Janie Character Analysis

Is Janie or Tea Cake a Christ figure? Choose one and argue for or against this, providing details from the novel to support your answer.

“Beans running fine and prices good, so the Indians could be, must be, wrong. You couldn’t have a hurricane when you’re making seven and eight dollars a day picking beans. Indians are dumb anyhow, always were. Another night of Stew Beef making dynamic subtleties with his drum and living, sculptural, grotesques in the dance”(155).

nature of Nanny. Janie's marriage to Logan Killicks forced her her to change in the acceptance

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel about an African American woman named Janie, and how her relationships with family and friends affect her life. Two of the most obvious themes throughout the story is Janie’s search for love, and through the process, her finding her independence as a woman.

Joe Starks whom swept her off her feet from Mr. Logan Killicks right outside of his home. Joe Starks told Janie everything she wanted to hear within just a few meetings on the side of the road. Joe made this grand life for her as they moved from Middle Georgy to a little colored town by Maitland. Joe there became the Mayor while Janie followed behind him as his wife, who later ran the grocery store for him. The beginning of their marriage had been Janie’s ideal lifestyle up until she felt as if she could not indulge in things on her own. Joe kept her locked up away from everyone besides standing in the store. Janie felt buried away inside the store all day. At first Janie felt positive about her marriage because Joe gave her everything she wanted and kept her happy for a great amount of time. After a while Janie and Joe began to grow apart because of him always bashing her in front of people, up until one day she struck back with her own words against Joe saying, “…When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change uh life”. This made Joe resent Janie for now talking back to him. Joe became ill and later died, leaving Janie who then found her way into a love for Teacake. This created a negative feeling for Janie, but ended with a positive outcome for her

Nanny, whose constraining ideals are a result of her background as a slave, wholeheartedly believes that security and stability in a marriage are far more important than menial things such as passion for one’s spouse. This is evident as she manipulates Janie into an unloving union with the farmer Logan Killicks, an otherwise quite bland man, by reffering to black women as, “De white man throw down de load and tell the n***** man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De n***** woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.

Some people may have a different opinion on what makes a good husband, but there are some basic traits that everyone can agree on like selflessness, the ability to provide for the other, and most importantly actually loving and caring for each other. Many people look for a spouse with at least some of these qualities. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie, spends her lifetime looking for a man with all of these qualities. Janie marries Logan Killicks first by the arrangement of her grandmother.

In the novel of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Hurston, exhibits a various of characteristics throughout the novel. The author reveals each unique character that have personalities distinct from one another. The two dramatic foils that I will showcase are Joe Starks and Logan Killicks to reveal and highlight the traits of Tea Cake. These characters shows how their traits can reveal the other's characteristics throughout their differences. The message that associates and conveys with these characters is how personalities and traits can reveal the perception of how one views gender and status.

Joe Starks, a vivacious and ambitious businessman moves them to a town named Eatonville, where Joe becomes the mayor. Janie takes on the job as the mayor’s wife, one which entails being publicly degraded by her husband as well as being forced to tie up her luscious locks, the symbol of her raw and striking beauty. Janie soon realizes the perfect harmony that the bee and flower possess will never find itself in her marriage, as she thinks, “. . . he wanted her submission and he’d keep on fighting until he felt he had it” (Hurston 67). Joe continues to dominate the relationship, leaving no room for Janie’s thoughts, ideas, and creativity. Soon enough, Joe’s mayoral duties, strained marriage, as well as a public insult from Janie about his manhood contributed to the mayor’s death, leaving Janie free to take on life. She soon comes to the conclusion that her late grandmother stole her chance, and finally admits, “her Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon . . .” (Hurston 85). She begins to understand that her declared journey has long been discarded. This coordinates along with Foster’s quest criteria, which explains, “The real reason for a quest never involves the stated reason”(Foster

In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, her symbolic use of the horizon supports the message that demonstrates the desire to meet goals while also addressing that there may be many struggles encountered while striving for one’s dreams. The horizon can be viewed as the process of Janie finding her ‘pear tree love’. It represents the outcome of one’s life and what certain confrontations one must go through to reach what they truly want. For example, when Hurston says, “Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ for theyselves” (Hurston 192). Janie is saying that her journey to reach her horizon, required her to find God in her struggles and not just live for

Model Amber Valletta wrote, “We are what we see. We are products of our surroundings.” A major element of someone’s personality is due to their environment or past events of their lives. Janie Crawford is certainly not an exception. This is the story of Janie’s Pursuit for love where she, a widowed woman, unfolds her story to her friend Pheoby at dinner. She talks about her childhood with Nanny and The Washburns, her relationships with Logan Killicks and Joe Starks or Jody, her experiences with them along with events that took place while being with them or in relation to them, how they affected her mentality, and how she grows up and matures throughout her life to the self-reliant woman telling the story. In The Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the struggles in Janie’s problematic relationships with Logan and Joe impacted her, which gave her more and more experiences to gradually building up to the independent woman she is in the beginning of the story.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston succeeded in making Janie Crawford self righteous women of her time. Being that this book’s written in 1937, women don’t have many rights. Women are expected to clean, work, and make sure the children had what they need. Janie on the other hand, didn’t do that. She is different than most of the black women of her time.

As Hurston observes, Logan Killicks is not her dream guy(17). In the text it says “ The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree but Janie didn’t know how to tell Nanny that. She merely hunched over and pouted at the floor”(17). This quote is stating that Janie thinks of the pear tree as romantic. Logan Killicks represent everything Janie does not want. In the text is say “ Only dis one time, Nanny. Ah don’t love him at all. Whut made me do it is- Oh, Ah don’t know” (18). Janie does not love Killicks or even is attracted to him in no way. But since Nanny was her only parent she listened to her and was forced to marry someone she does not love. Janie’s last words before she is married to Logan

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, we see Janie Crawford’s quest for spiritual fulfillment parallel numerous aspects of Joseph Campbell’s philosophy on conventional heroes throughout literature. Although Janie may stray from the masculine role of a knight slaying a dragon; through being stripped away from her environment, realizing her insignificance in the world, and overcoming obstacles along the way overtime we see Janie fit the mold of a heroine.

Joe Starks truly amazes Janie, and soon after, the decide to marry each other. Together, they bring the small town of Eatonville to its feet. Janie really does believe that she loves Joe and his blinded to all his faults. In the end, Joe finds that he cares more about ambition and wealth than Janie. She suffers by being forced to be kept silent, refrain from talking to the people of Eatonville, and doing whatever she is told by her husband.