Their Eyes Were Watching God Journey

Throughout the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, there is an ongoing story of how Janie, the main character, grows up and deals with the many challenges life throws at her in her quest for her “Horizons”. A horizon is a metaphor for one’s ambitions, hopes and dreams. To be truly happy, one must conceive their own horizons, explore them and embrace them. Janie’s “horizons” evolve throughout the novel, starting as limited and socially determined, moving towards being expansive, individualized, and fully realized.

This loneliness was supposed to be filled by another man, her second husband Joe Starks. She continued her development as a woman especially in the beginning of the new relationship when Joe “spoke for change and chance” (28). The problems Janie had to face in this marriage were that her husband did not treat her equal but rather treated her as an ornament. She found out that the love he provided to her in the beginning was rather part of the ulterior moves Joe had about becoming an important landlord and major. Joe gave only material goods to Janie who felt again as if something misses in her life.

Summary: Janie Crawford is a southern African-American woman who grows up under the care of her grandmother. Janie’s mother has her at seventeen and soon after Janie’s birth, she becomes a drinker and stays out late until she leaves for good. Janie’s Nanny’s background of slavery makes her push Janie to be someone she could not be during her days. Nanny urges Janie to marry Logan Killicks. Janie is not in love with Logan, but Nanny and others push Janie to marry him. Janie assumes “she would love Logan after they were married. She would see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, it must be so”’ (20). Because of this mindset, Janie’s marriage to Logan diminishes her idea of a loving and romantic relationship. Janie spends a little over a year with Logan under miserable conditions, until she marries Joe Starks not long after. Mr. and Mrs. Starks move to a new town where they meet friendly townspeople. Not long after, Joe becomes mayor of the town

But anyhow 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” (22). In a conversation with her grandmother she tells her that she wants to want Logan but she can’t,“ ‘Cause Ah hates de way his head is so long one way and so flat on the sides and dat pone uh fat back uh his neck/ His belly is too big too, now, and his toe-nails look lak mule foot. And ’tain’t nothin’ in de way of him washin’ his feet every night before he come tuh bed’ ” (24). She wants her marriage to work, but she cannot to stand him.

All through the novel Janie travels through valuable life experiences allowing her to grow as a woman. Janie at first has a difficult time understanding her needs rather than wants, but as she continues to experience new situations she realizes she values respect. Janie’s first two marriages turned out to be tragic mistakes, but with each marriage Janie gained something valuable. When Janie is disrespected in her second marriage with Joe Starks, he publicly humiliates her, disrespecting her as a wife and woman. This experience forced Janie to come out of her comfort zone and stand up for herself.

Throughout her quest for love, Janie is faced with the arranged marriage of Logan Killicks. At the time, Janie is young and lacks financial security. Because of this, Nanny decides to

Janie realized that it was time for a change and to take a chance in attempt to attain love by her own means. Nanny would've disapproved of the big talk behind a black man like Jody Starks; however, he would create an even more financially stable setting for Janie to live in than in the marriage she set up Janie with the farmer, Logan Killicks.

Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie’s journey towards spiritual enlightenment and her development of individuality, largely through Janie’s relationships with others. Hurston uses the themes of power, control, abuse, and respect, in Janie’s relationships with Nanny, Killicks, Starks, and Tea Cake, to effectively illustrate how relationships impact identity and self-growth.

Her vision of love does not include manual labor instead it includes rest and relaxation. The voice inside Janie’s head tells her to run off with a different man, yet she is still unable to verbalize her needs and desires. Janie’s voice, however has grown from being silent to a tiny whisper, and with that small boost of courage, Janie overcomes her fears by sharing her thoughts of leaving with Logan. This marriage gave Logan a sense of security, but he fears the “terrible ache” of loneliness (30). When Janie reveals her plan to “run off” with another man and leave Logan, she puts fear in his heart and fills him with anger (30). Finally, after Janie chooses to use her voice, a tough decision lies ahead for her to make since Janie never discovers true love and happiness through her marriage with Logan. She comes to the realization that her marriage needs to end before she becomes a grown woman. Janie “has done lived Grandma’s way” and she desires a life of her own (114). This thought propels Janie to stand up for herself and decide to leave Logan and she uses her voice to confront Logan and notify him that she is leaving. Although Logan becomes furious and curses and yells at Janie, his outburst only seals his fate and makes Janie more confident in her decision to leave. Janie breaks free of Logan, and with her new found freedom, life is “bound to do her good” (32).

