IN THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD the main character Janie marries 3 men Logan Killicks, and then left him for Jody Starks, then Jody died so she married Vergible Woods (Tea Cake). In every marriage, she learns marriage can either be good or terrible. Janie learns that how bad marriage can be with Logan and Jody but she sees that it can also be decent with Tea Cake because he respected her unlike the other two. In all three marriages, Janie gained experience about life even all of them failed, she learned how marriage should actually be like, hoping the next one will actually love and respect her the way she wants it to be. In Janie’s first two marriages, Janie rushed into her marriages looking for things she thought she needed at the moment. Janie’s …show more content…
When Janie met Tea Cake he taught her how to play checkers (pg 95), took her to a picnic ( pg 110), and he took her fishing a night ( pg 102). Then when they got married, he taught her how to shoot and hunt (pg131), took her to Jacksonville to married (pg 116), and move to the Everglades to make money (pg 129) and she found adventure and happiness (the horizon) with Tea Cake. Janie’s first and last marriages were barely similar and the way Janie felt for the two men were two opposite emotions. Nanny forced Janie into marring Logan and said that she didn’t want to die knowing Janie is unable to stay with one man, not protected, and poor (pg15).When Janie met Tea Cake, she sure she was not rushing her relationship with Tea Cake because pf her past two marriages( 100-116). There was no love between Janie and Logan so she easily left him for Joe (32) but there was love between her and Tea Cake because she was willing to pay anything for Joe not to die from rabies (177). Some of Janie’s decisions were the reason why the marriage ended like Janie originally plan to run when Tea Cake tried to shot her but instead she gets her rifle and shoot him (182). Janie decided to run away with Jody and ended her first
In Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie goes through several marriages in her journey to seek love. As Janie's husbands change so does her wardrobe. Janie's different marriages are symbolized by her very different wardrobes.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, who was married twice, first to Joe Sparks, and to Vergil Tea Cake, her two marriages to these men greatly affected her happiness, quality of life and the pursuit of her life goals in various ways, based on the personality of each of the men. Although both men were very different from each other, they were also similar in some ways. Joe Sparks, Janie’s first husband in Their Eyes Were Watching God, was an ambitious, confident man who became quite successful in achieving his dreams. He became mayor of the town and worked hard to build the town and bring development to it. However, as a husband, Joe was controlling and saw Janie as just one more of his possessions under his control.
Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells about the life of Janie Crawford. Janie’s mother, who suffers a tragic moment in her life, resulting in a mental breakdown, is left for her grandmother to take care of her. Throughout Janie’s life, she comes across several different men, all of which end in a horrible way. All the men that Janie married had a different perception of marriage. After the third husband, Janie finally returns to her home. It is at a belief that Janie is seeking someone who she can truly love, and not someone her grandmother chooses for her. Although Janie eventually lives a humble life, Janie’s quest is questionable.
Janie then leaves Joe and doesn’t speak to him again until he is on his death bed. After Joe’s passing Janie meets a young man called Tea Cake. The town’s people feared that Tea Cake was only with Janie to attempt to steal her money. Janie ignored these warnings and runs away with Tea Cake anyway; Tea Cake soon gambles all of Janie’s money away. Not wanting Janie to provide for the two of them, Tea Cake moves the two of them to the everglades to harvest crops. Tea Cake allows Janie to be his equal and even lets her work in the fields with him. A hurricane rolls into Florida and instead of leaving with everyone else Tea Cake and Janie stay. During the storm while trying to protect Janie, Joe is bitten by a rabid dog and contracts rabies which eventually leads Janie to shoot him in self-defense. After buying an extravagant funeral for Tea Cake Janie returns to Eatonville to tell her story. Throughout Janie’s life her care takers/husbands have played four very different roles in molding Janie into the strong woman she becomes: Nanny wan an overbearing parental figure, Logan was her first husband that treated Janie like his slave, Joe was her second husband who held Janie as a trophy, and Tea Cake her third and final husband was Janie’s
In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Lora Neale Hurston, the main character engages in three marriages that lead her towards a development of self. Through each endeavor, Janie learns the truths of life, love, and the path to finding her identity. Though suppressed because of her race and gender, Janie has a strong will to live her life the way she wills. But throughout her life, she encounters many people who attempt to change the way that she is and her beliefs. Each marriage that she undertakes, she finds a new realization and is on a never-ending quest to find her identity and true love. Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake each help Janie progress to womanhood and find her identity.
