Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie Sacrifice

What a person values becomes apparent when you see what they are willing to sacrifice. Their morals and needs come to the surface as they are forced to decide what they want to preserve. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” the main character, a woman named Janie, faces trials and tribulations on life’s path chasing her idea of what happiness is. In this novel, as well as most stories featuring a journey, Janie leaves the safety and comfort of her home to complete her “quest” for love and after learning and growing she returns home to recount the adventure and wrap up the journey. Janie matures and begins to find herself and eventually she unveils a passion for the truth. Her values truly as shine as she decides to leave

After years of surrendering her dignity in the name of a constructed love she is free to be and to find herself after the death of her second husband Joe Starks, or “Jody”. Her hair symbolising her woman-hood is let down to be free after she burns the head scarves that symbolically and literally hid a piece of herself from the world she wanted to be a part of. While janie sacrificed her dignity and her morals for Jody she was not sacrificing in order to live by what she values most, it was for survival more than want. However, we see her true need for real love when she begins seeing Teacake and risking multiple aspects of her life for him. Janie is a lighter skinned woman, putting her in a higher social rank due to the racism infringed on people even in the African American community. She has a good amount of money in the bank and she has a rather high social ranking due to her deceased husband Jody being the mayor of the town prior to his death. These factors all lead to Janie not only being an upstanding member of the community but also a very desirable woman for a number of men in the town. Teacake on the other hand is nearly the opposite. He is very dark skinned causing bias’ against him and his relations with Janie. While much of the town judged behind her back on this aspect one character, Mrs. Turner,