. Janie soon realized this after it was too late. Her life with Joe was horrible. Joe rarely said a word to her or even looked at her

As the story proceeds, Joe begins to control the economy of the city, self-proclaimed mayor, purchase more land, and hires neighbors to build a store. These changes that brings to his personality begins to distance Janie from him, feeling that she has become a "trophy". On the other hand, he forces her to wear a kerchief when she is working in the store. Janie’s hair is so attractive to men that Joe makes her hide it, thus limiting her femininity and repressing her identity. As T. Johnson and T. Bankhead stated,

The suppression of Janie, both as a woman and a human, is Jody's most interesting facet. He sets a limit on her self- fulfillment, treating her more like an object than a woman. Of course, he lumps women in with mere things--"Somebody got to think for women and chilun and chickens and cows (67)." He's good to Janie, but he's good to his animals also. In fact, Joe's attitude towards Janie is echoed in his behavior towards the overworked mule he buys and sets free: he lets the mule loose to wander around town as evidence of his generosity and wealth.

In Janie’s marriage with Jody Starks, her hair is representative of her power when Jody represses it and when he indirectly liberates it by dying. At first, Jody draws Janie in with his own authority, self-confidence, and good looks. Janie seems infatuated with these characteristics; yet, ironically, she comes to loathe them, since she realizes that authority creates an air of condescension, self-confidence causes arrogance, and good looks eventually become mundane. Jody, in addition, seems to be extremely misogynistic and treats women like property. He accordingly believes that oppressing them as he sees fit is an acceptable manner of treatment, which is shown when he forces Janie to constantly wear a head-rag in

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.

In conclusion, In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, the audience watches Janie enter a period of self-discovery. When Janie gains this power of freedom, she realizes she craves something different from what society had told her she would want; What we feel inwardly to be true, society seeks to take that truth away. With this experience an internal and external

Janie’s hair first acts as a symbol of defiance of trifling community values. Her defiance begins at the start of the novel, “What dat ole forty year ole ‘oman doin’ wid her hair swingin’ down her hair back lak some young gal?” (Hurston 2). This quote represents Janie’s defiance against the people of Eatonville. The inhabitants of Eatonville begrudge Janie for not fitting into a perceptible class. Since she is beautiful and defiant against the community standards, the porch gossips