Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis

In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the protagonist, tells the story of her ascension to adulthood and several of the lessons she learned along the way. Though married three times, her second marriage to Joe Starks had the most formative impact on her transition to maturity. Given that Joe played such a crucial role in this affair, we can classify him as a type of parent to Janie. Later, after her final marriage, Janie reflects on her life and is at peace. By that point, she came to realize how to be truly happy.

One scene that shows Jody and Janie’s relationship is on page 43. In this scene, one of the townspeople asks Janie to make a speech. Before Janie even has a chance to answer Jody tells them that Janie does not know how to make a speech and is not meant to be doing that. This scene is the first scene that we see Jody fully control Janie and make decisions for her.

In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Janie has three total husbands-- Joe, Logan, and Tea Cake. Janie is searching for a marriage filled with love, not a just marriage arranged in order to please her grandmother. She desires independence and to be equal to her partner, and Tea Cake, her last husband, shows her that the most out of all of them. Although she experiences a higher respect and equality with Tea Cake, he is still the lesser of the evils, so to say. The novel is impacted as whole by Tea Cake’s character, and reveals the deep rooted misogyny in society at the time.

The book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about Janie Crawford and her quest for self-independence and real love. She finds herself in three marriages, one she escapes from, and the other two end tragically. And throughout her journey, she learns a lot about love, and herself. Janie’s three marriages were all different, each one brought her in for a different reason, and each one had something different to teach her, she was forced into marrying Logan Killicks and hated it. So, she left him for Joe Starks who promised to treat her the way a lady should be treated, but he also made her the way he thought a lady should be. After Joe died she found Tea Cake, a romantic man who loved Janie the way she was, and worked hard

Her decision to leave Logan for Joe Starks shows her determination to achieve her dream of love; she does not want to give and take this dream for stability. Logan is extremely ignorant of Janie′s feelings. When she tries to talk with him about them he simply replies: "′Ah′m getting′ sleepy Janie. Let′s don′t talk no mo′.′" (Hurston,30) He does not realize that Janie is serious about leaving him and that she wants him to show his feelings for her. Instead, he tries to hurt her like she hurt him, by pretending not to be worried about her leaving him. Janie gets to know Joe during her marriage with Logan. Right from the beginning he treats her like a lady. This is one reason why Janie is so attracted to him.

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

Janie’s marriage with Logan did not match up with what she wished for. He tried to treat her well, but she was unable to accept the faults in their marriage. After meeting the romantic Joe, she was charmed by his big talk of the bright future, and, soon later, they eloped and moved to a new town. At first, Janie was very happy with their relationship, but, as time continued on and priorities changed, she came to find many cracks and bruises in the fruits of their labor. Arguing all the time, much more than she did with Logan, it can be seen by both parties that the other was not who they thought they were. However, they did not leave or abandon each other as expected, and they have similar methods of avoiding conflict: keeping their thoughts

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, a woman, through the course of three marriages and a life of obstacles, finds her independence in a man’s world. Janie Crawford learns increasingly in each her marriages how to find her independence and speak her voice. A life riddled with loss, poverty, and trials leads Janie towards a life of independence, freedom and the ability to find her voice.

We grow up to the adults in our life telling us we are "unique", to be "ourselves" but when we practice that distinctive trait, we get labeled as weird; in other words "not normal". In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the protagonist, favors the idea of love and freedom but in the town she is leaving in, those two are considered taboo to women. Janie being able to think for herself is the distinctive trait that sets her apart from the other women in her town. This is a problem because Janie got mad at her grandmother (nanny) for suggesting an arranged marriage but the grandmother was just voicing everyone's thoughts and expectations. So through janie's journey to self discovery, she shows us that we need to break away from

