Their Eyes Were Watching God Theme

The marriage is unsatisfying and lonely for Janie. Janie “...knew things that nobody had ever told her...the words of the trees and the wind. She often spoke to falling seeds and said, ‘Ah hope you fall on soft ground,’” (25). She spoke and connected with nature because she was still searching for the kind of love she had witnessed when laying under the pear tree when she was younger. After a big fight with Logan, Janie meets a man named Jody Starks who is charming and charismatic. He is extremely intelligent and Janie leaves Logan for him because even though “he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees...he spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance." (28). Janie has not been able to find herself in her marriage with Logan because there was no real connection, she hopes to find love resembling the pear tree with Jody. Unfortunately Janie’s dreams of finding love with Jody fall flat. Jody is controlling and restricts Janie from expressing herself and he further isolates her from society.

Throughout the book Janie struggles to find the true definition of love and how to make herself happy with her relationships. She goes through several different ideas of love before finding that it is mutual compassion, understanding, and respect that makes her the most happy.

The final stage in Janie’s development as a woman is her marriage with the twelve years younger Tea Cake. Both are totally in love with each other and Janie lives a live she has never lived before. She experienced a big change when she moves from her formal live as “Mrs. Major” (43) in Eatonville to the Everglades where Tea Cakes teaches her how to farm, fish and hunt and introduces a totally new rural life to her. Janie described her lifestyle in these days with "...we ain't got nothin' tuh do but do our work and come home and love" (127).

Janie takes each person she is close to and all the situations her life brings to her forms her own opinions on love. Janie grows from a dreamy child

Throughout her marriages Janie has grown and become a mature woman. When she married Logan Killicks she was a young girl with no idea of the harsh world. She learned that she does not want to be with Logan. “Ah wants to want him sometimes” (Hurston; 3, 26). He does not treat her like wife should be treated, he treats her like a worker. She realizes that this horrible marriage to Logan is not what she dreamed about under the pear tree. When Janie meets Joe Starks he speaks to her in rhymes and promises her the world. Her dreams of a beautiful marriage are alive once again. Joe and Janie move to Eatonville, Florida, an all-black town where Joe becomes mayor. As time progresses and Joe gains more power and respect Janie feels lonely. Joe is so focused with his position that he unknowingly pushes Janie into loneliness and sadness. Joe had taken all the fun and life

Janie 's visionary scene under the blossoming pear tree aroused her sexual awakening where she seeks to find the utopia where she evolves around love.Her insularity feeling of love sets her adventurous mislead of marriages.The pear tree in the beginning of the novel provides Janie the imaginative feeling of love and path to follow, but that love decays after being forced to marry Logan Killicks, a wealthy old man, whom Janie has no love for. But Janie is assured by Nanny that her love for Logan will unfold, so Janie spontaneously marries Logan.Nanny having gone through the rough life of a slave black woman and experience the mistress of women, acknowledge the role of

She now knew that Janie was a woman and was ready to start her life and be wed. Soon after, Nanny quickly arranged Janie to be married to an older, wealthy man, Logan Killcks. Nanny thought this was best for Janie, she could live a comfortable, secure life, where she would not have to worry. Janie on the other hand did not want to marry this man; she wanted to marry someone she loved.

However, during these such obstacles she also finds herself and creates a voice of her own. Growing up Janie had a different lifestyle than most african Americans, she grew up believing that she was indeed white. Although she was raised by her grandmother, which she knew as nanny she lived with a family of whites and was treated as one of them.Janie was given a hard time at school because of this her nanny decided it was time to move out. The turning point in Janie 's life occurred when Nanny caught her kissing a boy; Nanny was disappointed because she wanted Janie to be better than what her mother and herself had become. Nanny knowing that she was going to die soon set up an arranged marriage with an older man who was interested in Janie. Janie only being 14 and in desperate search for love hated the thought of her soon to be husband, but she thought that when two people got married they automatically fell in love with each other. She soon discovers that is not what happens. Janie runs away to discover herself, in spite of her self awareness she also finds herself running off with a younger man abandoning her safe home and husband for something in which she does not know how it will play out.

