How Does Janie Change In Their Eyes Were Watching God

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.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s romantic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the heroine Janie, a beautiful mixed white and black woman, is on a journey to find someone who will make her feel love to find her own identity and freedom, away from her spouses. Janie’s marriages and quest for love impede her individual search for freedom, but in doing this she has discovered what exactly she wants for herself. Janie’s search for her identity and freedom is very much evident. Being abused and controlled during her marriages has made it clear how she wants to be treated and how she wants to live her life; as an individual who does not have to listen to anyone. The story opens with Janie’s return to town. Janie tells Phoebe Watson the story of her

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.

To begin with, Janie’s first marriage is to Logan Killicks. She meets him through her grandmother and is basically forced to marry him. In the novel, Janie complains to her grandmother “Cause you [Grandmother] told me Ah mus gointer love him,and, and Ah don’t” (Their Eyes were Watching God 23). This quote demonstrates how Janie feels throughout her marriage to Logan. He treats her like a labor mule and complains that she is too lazy to do anything. From her first marriage, she learns that she has to be with a man she

First, Janie, the main character, starts off living and being taken care of her grandmother, Nanny. She later grows up to become married, but their relationship is not genuine because her grandmother wanted her to marry the man. Janie meets a man called Joe Starks and they run off to a town called Eatonville where Joe becomes Mayor and blinded by his power. He becomes violent and domestically abuses Janie. Joe would be manipulative and isolate her from the rest of the town because she was "high-class." They live on to become older, and he eventually dies due to a sickness he needed to have checked two years earlier, but it was too late.

Janie then stumbles upon a man, Joe Starks. Unlike Logan, Joe does not want to see Janie doing any laborious work. Janie sees this as an opportunity to live a new life with Joe, a man that would treat

Janie’s outward appearance and her inward thoughts contrast following Joe’s death. She finally frees herself from his control only after he dies as she, “…tore off the kerchief…and let down her plentiful hair” (87). In freeing her hair, Janie begins to free herself from others’ control and social norms. However, she chooses to keep it tied up until after Jody’s funeral in order to keep appearances that she is grieving his passing in front of the townspeople. However, on the inside, Janie doesn’t really feel any sorrow and “sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world” (88). It is only after Joe’s elaborate funeral that Janie shows her first act of freedom by burning “every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist” (89). She chose to let her hair be free from his domination, thus freeing herself from him overall and allowing herself to move onto the next journey in her life.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, a young teenager Janie is lectured by her grandmother, whom she calls Nanny. Nanny teaches Janie to be the best girl she can possibly be. Nanny tells Janie stories about her own personal experiences with men as well as Janie’s mother Leafy’s: “Dat school teacher had done hid her [Leafy] in de woods all night long, and he had done raped mah [Nanny’s] baby and run on off just before day” (Hurston 19). This leaves Janie with the overall message that men can be cruel and that a relationship with them that consists of both love and happiness as well as respect is unrealistic. Despite Nanny’s advice on men, Janie becomes involved with boys very early on- around her mid-teens, which upsets Nanny: “Nanny’s head and face looked like the standing roots of some old tree that had been torn away by storm” (Hurston 12). This ultimately results in Nanny putting Janie into an arranged marriage. While Janie is unhappy with her because of the arrangement, Nanny’s true intentions demonstrate her love and hopes for Janie. Her true intentions for Janie is that she will end up in a relationship with someone who can provide for her, keep her safe and that love, if even possible, will be just a bonus.

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.

So one day she meets Joe Starks and after spending some time together, Janie asks Logan what he would do if she ran away. Logan, rather than responding honestly, lies and hides his true feelings through insults. Janie learns that a marriage does not always withhold love. Love is something that must come naturally without force or thought and Janie sees that she has no such feeling towards Logan. Hence Janie runs off with Joe Starks and Logan is never heard of again.

Joe was sweet at first, then his true feelings about women come out and Janie looses her love she thought she had for him. He soon dies after their separation. Janie then falls in love with a man named Tea Cake. He is the man with whom she has a wonderful, loving, happy marriage.

As Janie becomes a “woman” in her relationship with Logan she meets Joe. The beginning of the relationship seems like it is going

The couple has children of their own, which are play mates for Janie, leading to the unrealization of Janie’s real skin color, until she sees a photograph of her colored family. Her grandmother then decides to buy her own land and house, so it can be better for Janie, according to her. After Janie turns sixteen, she is experiencing many sensations of a teenage girl, meaning the want of love, hormones, couriosity and sexuallity. Although, she only thinks about the sorts of things while being under a tree with a bee pollinating a blossom, she describes it as love. She meets a boy, and begins to have the “love feelings” and kisses the boy, however she gets caught by her grandmother and decides that she wants to marry her to a older man named Logan Killicks, and so she did. After, she realizes that she does not love Logan, she confronts her grandmother and tells her how she is feels about him, however Nanny advices her to be patient and that love will appear as flies by. Her grandmother dies and Janie leaves Logan after he threatened her to kill her with an axe, then runs away with another man named Joe Starks and got married. After their marriage, at first it’s all wonderful until Joe becomes a mayor and becomes more strict and demanding, therefore their marriage falls apart as well throughout the years and Joe dies because of kidney failure. After Joe’s death, she enjoys her

Words, one of the world's most powerful weapons; depending on how you use them. The way words are used in speech can effect your life, for the best or the worst. One author in particular who is a specialist in Novelist, Folklorist, and Anthropy had put her knowledge in to writing a novel called Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was written by Zora Neale Hurtson herself. Hurtson based this novel on a belief that most folks are as happy as they make their minds up to be, but the main character in the novel proves that statement to be legit; if you don't change your life then it will never change. One major step in changing your life is speaking up for what you believe in. Throughout the novel we find out the changes Janie goes

Joe Stark's and she started off real good. She had already forgotten about Logan and was enjoying the finer life with Joe. Joe had succeeded in buying more land and becoming the mayor of Eatonville. After expanding, he put in a store and a post office, the people loved it. It didn't take long to turn around for Janie for the worse. Joe starts to become very controlling of Janie, and for 20 years she dealt with his smart comments, daily routines, and abuse. She was unhappy with this marriage. She got fed up with his last remark he made in the store so for once she didn’t bite her tongue she told him about himself, and he hit her in front of everyone. He became ill not to long after that incident, and the people in town started to think the she poisoned him and was slowly killing him off, but that wasn’t the case. His kidneys were failing him; he didn’t take care of himself or see doctors so they caught it too late. Joe was dying. Once he died Janie felt free, she mourned and grieved, but only for the town’s people a big part of her was happy Joe was