Character Analysis Of Janie In Zora Hurston's The Eyes Were Watching God

In the novel The Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston the main character, Janie goes through many events that shows her growing up. Also these events show her becoming an educated woman who finds herself. From her first kiss to her three relationships the author makes this change in Janie visible. Throughout the novel these events show Janie maturing and becoming educated about herself and the world around her. From a young age Janie Crawford has always been a beautiful girl. She lived with her grandmother, Nanny while growing up with a white family, The Washburns and she played with all their children. Janie thought she was white until she saw a photo of her with all the other children and she realized she was different from them. When

She hoped for a better life in this city. The people of the city grew to like them quickly because of Janie’s beauty and the fact that Joe had great leadership skills. They ended up building a store that became the town hangout. Because of their popularity in the city, Joe ends up becoming the mayor of Eatonville. Eventually, Janie starts to feel the effects of being the mayor 's wife and the negatives began to outweigh the positives.”Janie soon began to feel the impacts of awe and envy against her sensibilities. The wife of the Mayor was not just another woman as she had supposed”(Hurston 46). She started to notice that all the townspeople were under the spell of Joe and everyone was afraid to challenge him. Joe and Janie started to clash because of his views on a woman 's place, especially Janie. He keeps her locked up in their shop and doesn’t let her associate with the townspeople.Janie decided to jump in a conversation being held there with Joe and he told her “You gettin’ to moufy, Janie”(Hurston 75). Joe also grows jealous of other men in the shop being around joe so he makes her tie her hair up. As years grow by, their relationship gets worse and Joe hits Janie. He hit her because she didn 't make his dinner right. This makes Janie realize that the love between them is no longer there and that she is too young to give up on love. “Things packed up and put away in parts of her heart

He stood out to Janie so much because of his way of making her feel like she was important. When she was with Joe Starks he never really allowed her to speak because she was a woman. For this unfamiliar trait in Tea Cake, Janie leaves Eatonville with him to get married in Jacksonville. The newly married couple eventually moved to the Everglades. Janie loved this place because it was the opposite of Eatonville. “The men held arguments here like they used to do on the store porch.Only, here she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to”(Hurston 134). She felt apart of the conversation and noticed. Even though Tea Cake made Janie happy, she started to grow jealous of a little chunky girl who would always flirt with Tea Cake. This made her realize that true love means feeling jealous. One day the flirting became too much and “She just acted on feelings. She rushed into the cane and about the fifth row down she found Tea Cake and Nunkie struggling. She was on them before either knew”(Hurston 137). Her jealousy made their relationship stronger and made Tea Cake announce his love for her. Over time they grow through many trials and tribulations which causes Janie to find out the true meaning of love. By the end of their relationship, when Tea Cake dies, Janie has grown into a full woman who is satisfied with