In the book “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” the main character Janie marries three different men, Logan Killicks, Joe Starks (Jody), and Vergible Woods (Teacake). She marries each of these men for different reasons. First, she marries Logan because her grandmother guilted her into marriage with him. In the book, on page 13, it says, “‘Brother Logan Killicks. He’s a good man too.’ ‘Nah, nanny, no ma’am…’” This is saying that Nanny wanted Janie to marry Logan, however Janie didn’t want to marry Logan. Secondly, Janie marries a man named Joe Starks, also known as Jody. She marries Jody because she doesn’t want to be married to Logan. In the book, on page 30, it says, “Janie debated the matter that night in bed.” In summary, this is saying that …show more content…
“So they were married there before sundown…”(Zora Neale Hurston, 1937). Lastly, after Jody’s death, Janie marries Teacake by cause of the death of Jody and he makes her laugh. In the book, on page 97, it says, “She laughed and he gave her a little cut-eye look to get her meaning.” This means that Teacake flirts with Janie which makes her laugh and therefore she likes Teacake. Later she gets married to Teacake until he died. The three husbands are different from each other because Logan wanted her to help him work. On the other hand, Jody and Teacake both wanted to do the work for her. Teacke is different from Janie's other husbands because he doesn’t force her to do what he wants. Logan is different because he is her only husband that was still alive after Janie moved back to Maycomb. Janie learns a lot from her three husbands. For example, from Logan she learns that she needs to help her husband and she has to contribute to their marriage. Another lesson she learned, from Jody, was that when you’re married you need to be an obedient spouse. Lastly, she learned from Teacake, that you should trust your spouse and let them explain something before you falsely accuse
Janie believed what her Nanny was telling her and felt that no matter what after her and Logan were married her love for him would begin. The day they were married the two set off to Loganś house. Once they arrived, ¨Janie went on inside to wait for love to begin. The new moon had been up and down three times before she got worried in mind” (Hurston 38). Janie had been under the influence that her love for Logan Killicks would immediately begin after her marriage. Her Nanny had gotten in her along and when she did not begin to love Logan she became worried that something was wrong. I believe that Janie truly did want to love Logan but because the marriage was forced, it was never going to happen. I feel that Janie felt upset that she could not love Logan Killicks in the way she was supposed to. Janie would never truly be able to love Logan no matter what she did due to the fact she did not marry by choice. Janie was unaware of the fact that love is not something that can be forced, it has to come
Chapter 6 of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Hurston starts out by describing how Janie detests running the store, but also how she finds some joy in listening to the bright stories the townsfolk have on the porch. The guys there like to tease Matt Bonner- a man with an overworked good-for-nothing mule. Jody, regardless of Janie's wonderment in the stories, forbids her from hanginging out with the trashy people out on the porch. Because of the men who constantly are entranced by Janie’s hair, Jody commands her to wear a head-rag around her head due to his overgrown jealousy. One day Matt Bonner’s mule runs away and ends up outside of the store, where some townsmen are torturing it for their own amusement. Janie does not like this and mutters her disapproval, Jody hears her and decides to buy the mule for five dollars so it can finally be at peace. After the mule finally dies, Jody has a mock funeral which turns into a town wide gathering, none of which Janie is allowed to attend to. Later on at the store, Janie and Jody get into an argument where she tells him that he is no fun, and he tells her that he is just trying to be responsible. As time goes on the indignation that Janie holds for Jody only grows stronger. One day, Jody slaps Janie-after seven years of having met each other after a treacherous dinner. Later that same day, Mrs. Robbins begs Jody for a little meat for her family-which Jody spares. The men on the porch talk crudely about the woman,
Janie's first marriage was with Logan Killicks. This marriage was arranged by Janie's Nana, and Janie had no say in the marriage. Unfortunately for Janie, when Nana arranged her marriage with Logan Killicks she didn't think about Janie's feelings in any way as her first concern was for Janie's safety and financial security. Unfortunately, Janie and Logan have different views on gender roles. Logan expects his wife obey his demands and to help him out with the farm, while Janie prefers to do the opposite and to leave the physical labor to Logan. In this marriage, Janie learned the lesson that love is the foundation of a strong marriage, as, without love for each other, there can be little motivation to remain loyal in a relationship. Janie also learns that in a working marriage, couples must share similar worldviews about life.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie is a Native American woman that struggles with the gender roles set by others. Throughout her life, Janie was put into different roles in which she was expected to conform to. Janie, however, felt that she should choose her own roles in life, which led her down many different marriage styles. Because Janie wanted to choose what roles she was to be in, she eventually found the courage to enforce her roles in subtle and passive ways. This led Janie to a marriage that complied with her needs as well as her husband’s desires. Because Janie was able to freely choose what her roles were in life, and her husband could do the same, Janie and her third husband lived happily together
Initially Janie was raised in a impecunious African American household by her grandmother. She was taught from a young age that marriage equals love and that women depend on men for financial security. Janie wanted a love “sweet…lak when you sit under a pear tree” (29) but instead receives Logan, a man who wants her to “chop and tote wood” and calls her “spoilt rotten.” (31) Janie was stuck to succumb to these expectations when she was with Logan. However, Janie’s second marriage begins with a personal choice that Janie makes to leave Logan and follow Jody, a man whose plan was to build “a town all outa colored folks” and become a leader in the new city. Just the fact that she left her first husband was a very bold move, but the profound point is that Janie chooses to get together with another man. Janie expresses her true feelings and voice by leaving Logan and telling him that he “ain’t done [her] no favor by marryin’ [her.]” This displays that Janie’s views on marital expectations have took a turn and she will no longer be put under this illusion of a perfect woman during this time period. However this newly acquired confidence that Janie had gained
Alyssa Idahosa American Literature – Topic 1 17 July 2014 The Chosen Summer Reading Assignment – Topic 1 In the novel, the Chosen, the two main characters have very different relationships with their fathers. The main character, Reuven Malter, has a relationship with his father where they have an open communication and exchange their ideas, whereas Danny Saunders is incapable of talking to his father unless they are discussing Talmud.
