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Janie's Growth In 'Their Eyes Were Watching God'

754 Words4 Pages

Love Jones

Professor Henry

African American Literature 2142

3 March 2023

Growth

During the story of Their Eyes Were Watching God there are many lessons to learn about growth, power and domination, knowing how to love and inequalities. The story is about a young girl who leads a life of doing what someone else told her to do until she finally takes control. Throughout the book Janie is constantly second guessing herself and wonders if there is more out in the world for her. Through these obstacles she persists and, in the end, becomes exactly who she wanted to be later in her life. Janie changes from a young naïve teenager to a free woman when she returns to Eatonville.

Janie is introduced as a teenage girl who is being pressured to marry by her grandmother and does not really have any ratification when it comes to that subject. From the beginning readers can tell that Janie is living for someone else and not herself. Janie is very unsure of who she is at the beginning. The novel tells readers that she was teased for her clothes, hair and skin complexion in school. It says that Janie thought she was white until she …show more content…

As soon as he passes, the first thing Janie does is take off the headwrap that Joe made her wear after Amos touched her hair. Towards the end of the novel, Janie finds herself meeting Tea Cakes. This is the happiest and last relationship she is in before the book ends. Janie enjoys being with Tea Cakes because after two dreadful marriages, she knows what she wants for herself. Janie is now grown and learned through life experiences what she wants out of a relationship and for herself. Tea Cake allows Janie to feel young and fun. This is what she has been looking for from the very beginning. Tea Cakes is supportive and different from the other husbands because he respects her. Tea Cakes wanted to work with her and could see Janie as a person rather than just a

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