Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's Journey

Janie's marriage to Logan Killicks was the first stage in her growth as a woman. She hoped that her obligatory marriage with Logan would

     Janie's first marriage is to Logan Killicks. Logan enters the marriage with a large portion of land. However, Janie enters the marriage with practically nothing. This ends up becoming a relationship based on inequality because Logan starts to use

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that follows Janie in her quest to find both her voice and herself through different experiences and relationships. Janie, a female protagonist, struggles to assert both her voice and her independence. Joe Starks, her second husband, is a sophisticated and authoritative man who demands the majority of the attention in both their marriage and society. Joe and Janie reside in Eatonville where Joe is mayor and a prominent figure in society. Janie struggles to discover her voice and often uses it irrationally. Tea Cake, Janie’s last husband, is a regular man who treats Janie

Janie and Logan Killicks got married at Nanny’s parlor at Saturday night. This marriage has taught Janie a lot of lessons about love. For instance, Janie thought that the marriage would bring love and exhilaration to her but that was not the case. Within a few month into the marriage, she struggles to find love in Logan and in despair retreats to Nanny’s parlor for advice. Janie said to Nanny “Ah wants to want him sometimes.

Often in literature, the author sets the main character on a physical journey to divert attention away from the main character’s spiritual journey. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie, goes on a physical journey that not only challenges her sense of self, but also is vital in her life-long spiritual journey to personal liberation and self-empowerment. Janie’s relationships mark Janie’s migration toward fulfilling Hurston’s purpose of the piece: Janie becoming empowered and finds personal liberation. Hurston proves Janie’s physical journey plays a central role as Janie completes her spiritual quest to personal liberation and self-empowerment.

Throughout parts of the novel, Teacake emotionally and physically beats Janie down to reassure himself and to ensure ownership over her. For example, “Before the week was over he had whipped Janie…Being able to whip her reassured him in possession...He just slapped her around to show he was boss” (Hurston 147). In order to cover his own insecurities, Teacake manifests his worries into physically aggression. He is overcome with jealousy, and treats Janie as his individual property in order to keep her around. However, Teacake loves Janie and only scourges her since he is solely afraid of losing the woman he loves most. In fact, he pampers and commiserates with her much after the incident to express his condolences. Regardless, Janie is completely understanding of Teacake’s hostility and feels not one ounce of anger since she loves every aspect of him. Ultimately, the two contain such strong and deep affections for one another that they are willing to overcome any difficulties and inspire each other to be the best version of

A new hindrance called society skeptically watches Janie as she quickly changes from being a widow of a powerful man to the wife of a young, poor man named Tea Cake, since her quest for love was not nearly over. She had the option of either being submissive to society by staying as Joe’s widow or show tremendous self-reliance and confidence by marrying Tea Cake. Pheoby, Janie’s close friend, declares, “Dat’s de way it looks. Still and all, she’s [Janie’s] her own woman...she should know by now what she wants tuh do” (Hurston 111). This shows how Pheoby trusts in Janie’s self-reliance and genuinely believes that she can make her own decisions. Also, Janie explains that “Tea Cake ain’t no Jody [Joe] Starks… but de minute Ah marries ‘im everybody is gointuh be makin’ comparisons...dis is a love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, Ah means tuh live mine” (Hurston 114). She wants to live her own independent life, and not have to rely or depend on anyone. This is rather ironic because Janie does end up depending on Tea Cake, but perhaps not for material goods or money, like with Logan and Joe, but for something called love. Because Janie loves Tea Cake so much, she is willing to become submissive to his will. He ends up finding pleasure by letting out his anger by beating her. For example, Sop-de-bottom, one of Tea Cake’s friends, states “Ah love tuh whip uh tender women lak Janie! Ah bet

Oprah Winfrey is a woman with power; power to mess up the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God in her own movie interpretation of the same name. By turning this story of a woman finding herself into a love story, many key points of the plot were left out. Character motifs and morals also dramatically changed.

The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God follows the life of a beautiful female named Janie Crawford. Throughout the story, Janie demonstrates the struggle to escape being shaped into becoming a submissive woman. She encounters three men who each attempt to make her a submissive wife. In each of her relationships with these men, she is either obliged or pressured to follow their orders. Although Janie struggles to hold on to her independence, she manages to persevere every time. Janie is a strong independent woman who does not allow herself to be suppressed.

Growing up as a child, Janie did not have a mother or father figure in her life. "'Tain't Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it's protection” (Hurston 28). Her grandmother, Nanny, wanted her to live a better life than her mother. Janie believed that Logan was not the person she wanted to be with, but wanted to please her grandmother’s wishes. Janie had learned that even though she did not love him now, later on in life true love would find her. Once Janie and Logan were married, months had gone by and she was afraid that she would never fall in love with him. She had decided to give her grandmother a visit to confess how her love for him is still not there. Despite the fact that Janie was just trying to find a way out, her grandmother sent her off to give love time to unfold.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Lora Neale Hurston, the main character engages in three marriages that lead her towards a development of self. Through each endeavor, Janie learns the truths of life, love, and the path to finding her identity. Though suppressed because of her race and gender, Janie has a strong will to live her life the way she wills. But throughout her life, she encounters many people who attempt to change the way that she is and her beliefs. Each marriage that she undertakes, she finds a new realization and is on a never-ending quest to find her identity and true love. Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake each help Janie progress to womanhood and find her identity.

     In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the reader is given a particular glimpse into Janie's life with reference to the men she has known.  Janie's three men are all very different, yet they were all Janie's husband at one point in her life.  Although they all behaved differently, in lifestyle as well as their relationship with Janie, they all shared certain similarities.

Janie, in Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, was a unique individual; as a half-white, half-black girl growing up in Florida in the early 1930's, a lifetime of trials and search for understanding was set for her from the start. As the main character she sought to finally find herself, true love, and have a meaningful life. Growing up, in itself, provides a perfect opportunity for finding that essential state of self-realization and ideal comfort. Michael G. Cooke reviews Their Eyes Were Watching God in his article "The Beginnings of Self-Realization"; within the article it is falsely criticized that every time Janie is negatively impacted she grows to become more

As time went on Jannie began to realize that Tea Cake was extremely different, that he meant what he said and truly loved her. He even thought that she was one of the greatest people there was. Tea Cake was a huge improvement to Joe Starks. When Janie looked at Tea Cake she “felt a self-crushing love” (pg. 128), that she had never felt with Joe or with Logan. Tea Cake was the one who helped Janie to transform into a happier and hardworking woman, who was very loyal to her new husband. She learned to put trust into him and she learned what marriage was supposed to be like. Tea Cake showed Janie that, as the wife, she wasn’t supposed to be treated as if she were a slave, but she should be treated as if she were royalty. Tea Cake was able to convert her outlook on life from fairly negative to very positive, and she loved Tea Cake more than any of her former

    In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford is the heroine. She helps women to deal with their own problems by dealing with hers. She deals with personal relationships as well as searches for self-awareness. Janie Crawford is more than a heroine, however, she is a woman who has overcome the restrictions placed on her by the oppressive forces and people in her life.