In the movie “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Janie Mae Crawford Killicks Starks Wood starts off as a poor women living with her ex-slave
grandmother. It looks as if she is living a normal life but that all changed when her grandmother basically forced her hand in marriage to a small
farmer and Janie’s first husband named Logan Killicks, simply because she did not want her granddaughter to be “de mule uh de world”. Janie was
not pleased that her grandmother instilled in her to marry a man that was more than half her age because he owned land. John treated Janie as if
she was his second Mule having her constantly working. After being given a job to butcher a hog, Janie ended up unleashing all of the hogs on the
farm because
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He told her “that he was leaving to go
to a newly black community named Eatonville the next day and would be waiting on her”. After contemplating on whether or not stay with her
husband, or run off with the ambitious Jody Sparks, she came to a conclusion and left Logan Killicks.
A new chapter in Janie’s life begins. After finding out that the Eatonville Jody was looking forward to was nothing but an undeveloped wooded area
with a few board houses. Jody then purchased the land and started to work on their new home. At this time Janie and her new husband’s love was
at its peak. Soon becoming mayor of their town Jodie showered his wife with new clothes and luxuries. He gave her anything she could ever dream
of.
After some years of marriage their relationship began to go south. Jodie began to become obsessed on the image of how a mayor’s wife
should carry themselves and how she should differentiate herself from the others. He “desires not a mule but a doll-baby, a precious ornament
understand what was going on. Janie did not feel love for this man or any man
..., she found her identity. It did not come easy for Janie. It took her years to find out who she really was.
The beginning of Janie’s journey is with her marriage to Logan Killicks, a man with tons acres of land to his name, but to Janie’s knowledge, is just an ugly old bag that has a huge lack of any love or companionship for her. For example, when Janie talks to Logan one night about their relationship he only says “Considerin’ youse born in a carriage ‘thout no top to it, and yo’ mama and you bein’ born and raised in de white folks back-yard” (30). Logan is emotionally destitute towards Janie in the beginning of the marriage. She cannot relate to him in any way what so ever and they both know it as well. In addition, at a point later on in the marriage Logan asks Janie to help him with chores outside, she replies “you don’t need mah help out dere, Logan. Youse in yo’ place and ah’m in mine,” (31). Not only does Logan have an absence of emotion, he also has an absence of love and he expresses the exact opposite of it through his bitterness and anger for Janie. She can now understand that Logan sees himself as supposedly “higher” than her and she loathes it even more. The marriage between Logan and Janie isn’t equal...
When Janie first met her second husband, Joe, he was very caring and reassuring - an ideal husband. Joe was an ambitious young man with many goals set out for him. And like Janie, he was raised around a white background. Joe strived to be and have the best at everything. However, once Joe got Janie as his wife, he became a jealous and demanding man, just as Logan had been. Joe saw himself as a god, his sentences began with " I god..." ...
Through analyzing Janie’s relationship with Logan Killicks and Jody Starks, it is clear that her individuality is questioned and influenced by who she is with. Killicks was chosen by Nanny to become Janie’s first husband primarily due to his enticing financial stability. Janie soon realizes that “marriage did not make love.”(25). She “wants to want him sometimes. [She] don’t want him to do all de wantin.”(23). Logan says to Janie, “Ah’ll take holt uh dat ax and come in dere and kill yuh!” (31). Janie has finally had enough of being used and bei...
Janie’s first marriage was to Logan Killicks, an accomplished middle aged farmer. Her grandmother wanted Janie to be financially set and be protected, so she pretty much forced Janie into marrying Logan. With her grandmothers rough past of being a slave and all she did not wa...
In “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Hurston tells the story of Janie, a black woman who because of her grandmother experiences and beliefs was forced to marry into a loveless marriage with Logan Killicks. Logan Killicks was a hard-working farmer who had 60 acres of land and could financially provide for Janie.
After the difficult time with Logan, Janie meeting Jody Starks was refreshing to her eyes. She thought that he was indeed the key to her new found happiness;
The first time Janie had noticed this was when he was appointed mayor by the town’s people and she was asked to give a few words on his behalf, but she did not answer, because before she could even accept or decline he had promptly cut her off, “ ‘Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ’bout no speech-makin’/Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn’t too easy/…the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything on way or another that took the bloom off things” (43). This would happen many times during the course of their marriage. He told her that a woman of her class and caliber was not to hang around the low class citizens of Eatonville. In such cases when he would usher her off the front porch of the store when the men sat around talking and laughing, or when Matt Boner’s mule had died and he told her she could not attend its dragging-out, and when he demanded that she tie up her hair in head rags while working in the store, “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT to show in the store” (55). He had cast Janie off from the rest of the community and put her on a pedestal, which made Janie feel as though she was trapped in an emotional prison. Over course of their marriage, he had silenced her so much that she found it better to not talk back when got this way. His voice continuously oppresses Janie and her voice. She retreats within herself, where still dreams of her bloom time, which had ended with Joe, “This moment lead Janie to ‘grows out of her identity, but out of her division into inside and outside. Knowing not mix them is knowing that articulate language requires the co-presence of two distinct poles, not their collapse into oneness’ ” (Clarke 608). The marriage carries on like this until; Joe lies sick and dying in his death bed.
