Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

Throughout "Their eyes were watching God" , the theme of love plays a significant role as it is strongly connected to some of the main characters like Janie, Joe and Logan. In the story, the theme of love is being introduced by Janie's searching for true love and later in the story for equality with her husband, Jody. As the story goes on , Janie is initially attracted to Jody because she feels that he is the right individual for her. The true love that is not fulfilled through her first marriage to Logan. At first , she thinks of Jody as a very gentle man who treats her well and has a potential to be her true love that she's been looking for. However, when Jody comes in to be in charge in his town , Janie realizes that he becomes a different

person now. He now takes advantage of her and treat her as inferior to others. As a result, her love to Jody starts to fade as the events of story go on. The same applies for Logan and Janie. It is obvious how Janie's first marriage to Logan is not based on love, yet it is out of respect from Janie to her grandmother.

Furthermore, we can conclude from reading the story that Logan does not love Janie , and the other way around is true.

His love for her is all about cleaning up the house, helping him out plowing the field and doing the farming daily routines. As a result, Janie realizes that Logan is not the right man for her. She describes him as,"His belly is too big too, now, and his toe-nails look lak mule foots. And ‘tain’t nothin’ in de way of him washin’ his feet every evenin’ before he comes tuh bed. ‘Tain’t nothin’ tuh hinder him ‘cause Ah places de water for him. Ah’d ruther be shot wid tacks tan tuh turn over in de bed and stir up de air whilst he is in dere. He don’t even never mention nothin’ pretty." Obviously, there is no love between Logan and Janie because each one of them has different concepts of the meaning of love. On the other hand , the character of Joe comes in to the scene after the unsuccessful marriage of Janie and Logan. At first , Janie thinks of Joe as the promising man that she has been looking for. As the story goes on It turns out that Joe does not love Janie. For him , she is just a mean to show off in front of his companions. In addition, Janie realizes that Joe is now a complete mean person. After he comes in to be in charge of his town , he treats Janie as inferior. He intentionally tries to show her incompetence in front of his friends by asking her to do certain tasks she cannot do. In short, to Logan, definition of love for Janie is very confined

by doing the farming jobs ,whereas Joe's love for Janie is a lie , but it's more like a self love.