Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie starts off as a young woman just embarking on her journey into adulthood. She quickly discovers her sexuality and her desire for affection while lying under a blossoming pear tree. When she acts upon her curiosity and is caught kissing a young man in the yard by her conservative Grandmother, Nanny, she is hastily married off. Nanny teaches Janie that black women are “de mule uh de world” (Hurston 14) and that being married off will save her from a troubled life. As the story continues Janie enters and escapes multiple marriages that lead her to discover her independence and her desire to be free and loved. Through her subservient relationships and marriages, Janie faces

situations that lead her to become an independent woman and deviate from the life that her grandmother wanted for her to ultimately find true love and self fulfillment.
Janie’s first marriage to Logan Killicks is loveless from the start.

Arranged by Nanny because of his sixty acres of land, Janie knows that she does not love Logan. She eventually convinces herself however that she will learn to love him in time saying, “yes, she would love Logan after they were married. She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so” (21). Nanny convinces Janie that she would fall in love with her husband and Janie waits patiently for the time to come, but it never does. Janie becomes lonely and isolated in their home and eventually realizes that she will never love Logan. Logan also has a certain view of what a wife should be which greatly differs from that of Janie’s. He orders her to chop and carry wood and do other manual labor, all while claiming that Janie, “done been spoilt rotten” (26). Logan continues to order Janie around and seems to ignore her as well so she begins to yearn for real love and excitement and determines, “that marriage did not make love… so she became a woman” (25). Throught the loneliness that she feels in her marriage to Logan, Janie abandons blindly following the advice of her Grandmother and her desire for love and adventure consumes her thoughts. When she is given the opportunity to attain her desires she takes it, though she still feels the pressure from her Grandmother to become a subservient housewife, in the back of her

mind.
Joe Starks first approaches Janie when she is still married to Logan but Janie does not seem to mind. The two spend time together almost every day under the oak trees and talk about their lives and his big plans down in the new part of Florida. Janie enjoys the attention that Jody gives her and his talk about how “a pretty doll-baby lak you [Janie] is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan yo’self and eat p’taters dat other folks plant just special for you” (29). His idea of a woman’s role is drastically different than that of Logan and Janie is excited by the idea of not having to work out in the barn. Jody, “spoke for change and chance,” (29) two things that Janie desires greatly, but before making the decision to run off with Jody she hesitates, “the memory of Nanny was still powerful and strong”(29). She remembers how Nanny wants her to be well taken care of with a good man and how running off with Jody is risking the stable life that she has with Logan, but she does it anyway. By running away with Joe Starks, Janie believes that she has found adventure and love, however the dynamic of their relationship soon changes.
As the couple begins to build a life together in the all black town of Eatonville, Jody is becoming increasingly wealthy, powerful and restrictive of Janie’s actions. While at first their relationship is loving and genuinely happy, eventually Janie feels trapped by Jody and his expectations of her as a wife. While he does not force her to do manual labor as Logan had, he does restrict her social interactions and tells her how to present herself to the townspeople. Janie, who is fascinated by the conversations that go on on the porches around town, is not allowed to participate because Jody feels that the townspeople are below Janie and himself. Additionally, Jody forces Janie to wrap up her long and gorgeous hair to keep the men from flirting with her. While Janie is wealthy and well respected in the town as Jody’s wife, she feels trapped in their relationship. For years she choses not to say a word and to live as an obedient and well taken care of wife as Nanny wants her to. Eventually however, Janie musters up the courage to confront Jody saying, “you ain’t de Jody ah run off down de road wid… you wasn’t satisfied wid me de way Ah was. Naw! Mah own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room for yours in me” (86). Janie realizes that Jody does not accept her for who she is and that he works to force his own thoughts and opinions onto her. Through Jody’s oppression Janie realizes that she wants to be free to make her own decisions and to do what makes her happy, like sitting out on the porch talking with the townspeople. More importantly, Janie comes to the conclusion that she wants to be respected, loved for who she is and treated as an equal in a relationship. She does not want to be subordinate anymore or to live the life of a quiet housewife as Nanny wishes.
Being free from both Joe and Nanny’s views of an ideal woman and wife allows Janie to pursue her own happiness and individual freedom in a way that she never has before.

She is able to wear her hair as she pleases, a true sign of her new-found freedom, and feels liberated as a single, wealthy woman. She knows that she does not need a man to support her. However, she does still desire the company of an adventurous man that truly loves her. Soon enough, a man comes along that does just that. Vergible Woods, or Tea Cake as he is affectionately known, enters the town store in Eatonville and invites Janie to join him in a game of checkers. What may seem like a meaningless game actually carries great significance for Janie. She is enthralled to know that a man respects her enough to ask her to play a game that requires thinking and strategy. She finds herself, “glowing inside” because, “somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play” (96). Never before has Janie been treated with such respect or been treated as an equal in a relationship. The checkers game and its meaning is a microcosm for Janie and Tea Cake’s entire relationship. As they move around Florida and eventually wed, he continues to treat her with the respect and love that has been left to be desired in each of her previous marriages. It seems that Janie has finally found happiness in a relationship that is very different than what her Grandmother wants for her. Even when Tea

Cake contracts rabies and Janie has to kill him to save herself, she is still in a better place than when she was married to Logan or Jody. She knows that she has experienced true love, respect and happiness with Tea Cake even though it is not the life that her Grandmother wants for her. Therefore, she is content being on her own after his death. She is finally an independent and fulfilled woman.
Each of Janie’s subservient relationships, with Nanny, Logan and Jody, provides her with an insight into the type of life that she does not want to live, ultimately leading her to find everything she desires in her relationship with Tea Cake. Nanny teaches Janie to obey and to act as a simple housewife to avoid the hardships that black women standardly faced. In her marriage to Logan, Janie realizes that she wants to be loved truly and to be respected. With Jody, Janie also searches love and respect but also learns to strive for equality, eventually leading her to Tea Cake. Tea Cake treats Janie as an equal and loves her for who she is, completely abandoning Nanny’s view of a desirable relationship. He believes in her and allows her to become the woman that she has always striven to be, independent and self fulfilled.