Janie In Their Eyes Were Watching God

A woman is a goddess, a raging storm, and a powerful figure. A woman also is supposed to be kind, gracious, reserved, and respectful, especially in previous centuries. People had to act their class once upon a time. Why is that? In this time, it does not matter what someone’s social class, financial standing, or family name is. However, in the early nineteen hundreds, it meant everything. Janie, from the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, was considered much higher than the rest of the town of Eatonville due to her husband’s stature as the mayor. While many would have appreciated the prosperity, Jody being mayor caused Janie more strife than happiness. She is unwilling to allow herself to be, “classed off,” from the townsfolk she knows and loves. However, what does, “ Janie is a free-spirit, an important social figure, and a courageous goddess of a woman who knows no boundary whether it be social or personal. Mrs. Janie Starks is a name everyone in Eatonville is to know; however, none are supposed to know the person. She is to present herself as holy, uppity, and somewhat pompous. She is above them, correct? In Janie’s eyes, she is just like everyone else although her husband, Jody Starks,

After Janie ran off with Tea Cake to the Everglades things remained the same. When they arrived in the Everglades, they met a woman named Mrs. Turner. This woman prided every bit of the white features she had on her body, and loved Janie’s as well. However, she attempted to class Janie off from the very man she loved. Mrs. Turner even had the audacity to say, “She didn’t forgive her for marrying a man as dark as Tea Cake, but she felt that she could remedy that. That was what her brother was born for” (Hurston 140). Janie loves Tea Cake, but the forces are against them due to their difference in social standing. While it may be a tough fight, Janie continues to fight to be free of the social