However, she quickly learns that Logan, finds her useless, “spoilt rotten” and compares her to his old wife, who did manual labor for him without many complaints (26). Not only does Janie find Logan unattractive, but she does not even find him intellectually or emotionally stimulating, as he never shows her affection (24). Attempting to gain some perspective on how to liven up her marriage, Janie seeks out the advice of her Nanny, an unmarried former slave. Janie claims that she “wants to want him sometimes” (23), but her efforts are in vain. Due to the conditions Nanny was raised in, Nanny told her granddaughter that love was bound to happen eventually because Logan was financially stable. Nanny did not understand Janie’s wishes of love; she was on a basic level of understanding. While Janie obeyed Nanny’s wish of her to stay with Logan for almost a year, when Janie knew the marriage was headed nowhere except disaster, she runs off with a man named Joe Sparks who she had correspondence with for almost a year. Janie concluded from her time with Logan “that marriage did not make love” (25). Janie’s view on love did not change with her relationship with Logan. In fact, it was because of the horrendous outcomes of the marriage that Janie decided to chase after her ideal relationship with

When Janie's Nanny was aging and felt her life ending, she saw Janie maturing quickly and she thought that it would be only proper for her to have a man for protection after she leaves. After Janie was told this, she immediately didn’t want to accept it, but she did anyway. At age 17, she was married with the man named Logan Killicks who was 50 years old. Logan was a lonely man before he met Janie, the only thing he had to offer for her in marrying Janie was his protection, and a 60 acre potato

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Mae Crawford, the Protagonist, is involved in three diverse relationships. Zora Neale Hurston, the author, explains how Janie grows into young woman through marriage, integrity, and love and happiness from her relationships with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie has allowed the audience to better understand the limitations, and emotional challenges that women had to deal with in a male dominated society. Janie’s relationship with her first husband, Logan Killicks, consisted of tedious, daily routines. Her second husband, Joe Starks, brought her closer to others, than to herself. In her third and final marriage to Tea Cake, she eventually learned how to live her life on her own. Janie suffered through many difficult situations that changed her as a person, and her opinion on love.

Joe ends up becoming the Mayor, Post Master, storekeeper, and the biggest landlord in the town. Although this is all fine for him, Janie in the mean time is not happy with the relationship and struggles to deal with it. Over the years Janie places all of her old dreams into the corner of her soul. She submits to Jody's need for control on the outside but on the inside she hides her real feelings and her real self. At one of the town meetings someone asks for a “few words uh encouragement from Mrs. Mayor Starks” and Joe replies buy saying, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home”(41) After hearing this from Joe, Janie feels as though, “that took the bloom off of things”(41). She is no longer truly in love with him anymore. After Joe dies, Janie feels free for the first time in years. Janie is in the room when Joe dies and soon after, she walks across the room to the mirror and tells herself that she, “The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place”(83). Janie becomes a more independently thinking woman after his death because she doesn’t have the restriction that Joe forced on her. She is free from Joes dominant self and can now do what she pleases, which ends up being a very good thing for her.

He treats her like she is special and talks to her about wanting to be a ‘big voice’ and helping to start a town for only colored people. Janie is excited by his ideas and how he seems to value her. She agrees to go with him and get married. He was an escape from her first unsatisfying marriage until, as years pass, she realizes she didn’t find the love she was hoping for. Joe’s love is possessive. He sees her as a special thing and not a special person. He is often too interested in his own ‘big voice’ to listen to Janie and expects her to follow his commands instead of her wishes. Yet, she stays with him in Eatonville until he dies twenty years later and only stands up to Joe and forces him to listen to her feelings moments before he dies. This scene had the biggest impact on me because I loved seeing Janie finally speak her mind. Although it was late, she finally showed courage and a sense of self