Life of Harship and Suppression in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurtson

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).

     Then Janie meets Tea Cake. Their courtship and marriage involve many different forms of equality which are not seen in Janie's past relationships. The equalities exhibited include Tea Cake and Janie's equality to one another as persons, and equality in "age," love, and money.

Tea Cake returns after Janie’s money was stolen; “He took her head in his hands and eased himself into the chair. She still didn’t say anything” (121). Silence is a major instrument in Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship because instead of fighting him she uses silence as a source of empowerment. Janie learns that her silence shows Tea Cake more insight to her apprehension in their relationship, than verbally attacking him will do. In her relationship with Joe, Janie uses her voice to insult Joe to show her displeasure, but with Tea Cake, she knows how and when to use her voice and understands both herself and her emotions. In the Everglades, Janie actively participates in conversation; “Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to” (134). In Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship, equality is a major aspect, Janie has both a voice and a position in their marriage. Janie feels like an individual both with Tea Cake and the people in the Everglades, in contrast to her relationship with Joe where people view her as subordinate to Joe. Tea Cake slaps Janie out of jealousy and control and as a result, Janie does not raise her voice back at him. (147). Tea Cake physically abuses Janie, but never tries to mentally overpower her, and

In Janie’s second marriage, she is forced to work for her husband in his store. The suppression of Janie in this relationship is more intense than in her previous marriage.

Janie’s first husband is Logan Killicks, an old, unattractive man whom Janie marries while trying to appease her grandmother. Logan is a farmer with 60 acres of land and a comfortable house. Nanny believes in marrying for financial stability, not for love: “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection” (Hurston 15). Instead of following her heart and insisting on not marrying someone she doesn’t love, Janie consents due to the pressure and marries Logan. He wants to keep her firmly under his control so he forces her to work in the field with him and clean the house. In addition to physically oppressing Janie, Logan also mentally oppresses her by showing Janie no affection during their marriage. Due to

In Janie’s marriage with Logan, Janie came to a couple of realizations and she learned the goals she wanted to achieve out of life. In her first marriage, the man she was with was everything that Nanny Crawford wanted him to be. Logan Killicks was a farmer

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.

As she protests against her guardian Nanny’s decision, she says, “Ah wants things sweet wid my marriage…” (Hurston 24). Janie hesitantly expresses her true feelings about her current relationship to Nanny, and her guardian tells her that love isn’t important in the relationship. Nanny clearly wants Janie to have wealth and status in the society, something that Nanny never had for herself. But even after Nanny passed away months later, Janie is doubtful if she will ever get his love. And as she leaves Logan for Joe hoping for a fresh start, her desire for love in a relationship grows stronger. She always though“Husbands and wives always love each other, and that [is] what marriage mean[s].” (Hurston 21). Janie knows that in her society she will have to submit under her husband, but her dreams of acceptance and love overshadow the negative aspects of being tied into marriage.

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

Tea Cake was Janie's third husband.  He was a simple person who returned kindness for kindness.  He saw women as equal human beings and told them that.  He was very passive in thought, but smart in his own ways.  His desire in life was to love and be loved.

Nanny’s idea of a marriage is “a haven from indiscriminate sexual exploitation and as a shelter from financial instability” (Jordan). Janie’s marriage to her first husband, Logan Killicks, is an unexpected grief and he disgusts her sexually. She tries to love him but their relationship lacks intimacy, romance, and fun. Throughout the novel, Janie is on a mission and she soon finds out “that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (24). Killicks think Janie is spoiled and “counts Janie among the livestock on his farm, estimating her value by her ability to produce greater surplus value” (Ha 33). It is when Janie realizes Killicks plans to put her to work on a mule because she does not bore him any heir that she runs off with Joe Starks.

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.

Nanny makes Janie believe that marriage makes love and forces her to wed a much older man, Logan Killicks. Jones believes that Janie?s first efforts at marriage show her as an ?enslaved and semi-literate? figure restrained to Nanny?s traditional beliefs about money, happiness and love (372). Unfortunately Janie?s dream of escasty does not involve Killicks. Her first dream is dead. Janie utters, ?Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think? (Hurston 23). Logan began to slap Janie for control over

Their Eyes Were Watching God was a book that presented the world with a new look on writing novels. Zora Neale Hurston’s experience in what she has seen through research was embodies in this novel. She demonstrates what data she has collected and intertwined it into the culture within the novel. While being a folklorist/anthropologist, and inspired by her life experiences, she developed a character who dealt with the issues that were not yet uncovered, female empowerment was one of them. Zora Neale Hurston defined this topic of female empowerment throughout the character Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Janie still didn’t give up hope in finding her identity and how she wanted her freedom. She tried marriage for the third time with tea cake. She knew tea cake would be different form the rest. He treats Janie better and he treats her more as a human and he actually treats her as if she belongs. When they got married he gave her gifts. Tea ake is humble and he knows where he come from he doesn’t act luke he has it all. “According to In order to demonstrate his lack of interest in material things, Teacake takes