Janie learns to value and accept herself throughout the many relationships in which she is involved. Through each relationship where she is controlled, Janie’s reaction shows the freedom and independence that she gains. Janie’s grandmother arranges Janie’s first marriage to Logan Killicks and assures Janie that “yes, she would love Logan after they were married” (21). In her marriage to Logan Killicks, Janie discovers that marriage, in fact, does “not make love” (25). Janie finds independence and freedom by realizing that she does not love Logan even though she is married to him; she finds independence and freedom by realizing that her grandmother is wrong, and that she does not have to stay in a marriage where she is unhappy only because her grandmother has forced her to marry. Janie finds independence and freedom by deciding to leave her husband because marriage is not about “protection” like her grandmother believes, but about being valued and loved for who she is (15). In her marriage to Jody Starks, Janie realizes that she should be treated as an equal, not as inferior. Janie is angry that he is “mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time” (81). She wanted Jody to “act like somebody towards her” (81). Rather than accepting Jody’s treatment towards her, she demands that she be treated respectfully. She finds the confidence to stand up against Jody’s disrespectful treatment that is directed at her because she is a woman. Janie finds freedom in her marriage to Jody because she allows herself to be seen as valuable and important. She does not allow her husband’s treatment to degrade her self worth or rob her of her freedom to be an independent woman. Janie’s first two marriages help determine the attributes she discovered were essential for her happiness in a partnership. Because she

In chapter three of the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie was married to Logan Killicks and began to live with him on his isolated area of land. Janie was under the impression that her love for Logan would begin almost immediately after the two were married. Janie believed this due to the fact that her Nanny had told her so beforehand. When Janie arrive at Logan’s house she went inside and began to wait for her love for him to begun. After three months had passed and she still felt nothing for Logan she began to worry and went to visit her Nanny for advice. When she arrived at her Nanny’s house she began to tell her of her issues and as usual Nanny became irritated. She told her to do what she was told by Logan and that eventually her love for him would begin to show. I feel that Janie would never truly be able to feel any type

Janie is attracted to Jody Starks because he is an ambitious man who knows what he wants in life. She leaves him after eleven years of marriage because he becomes to controlling and will not allow Janie to do anything except run the store in town. He would not let her go to the mule’s funeral or even let her say anything when everyone would have conversations on the front porch of the store. Jody was obsessed with having power over everyone and everything and Janie didn’t like that. He didn’t marry Janie because of the person she was or because he loved her, but instead because she was pretty and young

As soon as her Nanny found out she kissed Jonny Taylor she was sold off to Logan to be married. So right away Janies was expected to grow up. Logan always expected her to to what he said and what a wife is supposed to do. Janie is supposed to love Logan but never does which is shown when it’s said that “Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” ( ) After marrying and making Nanny happy she realized her love for Logan would never come so Janie gave up.

This relationship with Logan became something that was no longer making Janie grow as a person, but became a relationship that began to destroy Janie as a person because Logan was no longer interested in her and began to belittle her (Hurtson 26). Everyone will have relationships that the individual benefits from, and some that the individual does not benefit from. After Janie moves on she finds a man named Jody and marries him. The relationship again tore down Janie as an individual because power took over the relationship, and Jody became demeaning and belittling to Janie. After this relationship ended, Janie was extremely hesitant to jump into another relationship because of her past relationships “ Janie talked and laughed in the store but never seemed to want to go any further”

Janie saw Jody as a better man than Logan and decided to run away with him and hope that she would find love and happiness with him. At first she did, Janie wanted as Jody had prospered and been by his side. She was treated like his queen and were an example of a great couple to the people in town. This didn’t last that long. Janie was not able to express who she was when they were together since he never let her. Jody was very manipulative and controlling over Janie. She had turned into that obedient wife that rarely showed any emotions towards anyone including her husbands. Janie did was she was told and if she didn’t do it to Jody’s liking then he would physically abuse her. This silenced her mind to fit the role she was supposed to play in his life, it wasn’t about her anymore. Janie was also taunted about her appearances and downgraded by him in public. She always seems to make excuses for why he is the way he is and never defends herself during his rants. Another way that Jody controlled Janie was by making her wear her long beautiful hair in a scarf. This was all because he was jealous of how her beauty attracted others and he wanted to take that ability from her. When Jody died Janie felt instant relieve because that presence that was constantly hovering over her. She was finally free from that cage that Jody put her in and let her hair