Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's Struggles

Their Eyes were Watching God tells the story of a young adult struggling to find who she is. Janie has had to deal with a lot of struggles. In the novel, it talks about how her family has struggled to get to the point to where they are (pg. 8-20). Later on, in chapter 2, Janie discovers she will be marrying an older man name Logan Killicks, after she was caught kissing Johnny Taylor (pg.15). He is very rich and he has land. Nanny wanted to make sure Janie was set up with the right person. One who would treat her well and one who doesn’t have to struggle for money or land. Janie has to struggle with being controlled. Her feelings are also very suppressed and she can’t be the real Janie she used to be. She also has her own way of defining her freedom. Janie meets a young man they call Tea Cake and she realizes so much in that time of being with him. Death also plays a huge factor in this novel and movie.

Janie was married off to Logan Killicks

by Nanny in the beginning of the third chapter. When she became married she felt more like a maid than a wife. She was doing all the cooking and cleaning. In the movie in the beginning scenes of being married, she even had to help out with planting crops. She feels trapped because this is what Nanny wanted. She always wanted to make Nanny proud. She is now living a privileged life and learning more life skills than she ever knew before. Logan has a lot of money and land so Nanny knew he would be a perfect fit. In Janie’s mind, love constitutes the central idea of marriage. In order for someone to marry, they have to be in love. This wasn’t the case with Janie and Logan. When she meets Jody, things changed for her. In the scene where she meets him, it’s love at first sight for her. He “talks the talk” but now she wonders if he can “walk the walk”. After she leaves Logan, Janie and Jody set off for an adventure in Eatonville. In the scene where they’re building the town, Janie and Jody are equal and very much in love. After a while of being Mr. and Mrs. Mayor Starks, things start to change. Men are looking at Janie and Jody isn’t having it. He makes her put her hair in a head rag and the beatings also begin. He makes her work in a store she absolutely hates. It’s difficult for her to do math so she doesn’t like working. They start fighting more and more. Janie takes beating, learns how to act in public, and sticks to a very strict schedule. She felt different than she did before.
Janie used to be full of live.

She used to love walking around town and she was a very happy person. In the novel, she would go sit by the pear tree but in the movie, she would go swim in the water. The suppressed her fun nature. Logan had her working hard and Jody would beat her and control her. She wasn’t allowed to go do anything fun. In the movie, she would even watch the men play checkers. Jody really shut her down when it came to her making a speech. In the novel he said, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’, Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home.” He is saying that she doesn’t make speeches and that he didn’t marry her for her speeches. She also belongs in the home doing what she is supposed to do. This really held her back and this was where things started to fall apart. She wasn’t allowed to let her hair down and this was a sign he was trying to control her. She had to suppressed her outside beauty to appease her

husband.