Theme Of Their Eyes Were Watching God

After Tea Cake ignores all the preemptive warnings of the approaching Hurricane Okeechobee, Janie gets trapped in a flood in the Everglades with a rabid dog. Witnessing this event, Tea Cake risks his life and jumps into the water to save Janie from this beast. Afterwards, Janie tells Tea Cake, “Once upon uh time, Ah never 'spected nothin', Tea Cake, but bein' dead from standin' still and tryin' tuh laugh. But you come 'long and made somethin' outa me. So Ah'm thankful fuh anything we come through together.” (Hurston 167). Janie’s quote demonstrates her gratitude to Tea Cake, who was the only person to truly treat Janie as an equal. By following Nanny’s ideals, Janie lived most of her life neglected in various ways by both Logan and Joe. However, when she finally abandoned Nanny’s dream and met her own needs by marrying Tea Cake, she experienced happiness for the first time. The life of security with little emotional fulfillment deeply contrasts with Janie’s new life with Tea Cake. Finally, she is able to experience true love instead of living as a mule under Joe and Logan, both of whom tried to shape Janie to fit their own personal needs instead of treating her as an equal . Although Nanny wanted to secure Janie’s life by marrying her off to a respected, landowning man, this resulted in unintended consequences that restricted her freedom and harmed her well being. Unlike

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

Janie’s first husband, Logan Killicks, is a wealthy old man. In the beginning of their marriage, he treated her alright, but then he called her spoiled and expected her to work like a slave in the fields. Janie’s second husband, Joe Starks, started out poor and treated Janie with

Throughout Janie’s relationship with her next husband, Joe, she continued to keep her strong voice but showed weakness emotionally. Speaking of "change and chance", Janie was immediately attracted to Joe Starks. This is exactly what Janie wanted at the time: a change from her life with Logan and a second chance at life and love. But the change and chance that Joe was speaking of was very different than what Janie wanted or expected. He was not looking for love or a companion, but instead wanted to use Janie to promote his image as a leader for his new plans to start a black community. Janie soon realized this after it was too late. Her life with Joe was horrible. Joe rarely said a word to her or even looked at her

Janie’s first marriage to Logan Killicks was an arranged marriage by her Grandmother Nanny. One day Nanny caught Janie kissing the neighborhood riff raff Johnny Taylor, and Nanny becomes convinced that Janie has entered her womanhood, and needs to marry.

Tea Cake was Janie's third husband.  He was a simple person who returned kindness for kindness.  He saw women as equal human beings and told them that.  He was very passive in thought, but smart in his own ways.  His desire in life was to love and be loved.

Logan Killicks, Janie’s first husband whom she didn’t love but was forced to marry by Nanny. Janie didn’t love Logan but was obligated to marry him because rather than marrying for true love, Nanny thought financial security was more important. From the start, this marriage wasn’t going to be all sunshine and flowers. The fact that she didn’t want to marry him but rather was forced to says a lot about how this marriage was going to play out. Logan treats Janie poorly. She’s nothing more than a housekeeper and worker. On the contrary, Logan is old and ugly while Janie’s youthful beauty brings attention to her every which way.

Logan Killicks was Janie’s first husband with whom she did not find love. Janie married Logan because it was an arranged marriage that her grandma wanted. She only married him to make her “Nanny” happy. Within their marriage Janie wanted to be able to love Logan “but she could see no way for it to come about”

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

Often in literature, characters assume multiple roles within the same piece, giving them “double consciousness.” These roles can be both concrete, like a worker and a husband, yet are not limited to this realm. They can also be more profound, like personality traits. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist, Janie, is a prime example of this idea. A woman who is trying to discover her true self, Janie is constantly able to identify the issues surrounding her, yet doesn’t possess the desire and voice to stand up for herself and cause change; more than often this results in her dissatisfaction and abuse.

Janie’s first relationship was not at all what she dreamed of one day having. Janie was forced into her first marriage by her Nanny. She wanted Janie to marry a man named Logan Killicks whom Nanny thought was a “good man”(Hurston 13).

A strong hurricane attacks the Everglades. Janie and Tea Cake fight for survival alongside a man nicknamed Motor Boat. At first the three have eyes that “were questioning God” (159), but then “their eyes [watch] God” (160). Both statements show how much Janie has grown not just personally but spiritually with Tea Cake. She knows that she’s received what she’s wanted out of life being with him. Janie mentions it throughout the storm when Tea Cake beings to wonder if she’s regretful. Then after he saves her from a rabid dog while they’re having to swim through the storm she confirms it again saying “Ah never ‘spected nothing’, Tea Cake, but bein’ dead from the standin’ still and tryin’ tuh laugh. But you come ‘long and made somethin’ outa me”

Janie encountered multiple types of love throughout her life. First with her grandmother, Nanny where she experienced unconditional “family love” wherein she saw that Nanny cared for her deeply. It was Janie’s first kiss interaction when she was sixteen with Johnny Taylor that resulted in Nanny thinking that Janie is “ready” for marriage she stated, “Janie, youse uh ‘oman now” (17, Hurston). Due to Janie’s encounter with Johnny, Nanny believes she is now a woman and because she cared deeply for her granddaughter, she encouraged her to

In the beginning of the book Janie experiences a love that is protective from her grandmother Nanny. This protective love that Nanny gave to Janie leads to the arrange marriage between Janie and Logan Starks. Janie believed that marriage leads to love as she follows her grandmother's command into marrying Logan Killicks, she believed that with marriage comes love, but as she comes to find out marriage does not lead to love. With Logan, a similar type of protective love is given to her, because to Janie and