Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's Transformation

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie, endures two marriages before finding true love. In each of Janie’s marriages, a particular article of clothing is used to symbolically reflect, not only her attitude at different phases in her life, but how she is treated in each relationship.

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.

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

Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake transformed when Oprah Winfrey solely cared about making Janie and Tea Cake’s affair pure and about love more than illustrating how Janie grew as a person and young lady. “While Tea Cake is vital to Janie’s development, he is not an indispensable part of her life, a crucial truth that is revealed when Janie shoots him” (sparknotes). By Oprah making Janie and Tea Cake’s

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie has allowed us to better understand the restraints that women in society had to deal with in a male dominated society. Her marriage with Logan Killicks consisted of dull, daily routines.  Wedding herself to Joe Starks brought her closer to others, than to herself.  In her final marriage to Vergible Woods, also known as Tea Cake, she finally learned how to live her life on her own.  In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie suffered through many difficult situations that eventually enabled her to grow into an independent person.

The story often told in relation to character growth is one of adolescence. However, in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist, Janie, has a personal growth that parallels her understanding of romantic relationships and transpires from her young adulthood well into her middle age. As time passes and Janie has different relationships with the men around her, her images of herself and what a meaningful relationship consists of are revised. Janie’s relationship with Joe is transformative in the sense that by evaluating their relationship, Janie is really evaluating her growth and ambitions as a woman. While her transformation within the context of her relationship with Joe creates a sense of closure because she handles his death as an escape to be her own person, her identity as an independent woman is a result of enduring an

In her article “Tuh de Horzion and Back: The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Missy Dehn Kubitschek argues against her fellow critics’ common misconception of Janie as “a passive prize” (109), in favor of, recognizing the “the independence and strength” (109) within her. Kubitschek showcases the independence and strength of Janie through outlining her heroine’s quest throughout, Their Eyes Were Watching God, according to the five qualifications, “answering the call to adventure, crossing the threshold into the unknown, facing various trials, finding the reward (either concrete or symbolic), and returning to the community” (110), provided by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In doing so, Kubitschek expertly contradicts

During the beginning of Janie’s Journey to be an independently minded woman, she loses her grandmother and moves away from her first failed relationship,. After Hurston sets the scene and Janie begins to tell her story, Janie mentions her grandmother from a young age raised her. Her grandmother, Nanny, is protective of Janie and disapproves of Janie having any type of romance outside of marriage. (19). Hurston alludes to the archangel Michael, the angel that guides the dead back to heaven, to prove Nanny is nearing death, “One mornin’ soon, now, de angel wid de sword is gointuh stop by me” (15). Clearly, Janie must come to terms with the fact that Nanny will not always be there and Janie will have to watch over herself. Even though Janie knows Nanny is dying, she still argues with Nanny about being married off, “Please don’t make me marry Mr. Killicks” (15). Through this argument, Janie proves that while she may not be ready to completely disobey Nanny, Janie begins to have her own voice. Notwithstanding Janie’s opinion, Nanny marries her off anyways. After reluctantly marrying Killicks, Janie realizes she does not like being bossed around, “Youse mad ‘cause Ah don’t fall down and wash-up dese sixty acres uh ground yuh got” (31). Janie empowers herself by standing up for herself in the face of her aggressor. While living with Nanny, Janie realizes that she does not agree with Nanny’s choices for Janie, but Janie stays silent. However, in the case with Killicks, Janie not only realizes that she does not agree with

Janie was raised by her grandmother who she calls Nanny that had previously lived the life as a slave. The young sixteen year old girl was brought to us as a product of

Janie’s Grandma plays an important outward influence from the very beginning. Her perspective on life was based off of her experience as a slave. “Ah was born back due in slavery so it wasn’t for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do.” (16) She felt that financial security,

Tea Cake truly loves Janie. He treats her like they are equals and does not see her as a slave or trophy like her passed husbands. Unlike Logan and Joe, Tea Cake does not need Janie for his own ulterior motives, as he“[loves] Janie for herself, Tea Cake wants only to share his life and have the opportunity to

Janie realizes now that her love for her grandmother was fake, as she “had hidden it from herself all these years under a cloak of pity,” and her grandma has manipulated her and subjected her to pain(Hurston 89). Janie realizes that her mother created a pessimistic outlook on life, teaching her to value “things” and social status thus creating a flawed perspective of the world(Hurston 89). Janie now criticizes her grandmother for altering her life negatively, whether it be forcing her to get married at a young age causing Janie to lose most of her life to the wrong man. Janie explains that her “Nanny had taken the biggest thing God had ever made, the horizon [...] and pinched it into such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke her,” thus restricting Janie's journey in life, and her ability to choose who she wants to be with(Hurston 90). Janie concludes that her Nanny forced her own views onto Janie, and did not allow Janie to live life the way she wanted to. Hurston uses a folktale to accurately convey the evolution of Janie's character, Hurston portrays Janie as the “Jewel” that shines, but fate, resembled as the “angels” drag her down and even when mud is dumped on her, her marriages, and her Nanny, the Jewel still finds a way to shine, as is exactly what Janie is attempting to

In Chapter 6 of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Janie's character has shown a significant change in the way her character behaves. Janie has gone from a very independent and self run young women to a submissive wife to Joe Starks. Chapter 5 as well shows the audience how Janie's person has changed from the beginning to Chapter 5 and 6. Janie's responses to Joe's criticism and comments of her and women in general provide additional evidence of Janie's change.

People grow and develop at different rates. The factors that heavily influence a person's growth are heredity and environment. The people you meet and the experiences you have are very important in what makes a person who he/she is. Janie develops as a woman with the three marriages she has. In each marriage she learns precious lessons, has increasingly better relationships, and realizes how a person is to live his/her life. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie's marriages to Logan Killicks, Jody Starks, and Tea Cake are the most vital elements in her growth as a woman.

 It is Janie’s relationship with Nanny that first suppresses her self-growth.  Janie has an immense level of respect towards Nanny, who has raised Janie since her mother ran off.  The respect Janie has for her grandmother is deeper than the respect demanded by tradition, from a child toward his caretaker, probably because