Their Eyes Were Watching God: Summary

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

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story about a black woman in the 1930s, Janie’s, quest for real and fulfilling love and freedom. The story begins when her grandmother, Nanny, catches her kissing a boy she doesn’t approve of. Nanny is a former slave who is raising Janie as her own daughter, Janie’s mother, was raped at seventeen, began drinking, and ran away. Countless hardships were faced by Nanny and she was denied opportunities, like marriage, in order to care for Janie and her mother. Therefore, she pressures Janie to marry Logan Killicks before she dies of old age. Despite not wanting to take part in it, Janie obeys, and learns that marriage doesn’t create love as she had thought.

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

Janie in her first marriage is her far from mesmerized with her husband's 60 acre land. The incompatibility between her and Logan ultimately cause the marriage to fail. Logan

Chapter 6 of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Hurston starts out by describing how Janie detests running the store, but also how she finds some joy in listening to the bright stories the townsfolk have on the porch. The guys there like to tease Matt Bonner- a man with an overworked good-for-nothing mule. Jody, regardless of Janie's wonderment in the stories, forbids her from hanginging out with the trashy people out on the porch. Because of the men who constantly are entranced by Janie’s hair, Jody commands her to wear a head-rag around her head due to his overgrown jealousy. One day Matt Bonner’s mule runs away and ends up outside of the store, where some townsmen are torturing it for their own amusement. Janie does not like this and mutters her disapproval, Jody hears her and decides to buy the mule for five dollars so it can finally be at peace. After the mule finally dies, Jody has a mock funeral which turns into a town wide gathering, none of which Janie is allowed to attend to. Later on at the store, Janie and Jody get into an argument where she tells him that he is no fun, and he tells her that he is just trying to be responsible. As time goes on the indignation that Janie holds for Jody only grows stronger. One day, Jody slaps Janie-after seven years of having met each other after a treacherous dinner. Later that same day, Mrs. Robbins begs Jody for a little meat for her family-which Jody spares. The men on the porch talk crudely about the woman,

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.

            Janie's first husband was a poor old soul named Logan Killicks.  He was an ugly, dirty farmer whose prime concern for Janie was that she do her share of the work in order to keep the farm up and running.  Janie was simply another pair of hands to do some work.

Nanny Crawford - Nanny Crawford was Janie's grandmother. She raised Janie from infancy. Because she was a former slave, Nanny believed in the value of financial security and respectibality. Therefore, she coerced Janie into marrying Logan Killicks when she was still in her teens.

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the character Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods is a Christ figure for a multitude of reasons. Some of these include him being approximately in his thirties, having lowly forms of transportation, and most importantly, sacrificing himself for the good of someone else. Janie was approximately in her early 40’s as evidenced by “Ah been wid Jody twenty yeahs” (82). She was also significantly older than Tea Cake as shown by “You know how dese young men is wid older women” when Pheoby was warning Janie on the dangers of Tea Cake which puts him at least eight years younger than Janie (113). Tea Cake also has lowly modes of transport as evidenced by “Tea Cake in a borrowed car teaching Janie to drive” as he doesn’t

The story dates back in time to reveal a story written by the famous author zora neal hurston, their eyes were watching god. The dialect of this novel allows you to feel like the characters are actually real and have more of a purpose of impact. Janie the main character is introduced in the story where she appears to have muddy clothes and trudging along the dirt path as the local porch sitters gaze and bad mouth her. Her best friend Phoebe sticks up for her and decided to ask her where she was the whole time and that's initially where she began telling her story throughout the book. Janie had grew up with her grandma in the times where schools were still segregated and blacks were discriminated against, Like many of us, janie was teased just

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the audience is able to evaluate that there were specific gender roles back in the day. The author in “Chapter 3” explains how girls transform into women, once they have been through the hardship of their first heartbreak. “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman,” the narrator states. It is shown that women are raised to marry a wealthy man, cook, clean, and take care of them. During “Chapter 2”, Janie is caught kissing a boy from a poor family, and is scolded by her Nanny for choosing the “wrong” man. Nanny decides to marry Janie to a wealthy farmer, named Logan Kilicks. This is when Janie is first taught how to be the “proper” wife, aiding to her husband whenever he calls her.

In the beginning of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the narrator speaks of the women that would often gossip. Janie was the subject at the time. Janie, not interested converses to her friend phoeby about her privileged upbringing, having been raised in northern Florida by her grandmother, a former slave. The grandmother, nanny she was called by Janie worked in the house of a wealthy white family alongside the mother, Mrs. Washburn. Janie hinted more at the way she was raised by stating that she didn’t know she was colored for many years in her life. In her late childhood her first kiss that prompted Nanny to marry her off. Since the marriage between Janie and Logan Killicks was arranged, Janie eventually ran off to lower Florida to marry a

Janie was pulled into her second marriage by Joe Stark’s enticing promises and the opportunity for change. Not only did his looks and age provide fulfillment but also the promise of being treated as the proper woman she was. The day they met, Joe told her, “‘you ain’t never knowed what it was to be treated lak a lady and Ah wants to be de one tuh show yuh.’” (Hurston 35). This implies that her current situation is one that she can get out of by coming with him. he had previously expressed that someone as beautiful as Janie deserved better than being with Logan Killicks. At that, Joe wasn’t old; he “never specks to get too old to enjoy syrup sweeten’ water when it’s cools and nice.” ( Hurston 34). He had promised to treat her a proper woman

Man vs. Self- the character has to overcome a problem the he/she is faced with in his/her mind.

Educator and literary critic, Keiko Dilbeck claims in her article ‘Symbolic Representation of Identity in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God’ (2015), that Zora Neale Hurston used objects and characters as symbols for identity and qualities of good relationships. She does this first by, citing the example of the Pear Tree symbolizing youth, then by listing Janie’s three husbands and the qualities the represent, then by discussing the all important symbol of the hair. Dilbeck’s purpose in writing this article was to discuss the many symbols in the text in order to enhance reader’s understanding of the novel's themes and symbols. The author creates a reflective tone by discussing the novel's purpose and it’s relationship to Black Woman during