Essay on Janie’s Courageous Voice in Their Eyes Were Watching God

Janie's prayer is answered with her next husband, Jody Starks. He is the man who fills the voids of loneliness and love, and continues her development as a woman. When they first met, Janie was convinced that Jody believed she was a very special person because of the compliments he gave her. For two weeks, before they married, they talked and Janie believed that Jody "spoke for change and chance" (28). The problem Janie had with Jody was that he did not treat her as equal. He would not let her speak in front of people, teach her to play checkers, or participate in other events. Janie notices the problem early in the relationship and confronts Jody about it when she says "it jus' looks lak it keeps us in some way we ain't natural wid one 'nother. You'se always off talkin' and fixin' things, and Ah feels lak Ah'm jus' markin time. Hope it soon gits over" (43). Janie realizes that she cannot be open with Jody and that he is not the same man she ran off with to marry. Jody has many of his own interests, and none of them are concerned with Janie. "She found out that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him ... She was saving up feelings for some man that she had never seen" (68). Jody only gave material goods to Janie. She knew she

Janie’s outward appearance and her inward thoughts contrast following Joe’s death. She finally frees herself from his control only after he dies as she, “…tore off the kerchief…and let down her plentiful hair” (87). In freeing her hair, Janie begins to free herself from others’ control and social norms. However, she chooses to keep it tied up until after Jody’s funeral in order to keep appearances that she is grieving his passing in front of the townspeople. However, on the inside, Janie doesn’t really feel any sorrow and “sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world” (88). It is only after Joe’s elaborate funeral that Janie shows her first act of freedom by burning “every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist” (89). She chose to let her hair be free from his domination, thus freeing herself from him overall and allowing herself to move onto the next journey in her life.

Janie's attraction to Joe Starks' charisma quickly diminishes when his overdose of ambition and controlling personality get the best of him. Although he is a big voice in the town, Janie only sees him as a big voice. All his money and power have no effect on her when all he does is ridicule and control her. He makes it clear where Janie belongs: "Ah never married her for nothin' lak dat. She's uh woman and her place is in de home" (Hurston 43). This is ironic because when she is with Logan, she wants to be in the house doing her own thing, but Joe is making it sound like confinement. It's as if she has no choice in the matter and Joe intends to make his power over her known. People have different desires and sometimes when we get caught up in our success, we can end up hurting others. Joe's reply to Janie is a great example of the insensitivity that can form from the pride we can possibly inherit when we achieve success: "Ah told you in de first beginnin' dat Ah aimed tuh be uh big voice.

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.

Joe Starks is an admirable person. He promises Janie beautiful material things and happiness unlike Logan who only tried to control her and offered her no love. Janie is overwhelmed by this proposal and believes that Joe may be the bee that has come to fertilize her and make her happy, but she is proven wrong. After she runs away from Logan, Joe and Janie travel to a new town that is only occupied by African Americans. There, Joe becomes mayor and is well respected by all. He gains wealth and gives Janie the material things that he promised her, but forces her to work in his local store all day long. He does not allow her to attend parties or have any fun and makes negative comments about her constantly. He says,

Janie, again, finds herself in a loveless marriage. Unlike her first, however, the lack of affection is reciprocal. “Again with Jody [as with Logan], Janie has money and respectability, but Jody's objectification - of her and his demand for her submission stifles any desire

Nevertheless, Janie is not afraid to follow her instincts, even when this means leaving her first husband to marry her second - without a divorce. "Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south. Even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good" (Their Eyes 31). The gossip that spreads throughout her small town when she leaves with a younger man - after the death of her second husband leaves her a widow - does not slow her down in the least.

He wants to run a town and the only way he feels he can look good is to have a pretty woman by his side. In the beginning of their marriage Joe treats he like a queen. He tells her that his woman needs to relax in the shade sipping on molasses water and fanning herself from the hot sun. Janie fell in love with the idea.

At the beginning of their relationship, he used his words to charm her and manipulate her into a marriage with him. Janie marries joe because she feels that he is what is best for her and it was her choice, unlike Logan. She had to attraction to him, she wanted to feel the missing love that he wasn't giving her and was fed up with him and had no choice in marrying him. In the beginning, she felt that love from Joe, that care, affection, and attention that Logan wasn't fulfilling. As time went on Joe begins to reveal his true colors and started isolating her, he had no problem with physically and mentally abusing her in public or behind closed doors.

When Janie goes out to find a new life, she meets a Joe Starks and goes on to find a new life with him. Joe is a man who sets his mind on creating a life with Janie in a nearby town. As time went on and Janie and Joe had lived together for a while now, Janie began to change because Joe was making her. One of the first big changes Joe made for Janie was forcing her to tie her hair up. Joe said “Whut make her keep her head tied up lak some ole ‘oman round de store” (Hurston 49). When Janie is told to put her hair up, she is stripped of her confidence because she has to cover herself up. Janie basically becomes a maid while living a life with Joe. Her days consist of bringing Joe meals and then going home and cleaning. As Janie and Joe's relationship grow, Joe becomes more controlling of Janie and not letting her do things she knows she can do. He did not let her give a speech saying “...mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin” ( Hurston 43). Janie could have given a speech if she really wanted to but she never thought about it so his comment did not really have impact on

After having insulted Joe he feels the need to get back at Janie by refusing to speack to her. Janie realize that their marriage is fallimg apart but in order to keep it stable they must communicate by using “new words”.

With Joe Starks, Janie hopes for a better life and relationship, and at first she was happy. New things begin to happen. Change. But soon Jody gets elected as mayor and settles down in the town. Eventually, the relationship starts fraying at the edges, and one day, Janie

She fell in love with Joe quickly and thought she had found true love. Not until quickly after they got married and moved into the city where Joe Starks became mayor and had built a store. Just like Logan, Joe was the same controlling abusive husband. As Joe told Janie “You behind a plow! You ain’t got no business cuttin’ up no see p’taters neither.” (26). Joe would also tell Janie how and what she should do. “A pretty doll-baby lak you is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan yo’self and eat p’taters.” (26). Whenever she would embarrass him, he’d whip her. Soon after, it was all over when Joe died and Janie did not feel sorry for

Not long after Joe’s death, men around town come flocking to her, wondering who she was going to choose to marry after she finished mourning. No one was able to make any advances, for Janie shooed them away, claiming that she was busy.

They quickly begin a secret relationship, and before long she runs away with him to get married. However, she will soon learn that life with Joe is no fairy tale either. Joe, or as Janie called him Jody, had dreams of becoming a "big voice" in Eatonville, Florida. He soon becomes mayor, postmaster, storekeeper, and even the biggest landlord in the town. He viewed Janie as a typical trophy wife who was to be seen and never heard from. He hoped to transform her into what he felt the perfect example of a mayor's wife should be. She was beautiful, and in his opinion, should provide a certain example of how a woman of character should behave. At first she gives into Jody's ideas on how she should be acting; however, after 20 years of being silent, Janie finally has her fill.