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Gender is a very important aspect in “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. The novel argues that in order for a woman to gain power, she must get it through the marriage of a man. Women are seen as the weaker sex, due to this argument. Plus, during the time period the book is set in, women are barely being given decent human rights. It’s normal for women to still be struggling to be seen as even close to equal to men. Now, each of Janie’s relationship show different power struggles within gender. Her first relationship is seen through her and her mother. Nanny, her mother, is the example of a woman who doesn’t have any real sense of freedom. She is a former slave, and encourages Janie to get married for the sole reason of seeing her daughter getting …show more content…
Janie truly care about him and vice versa. Except, he’s still a man in a male dominated world. He is is a business man working his way up in the workplace. As time goes on in their relationship, Joe moves up. He becomes the governor, a storekeeper and even becomes the biggest landlord in Eatonville. With this actions, he starts to use Janie more as an object. Joe uses her as a business tactic. She is young and gorgeous and, in his eyes, an ideal woman to be married to a govenener. He is also insecure of how beautiful she is, and asserts dominance by making her wear her hair up. Over time, Joe gets sick and Janie can show more independence and dominance over him. With Joe’s dying breath, he wishes death to Janie, for the fact that she wasn’t the ideal housewife he had set her out to …show more content…
He genuinely loves her and respects her as a human being. Even with this, their is still the male dominance that lingers in their relationship. When Janie meets Tea Cake, she is much older, and Tea Cake is a much younger man. This catches townsfolk eyes, and their is judgment, but Tea Cake and Janie are happy. But with this age difference, it becomes quite obvious that Tea Cake has physical dominance compares to Janie. Even with this factor, Tea Cake helps Janie to more independence and strength. He supports her unconditionally and shows her how to use tools, such as a gun. Towards the end of the novel, there is a hurricane. They stay in town, going through the hurricane and Tea Cake is bitten by a dog. When he contracts rabies, he becomes wild and asserts his physical dominance by attack Janie. Janie defends herself, and in end shoots Tea Cake, killing
After this incident he continually puts Janie back in her place and allows her no authority, which causes her to relinquish her love for him. After his death, Janie is once again longing for power, which she finds in her love for Tea Cake. Tea Cake is younger than her, which automatically gives her more authority. He also loves her, an older woman, and that also gives her a sense of more power. She follows her power, and consequently her love, to the Everglades.
After moving to Eatonville and marrying Joe, Janie discovers that people are not always who they seem to be. While Joe at first seemed to be easy-going and friendly, she wa...
Tea Cake is more fun and relaxed than the previous husbands. What’s more important however, is that he views Janie as more of an equal than either of the previous husbands. Both of Janie’s first two husbands viewed Janie almost on the same level as an object, or a piece of property. Tea Cake sees Janie more as an equal and a companion.
In Janie and Joe’s marriage, Joe tries to force Jaine into submission, abuses her, and makes her lose herself. When Joe constantly brushes off Janie's suggestions to improve his illness he says: "All you got tuh
But Janie is young and her will has not yet been broken. She has enough strength to say "No" and to leave him by running away with Joe. At this point, Janie has found a part of her voice, which is her not willing to be like a slave in her husband's hands. After Janie marries Joe, I think that she discovers that he is not the person she thought he was.
In conclusion, Janie is an outgoing and caring person who wants to meet and have fun with other people. Most of the people in her life made her avoid being able to fit in with the crowd. Janie could not overcome the control others had over her. People always continued the gossip throughout the community because she was different. After Janie met Tea Cake, she was determined to do as she wanted without anyone’s say so. Janie will always be known as the
The next man Janie has to lean on is Joe Starks. He was a kind of salvation for Janie. He was a well-dressed black man who had worked for “white folks” all his life and had earned enough to travel to a place where black people ran the town. Janie met Joe while she was still married to Logan. She wanted to leave Logan, but I do not think she would have if Joe had not come along. Joe convinced her that He would be better for her to depend on by telling her, “Janie, if you think Ah aims to tole you off and make a dog outa you, youse wrong. Ah wants to make a wife outa you.”(p.28) Janie took this invitation as a way to leave Logan without losing the dependency she needed.