When Janie is with Tea Cake she feels complete in all aspects of life, and feels no need to depend on anyone else but him. When Tea Cake passes away we see Janie almost dependent soley upon herself, but she still confides in her best friend Pheoby when she returns
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story centered on the idea of life cycles. The experiences that Janie faces and struggles through in her life represent the many cycles that she has been present for. Each cycle seem to take place with the start of each new relation ship that she faces. Each relationship that Janie is involved in not just marriages, blooms and withers away like the symbol of Janie's life the pear tree from her childhood.
Their Eyes Are Watching God, Janie constantly struggles to find her voice. Her marriage to Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake helped her discover and utilize her voice in different ways. During Janie’s first marriage to Logan she has no voice, Joe silences Janie’s tiniest whisper and controls her similar to a slave; in contrast to Logan and Joe, Tea Cake encourages Janie to use her voice and make her own decisions. Janie cannot express her voice until she discovers happiness and independence through her final marriage. While Janie’s Nanny forces her into marrying Logan Killicks for security, Logan also lacks love and compassion for Janie and silences her.
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.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford confronts social and emotional hardships that shape who she is from the beginning to the end of the novel. Living in Florida during the 1900s, it was very common for an African American woman to face discrimination on a daily basis. Janie faces gender inequality, racial discrimination, and social class prejudice that she is able to overcome and use to help her develop as a person.
"Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches" (8). When Janie was a teenager, she used to sit under the pear tree and dream about being a tree in bloom. She longs for something more. When she is 16, she kisses Johnny Taylor to see if this is what she looks for. Nanny sees her kiss him, and says that Janie is now a woman. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the main character, is involved in three very different relationships. Zora Neale Hurston, the author, explains how Janie learns some valuable lessons about marriage, integrity, and love and happiness from her relationships with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.
This is logical, since Janie still needed someone so sustain her life, no matter how self-reliant she may have been. This idea of Janie needing a man in her life has been instilled in herself ever since her childhood. For example, when Janie’s grandmother Nanny requested for her to be married to an old man named Logan, she said, “T’aint Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have,baby, it’s protection” (Hurston 15). Society expects that women must always be protected by a man. For example, the princess never saves the knight in fairy tales. So, even though it is against her nature, Janie endured these two men for safety and shelter for an extended period of time. For example, she sacrificed her self-esteem and endured sheer humiliation all through these years, like when Joe made fun of her in front of his friends or when Logan ridiculed Janie’s family. However, another reason why Janie needed to depend on all of these men throughout her life was because they were all stages to her quest for a satisfying life, or to reach the “horizon”. By depending on each of these men, Janie gained valuable lessons and skills acting as footsteps to her paradise. By depending on Logan, Janie learned how to toil at fields, but ultimately was treated as a slave to him. Disappointed, Janie finds out “that marriage did not make love” (Hurston 25), changing
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. In summary, she married Logan because of her grandmother, Jody because she wanted to escape from Logan, and Tea Cake because they had true love. The marriages were different in that Logan treated Janie like a Slave, Joe was moulding her into what he wanted her to be, and Tea Cake just wanted to be with her. As a result, Janie learned many things from each marriage Tea Cake taught her to be herself and do what she wanted to, her marriage with Logan taught her to make changes in her life, and her marriage with Joe taught her to stand up for herself. In conclusion, her experiences in her marriages shaped her into the person she became, and were an important part of her life.
As Janie recounts her relationships in the past, the one that stands out the most was her first one with Logan. The marriage was Nanny’s idea and Janie went along with it without questioning. Janie thought, “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). Janie makes it obvious that she doesn’t think that she will love Logan but still allows Nanny to control her life. Janie agrees to the marriage for the sole reason that Nanny said that it would be good for her. After Janie realizes that the relationship isn’t working out, she gets the courage to run away. In her recount of events, she says “Even if Joe was not there waiting for her,
Through her three marriages, the death of her one true love, and proving her innocence in Tea Cake’s death, Janie learns to look within herself to find her hidden voice. Growing as a person from the many obstacles she has overcome during her forty years of life, Janie finally speaks her thoughts, feelings and opinions. From this, she finds what she has been searching for her whole life, happiness.