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, written in 1937, is about a African american girl named Janie Crawford who grew up in a white household. Through her transition to womanhood she wanted to experience true love, which set her on a quest to do so. Her grandmother arranged a marriage for her, which Janie wasn't so happy about. The story follows her growing as a person and her many experiences with her marriages. Each impacting her emotionally and making her the woman she becomes at the end of the book. Towards the ending of her book, after being harmed emotionally, and sometimes physically by her past husbands she meets a man named Tea Cake, much younger than her. She fell in love with him and
To begin with, Janie’s first marriage is to Logan Killicks. She meets him through her grandmother and is basically forced to marry him. In the novel, Janie complains to her grandmother “Cause you [Grandmother] told me Ah mus gointer love him,and, and Ah don’t” (Their Eyes were Watching God 23). This quote demonstrates how Janie feels throughout her marriage to Logan. He treats her like a labor mule and complains that she is too lazy to do anything. From her first marriage, she learns that she has to be with a man she
In the book “Their eyes were watching god” written by Zora Neale Hurston tells a story about a woman named Janie Mae Crawford. She goes through a lot through out of the book. Janie lives with her grandma , they live in an all black community. Everyone lives by same rules since they’re under the same roof, living in the same community. Janie, like I said goes through many episodes in her life. One motif that was in the book was Janie constantly looking for someone to be with her and for her to love. In the beginning of the book she was going out with a boy name,Johnny Taylor. Though her grandma caught her with him, and didn’t accepted their relationship. Instead her grandma forced her to marry a boy years older than her, Logan killiicks. Not
Maya Tyler's "Bounce Back Better" is a true inspirational book that actually touched me in many different chapters. From her choice of words, to her motivation to bounce back better, shows the true feminism and courage in women today. Tyler is a motivational genius, and used a tragedy in her life to make herself better, and the outcome was tremendous. I'll first start off by saying that, Maya Tyler is the most similar to Janie in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" The feminism displayed in both books is well seen and understood throughout each book. Maya Tyler suffered a tragic loss of her husband.
Often in stories of self-realization and self-love, there is an incident that is often overlooked. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, such is the case. While many people tend to believe that Janie’s relationship with Teacake was the central time when she realized who she was, Her marriage with Joe Starks is often ignored in the big picture. Janie realized what she didn’t want and not to settle and that helped her accept Teacake later on in the book. Jody’s ideals did not mesh with a Janie and caused a lot of conflict. Throughout their twenty-year marriage, three events symbolized the rift between Jody and Janie; The first was his refusing to allow Janie to speak at the towns opening ceremony,
In this world, there is no such thing as a perfect husband, they can have a lot of good traits but also some bad ones. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, their were a lot of examples of how a husband should and shouldn’t act. The character Janie got married two different times before she married the guy she really felt infatuated for. Although he wasn’t the perfect husband, his traits outweighed the other two guys. In her first marriage with a man named Logan Killicks, she was not allowed to have any input in the marriage therefore did not have the feelings which a relationship really needs. Her second marriage was a lot better than the one with Logan Killicks, but with Joe Starks, he was completely controlling over her
The topic of racism is a very intriguing one for me. Other authors criticized Zora Neal Hurtson that she, being a black woman during the black liberation movement in the 1910’s, should be writing about black people being set free and how they are being suppressed by the world around them. Instead, Zora mainly deals with the issues of the women being suppressed and not allowed to be free. This idea itself mirrors that of freeing black people, but yet authors of the time were not able to see that, they called her book artificial and did not help them in their quest for freedom.
The article which I chose to write about is critically entitled “Zora Neale Hurston’s Most Famous Novel Wasn’t Bad, But It Could Have Been Better”, and discusses Otis Ferguson’s opinion on the famous novel. As I was reading this critique, I found that I held views quite similar to those expressed by Ferguson in the portion of the text in which he reflected on the way in which the novel is written, as another major amount of the article summarizes the plot of the story itself. Along with the fact that I agree with Ferguson’s opinion, I also like the way in which he goes about putting out his thoughts, contrary to the way in which I view Hurston’s writing. Similar to the way I see the writing in Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author of this
Janie’s three marriages were all different for the most part, though they each had their ups and downs. Her marriage with Logan Killicks was the worst of the three. The only upside to this marriage was that she did have the protection and security her grandmother wanted, but Logan was not willing to make compromises like, “And ‘tain’t nothing’ in de way of him washin’ his feet every evenin’ before he comes tuh bed. ‘Tain’t nothing’ tuh hinder him ‘cause Ah places de water for him.” (Hurston 24) which shows that he wasn’t even willing to wash his feet so Janie wouldn’t have to smell his feet. Logan also expected Janie to help him with everything he was supposed to do and still make dinner for him. Despite all that Janie still wanted to love him but she just couldn’t do it. Janie’s marriage to Joe was better than Logan’s but was still really bad. Joe provided Janie with anything and everything she needed, but not what she wanted. Their relationship was about Joe, and what Joe wanted. Joe also thought he was superior to Janie. “Ah knows uh few things, and womenfolks thinks sometimes too!” “Aw naw they don’t.