To begin with, a husband needs to be honest with his wife. Out of all of Janie’s husbands Tea Cake is the least honest one, but one of the times he does lie to her, but he makes it better. Tea Cake is going everyday and working then spending some nights till late with his friends. Janie wakes up one day finding out that her
Nanny let Janie believe that she would find love after she is married by saying, “‘ Yes, she would love Logan after they were married’”(21). Which in the long run distorted her view on finding love. Also, Nanny doesn’t let Janie go for someone who doesn’t have it together. She say, “‘Whut Ah seen just now is plenty for me, honey, Ah don’t want no trashy nigger, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin’ yo’ body to wipe his foots on’”(27). Ever since then, Janie had the mindset of Nanny. Nanny doesn’t want Janie to settle for less than what she is worth. Nanny isn’t all to blame for giving Janie this false perception. Nanny knows what it’s like to try to make a good living in this time while being black and a woman. So she wants Janie to live in a protective
His voice continuously oppresses Janie and her voice. She retreats within herself, where she still dreams of her bloom time, which had ended with Joe, “This moment lead Janie to ‘grow out of her identity, but out of her division into inside and outside. Knowing not to 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 dies in his death bed.
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.
Janie’s first attempt at love does not turn out quite like she hopes. Her grandmother forces her into marrying Logan Killicks. As the year passes, Janie grows unhappy and miserable. By pure fate, Janie meets Joe Starks and immediately lusts after him. With the knowledge of being wrong and expecting to be ridiculed, she leaves Logan and runs off with Joe to start a new marriage. This is the first time that Janie does what she wants in her search of happiness: “Even if Joe was not waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good…From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” (32). Janie’s new outlook on life, although somewhat shadowed by blind love, will keep her satisfied momentarily, but soon she will return to the loneliness she is running from.
...women he has seen walk seven full miles. But at the same time he still wants to feel like the man. In chapter 13, nstead of hitting her to show that, he just wants to be able to support his wife. "Put dat two hundred back wid de rest, Janie. Mah dice. Ah no need no assistance tuh help me feed mah woman. From now on, you gointuh eat whutever mah money can buy uh and wear de same. When Ah ain’t got nothin’ you don’t git nothin’." Tea Cake demonstrates his strong sense of masculinity by making "his woman," Janie, financially dependent on him. He takes pride in being able to provide for a woman who has lived such a privileged life. Although Janie never seems conflicted about living a poor life with Tea Cake, she kind of has to agree to live by what he provides or severely damage his pride. Also Janie likes that feeling of finally having someone who wants to support her.
With Tea Cake, Janie was freer of playing both gender roles. She had the money from Joe so she didn’t need him financially but she did need him emotionally. She was finally in love. He made her feel valuable, gave her love and security. He treats her equal to him, something that her other husbands didn’t do. First thing he does is teach her to play checkers because he believes in her intelligence and that makes her feel valuable. “He set it up [checkers] and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play. That was even nice.” (Hurston 95-96¬) Tea Cake shows his pride and strong masculinity for providing financially for his women when the tells Janie to “put dat two hundred back wid de rest, Janie. Mah dice. Ah no need no assistance tuh help me feed mah woman. From now on, you gointuh eat whatever mah money can buy uh and wear de same. When Ah ain’t got nothin’ you don’t git nothin’” (Hurston 128). Tea Cakes breaks the gender boundaries when he ask Janie to work on the field with him and he “would help get supper afterwards” (Hurston 133). This marriage is different because they become a team rather doing the work based on their gender roles. Although Tea Cake seem like the perfect husband for Janie, he took the abusive trait from Joe of showing that he was Janie’s owner: