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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she could not bare to kill them. She then meets this more youthful and romantic man unlike her current husband, named Jody Starks as she was fleeing the hogs away.Without a doubt after Jody introduces himself to Janie you could tell sparks were flying between the two.
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
to be admired as a sign of his distinction and power” (Burt). Because of his status in the town Jody basically took Janie’s voice and her freedom away from her.He didn’t let her talk while he was doing his mayor speeches nor did he let her wear her beautiful long straight hair down anymore because she was attracting a significant other. Janie at this time was feeling uncertain about herself because he already embedded in her head that she was too old and nobody would want anything to do with her.She then began to feel in simplest of words “trapped”. “Locked in a stagnant existence in which she "got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she didn't value”,(Burt).” Janie became isolated from the others, only coming out the house to bring Jody’s food she prepared for him to eat. It wasn’t until his death when Janie found herself again and her freedom was restored.
understand what was going on. Janie did not feel love for this man or any man
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.
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...
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
..., she found her identity. It did not come easy for Janie. It took her years to find out who she really was.
Though Janie had three marriages in total, each one drew her in for a different reason. She was married off to Logan Killicks by her Grandmother who wanted her to have protection and security. “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have baby, its protection.” (Hurston 15) says Janie’s grandmother when Janie said she did not want to marry Logan. Though Janie did not agree with her grandmother, she knew that she just wanted what’s best for her. Next, she married Joe Starks, Janie was unsatisfied with her marriage to Logan so Joe came in and swept her off her feet. Janie did not like the fact that Logan was trying to make her work, so Joe’s proposition, “You ain’t never knowed what it was to be treated like a lady and ah want to be de one tuh show yuh.” (Hurston 29) was too good to pass up, so she left Logan and married Joe. Janie’s last marriage was to Tea Cake. Fed up after having been treated poorly by Joe, Janie finally found someone who liked her for who she was. “Naw, ...
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...
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.
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 shown 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 the course of their marriage, he had silenced her so much that she found it better to not talk back when they got this way.
The next man that Janie confides in is Joe Starks. Joe in a sense is Janie's savior in her relationship with Logan Killicks. Joe was a well kept man who worked for "white-folks" all his life and had earned enough money to move himself to a town called Eatonville that was run completely by black people. Janie meets Joe while she is still married to Logan and she begins to lean on him ever so slightly. She has wanted to leave Logan, and she wouldn't have if Joe had not come along. Joe convinced Janie that he would be better off for her by telling her, "Janie, if you think Ah aims to tole you off and make a dog outa you, youse wrong.
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.
In the end, Janie found herself being defined by other people, so to say Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. During her marriage to Logan, Janie is viewed as a spoiled and non-hard working girl that needs to learn what it means to make a living. In her marriage to Joe, Janie is only needed for her outward appearance for him to define as his possession; never did he consult her about what she wanted. In both of these relationships she was forced to be something that she was not. Once Tea Cake came along everything had changed; going from following another man’s orders to being able to live a fun-loving life. Throughout the time she spends with him, finally free from being defined by someone else, Janie Crawford discovers who she is and what love is.
Janie's first husband was a poor old soul named Logan Killicks. He was an ugly, dirty farmer whose prime concern for Janie was that she do her share of the work in order to keep the farm up and running. Janie was simply another pair of hands to do some work. When compared with Janie's second husband, Logan seems uncaring and rude.
During this marriage, Logan describes Janies as a mule in terms of being powerless and voiceless. Nannie is a prime example of example of being accepted and treated as a mule. She talked about her own struggle “Ah don’t want to be used for a work-ox and brood-saw…Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin’ on high , but they was no pulpit for me (Hurston 1990, p.15). Logan never respected her as an individual she was property. He was not looking for the kind of love in which she was searching and yearning to have. She immediately discovered that she will be used as a mule.
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,