The book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about Janie Crawford and her quest for self-independence and real love. She finds herself in three marriages, one she escapes from, and the other two end tragically. And throughout her journey, she learns a lot about love, and herself. Janie’s three marriages were all different, each one brought her in for a different reason, and each one had something different to teach her, she was forced into marrying Logan Killicks and hated it. So, she left him for Joe Starks who promised to treat her the way a lady should be treated, but he also made her the way he thought a lady should be. After Joe died she found Tea Cake, a romantic man who loved Janie the way she was, and worked hard to provide for her.
Janie’s grandmother was a slave. She was raped by one of her owners, that is how she got pregnant with Janie’s mother. Janie’s mother, Leafy, was raped by a teacher, which made her pregnant with Janie only at age 17. Their whole background is men taking advantage over the women, and then not caring about them, mainly because they don’t care to see them again. When Janie is 16, she is gradually beginning to learn things about sex. Her grandma pronounces her a woman, and when an older man named Logan Killicks is interested in marrying Janie, “Nanny” marries them at their house, and then they
Janie’s first relationship was with Logan Killicks. She married him only because she wanted to appease her grandmother. Logan did not truly love Janie, but saw her as an asset to increase his own power. Logan expressed this through several actions. He first tries to use her to "increase his profits" rather than treating her as a wife when he travels to Lake City to buy a second mule so Janie can use it to plow in the potato field because potatoes were "bringin' big prices”. When Janie later refused to work at his command, stating that it was not her place to do so, Logan told her, "You ain't got no particular place. It's wherever Ah need yuh". After Logan told her this, Janie decided she had to either escape or face becoming her husband's mule for life. Janie stood up to her husband. This is a feminist action because Janie is willing to leave a husband who makes her unhappy, which was rare act of independence and defiance for women living in the 1930’s. To free herself from her marriage with Logan Killicks, she only needed to invalidate the elements of his symbolic vision. She recognized that for Killicks marriage was primarily a financial arrangement, and his sixty acres acted both as a sign and guarantee of matrimonial un...
In the beginning of the story, Janie is stifled and does not truly reveal her identity. When caught kissing Johnny Taylor, a local boy, her nanny marries her off to Logan Killicks. While with Killicks, the reader never learns who the real Janie is. Janie does not make any decisions for herself and displays no personality. Janie takes a brave leap by leaving Killicks for Jody Starks. Starks is a smooth talking power hungry man who never allows Janie express her real self. The Eatonville community views Janie as the typical woman who tends to her husband and their house. Janie does not want to be accepted into the society as the average wife. Before Jody dies, Janie is able to let her suppressed anger out.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God describes the life of Janie, a black woman at the turn of the century. Janie is raised by her Grandmother and spends her life traveling with different men until she finally returnes home. Robert E. Hemenway has said about the book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God is ... one of the most revealing treatments in modern literature of a woman’s quest for a satisfying life” I partially disagree with Hemenway because, although Janie is on a quest, it is not for a satisfying life. I believe that she is on a quest for someone on whom to lean. Although she achieves a somewhat satisfying life, Janie’s quest is for dependence rather than satisfaction.
Unlike Logan, Jody not only wants to spoil Janie, he does. Jody buys Janie the best money can buy such as new clothes of silk and wool. Then he builds the finest house in town with two stories, porches, and big white columns out front. Materialistically, Janie has everything she could desire. “[Jody] Starks solidifies his status as a big man when he becomes Eatonville’s mayor” (Campbell 66). Jody’s role as the mayor is an important one as he is always off talking to the townsfolks and fixing things. It is not long before Janie begins to feel the strain on her marriage and confronts Jody about it: “It jus’ looks lak it keeps us in some way we ain’t natural wid one ‘nother… and Ah feels lak Ah’m jus markin’ time” (Hurston 46). Janie hopes Jody’s role as mayor will soon be over but, he assures her “[he] ain’t even started good” (Hurston 46). Jody has big plans and ideas for the community with no intention of stepping down as mayor. This upsets Janie and “instead of sharing her husband’s glory and success, … she feels cold and lonely” (Randall 24). Jody keeps Janie on a high pedestal as if she is too good to associate with the common townsfolk. The towns people often sit around the store telling stories,