Summary: Janie Crawford is a southern African-American woman who grows up under the care of her grandmother. Janie’s mother has her at seventeen and soon after Janie’s birth, she becomes a drinker and stays out late until she leaves for good. Janie’s Nanny’s background of slavery makes her push Janie to be someone she could not be during her days. Nanny urges Janie to marry Logan Killicks. Janie is not in love with Logan, but Nanny and others push Janie to marry him. Janie assumes “she would love Logan after they were married. She would see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, it must be so”’ (20). Because of this mindset, Janie’s marriage to Logan diminishes her idea of a loving and romantic relationship. Janie spends a little over a year with Logan under miserable conditions, until she marries Joe Starks not long after. Mr. and Mrs. Starks move to a new town where they meet friendly townspeople. Not long after, Joe becomes mayor of the town

Although her marriages end for different reasons, they all lack unconditional love. Janie’s first marriage was not even her choice; Janie’s grandmother married her off when she was young because she saw Janie kissing a boy named Johnnie Taylor. "Dat’s what makes me skeered. You don’t mean no harm. You don’t even know where harm is at. Ah’m ole now. Ah can’t be always guidin’ yo’ feet from harm and danger. Ah wants to see you married right away." (31). It is impossible to give and receive unconditional love in a forced marriage. “Some people could look at a mud puddle and see an ocean with ships.” (34). Janie tries to see the good in the person she is married to. She wants the marriages to work, but they never do because of her partner. Janie’s third marriage with TeaCake is good because she finally finds someone she truly loves, but not long after they are together TeaCake becomes abusive. “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches” (57). Janie’s true vision of love and marriage is revealed through a pear tree in the novel. The pear tree reveals Janie’s sexual identity and helps her come to terms with what she thinks is love. Janie sees the things she enjoys within the pear

Janie starts off the novel as a adolescent and experiences her first relationship. It is an arranged marriage because the man has a high status in the colored community. He is known as Logan and is much older

All through the novel Janie travels through valuable life experiences allowing her to grow as a woman. Janie at first has a difficult time understanding her needs rather than wants, but as she continues to experience new situations she realizes she values respect. Janie’s first two marriages turned out to be tragic mistakes, but with each marriage Janie gained something valuable. When Janie is disrespected in her second marriage with Joe Starks, he publicly humiliates her, disrespecting her as a wife and woman. This experience forced Janie to come out of her comfort zone and stand up for herself.

Nanny’s idea of a marriage is “a haven from indiscriminate sexual exploitation and as a shelter from financial instability” (Jordan). Janie’s marriage to her first husband, Logan Killicks, is an unexpected grief and he disgusts her sexually. She tries to love him but their relationship lacks intimacy, romance, and fun. Throughout the novel, Janie is on a mission and she soon finds out “that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (24). Killicks think Janie is spoiled and “counts Janie among the livestock on his farm, estimating her value by her ability to produce greater surplus value” (Ha 33). It is when Janie realizes Killicks plans to put her to work on a mule because she does not bore him any heir that she runs off with Joe Starks.

From the beginning of her life, Janie always listens to her grandmother, as every child should. However, when she was of age, her grandmother decides that she should marry a well-paid and secure man even if the love isn’t there from the start. Although Janie originally opposes the idea, her grandmother convinces her that this is what she truly wants. Eventually Janie realizes that she was living the dream of her grandmother, not her own dream. She leaves her unhappy marriage with Logan and follows another man who also tells her of a promising future. Progressing into the second marriage, Janie is left unsatisfied. Like her first marriage, she agrees to her second marriage by persuasion and wishful thinking.

Being the mayor’s wife he wanted her to stand out from the other woman in the town, so he bought her all the nice and expensive clothes to wear. Even though she wore the clothes she was already beautiful because of her skin color and long hair. Janie’s hair started to get noticed and Joe started to get jealous. So he makes her tie her hair up while she works in the town store. In the book she did not argue with Joe about the head rag she just went along with it. Janie had her thoughts but she dared not to speak them out loud to Joe. Oprah gave her the strength that she did not have in the book and made her argue with Joe about the head rag. “What wrap my head up like an old woman? How Come” (Their)? Janie storms off after she says this to Joe in the movie. She did not have that type of boldness to say that to any of her husband's. Joe’s jealousy towards Janie was so obvious nothing about their relationship came out to a love story. “Janie does find love, but a love story, the novel is not” (Ceptus).  The only part that could have made their relationship a love story would have showed that he just wanted the best for and did everything he thought that could put Janie on a higher level than the rest of the town