Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis

Perfection does not exist within the finding of a husband. Woman may unintentionally encounter several marriages and in the end it may seem like everything happens for a reason. Experiencing a horizon would be a blessing to protagonist Janie Mae Crawford in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. She is an African American woman who deals with hardships while being married to her three husbands Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake, each having their own effect on Janie. Eventually reaching this non lasting desired horizon with one of them, she becomes satisfied even if her happiness was comprised of a shortage.

Each of Janie’s husbands in Their Eyes were watching God changed her in some way. The three relationships help Janie grows as a person in the novel.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston has long since been one of the one of the most important works of the twentieth century. The classical novel shows an independent character christened Janie Crawford who causes a major force of social change towards the perspective of woman. This masterpiece exemplifies the hardships of trials and tribulations that Janie must face before and post her marriages. Although Janie's grandmother, or “nanny” as Janie calls her, desires the foremost outcome for Janie even after her passing, she takes into account that her time before her unyielding demise is drawing slightly too close for comfort; so she persuades Janie that she must marry Logan Killicks in order to ensure that she will be safe

Grannie forces her to marry Logan, but Janie stands up for herself when she decides to leave him after Grannie dies. Throughout the novel Janie is looking for love, and she

Janie’s initial reaction is anything but hesitant, she admits that he is not good looking, and says flat out no. Janie 's happiness regarding Johnny Taylor and the pear tree deteriorates with the mention of marrying Logan. She is caught in a liminal state between pure freedom and pure security. Logan offers her security, he is relatively wealthy and has a farm. However, Johnny Taylor and the world outside Logan offers freedom, happiness, and adventure. The message to the reader is that Janie is doing what others want to make them happy instead of doing what is best for her. Janie goes through with the marriage and soon becomes confused and unhappy. She expresses her confusion to nanny as she states, “‘cause you told me ah mus gointer love him, and, and ah don 't. Maybe if somebody was to tell me how, ah could do it’” (23). Janie begins to see her mistake, and feels bad for herself, for letting Nanny down, and for leading Logan on. She believed that if others told her it would work and that she would love him, then it would happen. As Logan begins to make her work and expects more of her, her window for freedom begins to

“Looking, waiting, breathing short with impatience. Waiting for the world to be made” (11). Janie’s first dream is love. She believes that with love she can feel complete and happy. However, it takes Janie three marriages to finally experience true love. With each marriage, Janie grows more self-aware and realizes what her true desires are. She wants to be with a man who makes her happy, but also treats her with the respect and dignity she deserves. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s independence grows as she yearns for true love through her three marriages.

As a final point, Zora Neale Hurston’s moral of her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is never let anyone silence your voice. Janie struggles to find her shine and to discover the true meaning of love. A major part of Their Eyes Were Watching God is Janie losing herself in an unhealthy relationship, being trapped in Joe’s

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie suffers from hardship in two relationships before she can find her true love. Janie explains to her best friend, Pheoby, how she searches for love. Therefore Pheoby wants to hear the true story, rather than listening to the porch sitters. Throughout the book Janie experiences different types of love with three different men; Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Vergible "Tea Cake" Woods.

Janie shows determination as she persists and struggles to define love on her own terms through her marriages. First, her determination shows when Janie runs away with Jody. She becomes aware that her marriage with Logan does not satisfy her goals and dreams for love, so she takes a chance and marries Jody. Hurston states, “Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south. Even if Jody was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good” (32). The quote shows how Janie is thinking for herself and starting to release her mentality to always look to someone else. Logan threatened to kill Janie if she left, but her determination to reach her goals let her go past that fear and put her own life on the line to push towards her goals. Also, if she left Logan, Janie would leave her known world to venture off into potential dangers and her safety from their marriage would be gone. Even with all these threats and dangers over her head Janie was determined to reach her dreams for love, so nothing could stop her. Next, Janie continues on her determined journey for love when she goes off to marry Tea Cake. In the quote,

Toni Morrison’s A Mercy portrays a young slave, Florens, struggles with her past as well as her life as a slave. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God shows a woman, Janie, who struggles through various relationships in her life, but in the end, they help her find her freedom and individualism. Both stories have different story lines, but upon a closer look, it is easy to see that Florens and Janie have common factors in their lives; which includes, both characters are isolated by others, both characters want to love someone, both character’s guardians make decisions for them that they do not understand which causes conflict, and finally, both characters commit difficult actions which ends up changing their lives.

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. The novel portrays Janie, a middle aged black woman who tells her friend Pheoby Watson what has happened to her husband Tea Cake and her adventure. The resulting telling of her story portrays most of the novel. Throughout the novel, Zora Neale Hurston presents the theme of love, or being in a relationship versus freedom and independence, that being in a relationship may hinder one’s freedom and independence. Janie loves to be outgoing and to be able to do what she wants, but throughout the book the relationships that she is in with Logan,Jody and Tea Cake, does not allow her to do that. Neale Hurston further supports this theme with symbolism, like Janie's hair rag that held up her

In life we all have goals and aspirations. So what we do is we spend our whole life searching for this satisfaction. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God the main character Janie was on an exhibition to find happiness. This exhibition was called “the pear tree goal”. Janie’s ambitions in her life were sexuality, marriage, freedom, maturity, and Family. Janie was ill-fated in completing some her goals. This short dissertation will discuss the three pear tree goals that Janie did not acquire; marriage, family, and freedom

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Hurston, is the story of Janie Crawford, a black woman with beautiful Caucasian-like hair and her pursuit for love. Janie meets Joe Starks while she is married to her first husband Logan Killicks. Janie chooses to leave her first husband to marry Joe with the hope of finding the love she had envisioned as a young girl. Unfortunately, Jody’s love of wealth and power is much stronger than his love for Janie. Jody forces Janie to keep hushed, refrain from associating with the townspeople, hide her beauty, and manage the general store. Although many people believe Janie and Jody share a great love for one-an-other, in reality the way Jody has treated Janie has caused their marriage

Then there came Logan Killicks. Nanny set Janie up to marry Logan Killicks, a middle aged farmer. Janie married Logan because Nanny told her she would be better off if she did and that she would come to love him. She never did fall in love with him and I don’t think he really loved her. He treated

Every girls dream is to find the perfect guy, and eventually have a long loving relationship with them. In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston she talks about Janie, the main character, and Janie's quest to find the perfect guy. Janie was infatuated with the idea of finding the perfect guy and perfect love, which caused her to have many marriages in order to find that “perfect guy.” Throughout each marriage she learns something new about herself, and more importantly about love. Janie's unsuccessful marriages with multiple guys, reveals that there is no such thing as “perfect” love.