What Does Janie's Search For Identity In Their Eyes Were Watching God

In Zora Neal Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the protagonist, goes through a difficult journey of finding herself. She utilizes marriage, love, and her own flare of feminism to figure out her own definition of individuality. Throughout the novel it takes Janie three marriages and a lot of heartache, for her to finally realize what is best for her along with who she truly wants to be. Janie realizes that sometimes she needs to live for Janie. Any one that will deny her of her voice and individuality does not need to have a factor in her life. This Journey is long and confusing but Janie makes through the trials and tribulations to pass the story on to her nosey porch sitters.

Janie begins her story living with her grandmother

who is a former slave. Nanny is Janie’s only parent she has ever known. Nanny’s dream is for her granddaughter to have security in her future. Some may say that Nanny was wrong for forcing Janie into a loveless marriage, and willingly deceiving Janie on the true concepts of love, but in Nanny’s eyes she is only trying to keep her grandbaby safe and secure. Nanny loves Janie and only wants her to have what she does not have. Nanny believes that it is her obligation to give her the life Janie deserves Nanny. It may seem that Janie is dependent on her Nanny, but the reality is that they both need each other. Each other is all they have. Nanny’s biggest fear is that she lets the same thing that happened to her and Janie’s mother to happen to Janie. Nanny wanted this trend to end. That is why Nanny insisted that Janie marry Logan Killicks, claiming that loving him will happen sooner or later. Nanny wants a ‘bona fide’ man with 60 acres and enough money for the both for man and wife. Nanny does not necessarily want Logan but as she says “’Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, its protection.” (Hurston)
Janie’s marriage to Logan was Hurston’s first plunge into feminism. To Janie, Logan was a disgusting old man with absolutely no knowledge on how to love or treat a woman. In many aspects Janie sees him as a flat character that does not even have the manners to wash his feet before coming to bed. Janie comes home three months after marrying Logan. Janie’s reveals to her nanny that she is still not in love with Logan, even after three months of marriage. On the outside Nanny makes it clear that the love Janie wishes for may or may not happen. Logan takes no time in telling Janie that she has a man like him. Jennifer Jordan, author of Feminist Fantasies believes that “The new emphasis on self-fulfillment in the literature of black women writers has not eliminated from black feminist discourse the sixties' insistence on the political accountability of literature and the demand for the inclusion in the literature of a racial tradition of communalism.” The nature of that accountability for black feminist has changed because of this book. First of all, there are not a lot of books that want a call for a literature in which women “have pivotal relationships with one another,” achieve a feminine bonding, and arrive at “liberation through [their] sisters.” This problem becomes evident throughout the novel and is first sparked as early as Janie’s marriage to Logan. (Hurston) (Jordan)
Although Logan may have had feelings for Janie, they were not enough to keep Janie away from the smooth talk of Joe “Jody” Starks. One can easily see what Joe thinks a woman should be. From the beginning, Joe makes known that he desires to be "a big voice." As found in “Notable African American Writers” Janie has no voice in her community. “She has no identity”. The unnamed author claims that “[Janie] finds love and self-identity only by rejecting the life that [Joe] forces her to live.” After becoming mayor, Joe’s character drastically changes. The power that Joe obtains goes straight to his head. Janie’s eyes Joe just becomes a big voice that does not know the true way of showing love and understanding. With this voice, Joe makes his opinions loudly known, often forcing everyone in earshot to his commands to immediately bow down. He believes that because he is smarter than the average Joe, it gives him the right to treat everyone as if they were just mere peasants and he is the King. As Joe ages, it’s evident that speaking with the ruling tongue has taken a toll on the man; his body disintegrates. By the end of his life, Janie speaks up and lays out all of Joe’s crimes to him while he is on his deathbed. Like the ignorant man he was, Joe refuses to listen and dies cursing Janie. Even throughout this broken marriage Janie still manages to come away with something helpful to her individuality. After Joe’s death Janie realizes she can have freedom, she can have a voice, and she can finally find her true identity, and her journey is just beginning. (Notable African American Writers) (Hurston)
After the death of Joe Starks Janie comes across a man who is charming, and lives by the minute, Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods.

Hurston’s use of language parallels Janie’s quest to find her voice. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. a well known historian, writer and book critique writes in the afterword of Their Eyes Were Watching God states that he is primarily concerned “with the project of finding a voice, with language as an instrument of injury and salvation, of selfhood and empowerment.” Joe forbids Janie from speaking when he prevents her from talking after he is named mayor. Janie’s hatred for Joe stems from the constant suppression of her individuality. Even Tea Cake knows that this kind of treatment is not fit for a respectable and smart woman like Janie. Tea Cake, on the other hand, engages her speech, like a normal human being. Tea cake converses with her and puts him on equal terms with her. The love he has for Janie branches from his respect for her individuality. Tea cake was the one. Janie truly loved Tea Cake, and Tea Cake truly loved Janie. Despite what anyone else has to say about their relationship, it was true love and true love lives on forever. As written in Black Women’s Blues; A Literary Anthology, Hurston touches on several aspects of sexism including feminism. In regards to Janie’s beauty and basic rights as a woman “[Joe] jealously guards [Janie’s] beauty as if it were something he owns”, but Tea Cake on the other hand sees Janie’s beauty as something that should be treated as fine china. For Tea cake, finding Janie was like winning the lottery. Tea Cake knew he was not good enough for Janie but he refused to let a day go by that he did not let her know how lucky he was. The amount of respect and courage Teacake gives Janie is what she ultimately uses to find her true meaning of existence, love. Gloria L. Cronin, one of many authors in the Encyclopedia of African Americans puts it perfectly “[It] really capture a classic text with its indirect and

direct allusions to feminism and individuality through marriage.” By briefly overlooking the fact that Janie eventually had to shoot her true love, Tea Cake, their relationship was a golden one. Unlike her previous marriages, this relationship was not one-sided. (Encyclopedia of African Americans) (Black Women’s Blues) (Hurston) (Gates Jr.)
Their Eyes Were Watching God is the story of how Janie achieves a strong sense of self and comes to appreciate her independence. But her journey toward enlightenment is not traveled alone. The gender differences that Hurston espouses require that men and women provide each other things that they need but do not possess. Janie sees a healthy relationship as being in love as equals. This theme of love and enlightenment are prominent in her relationship with Tea Cake, This elevates Janie into such happiness that even after Tea Cake is gone Janie is okay and content. She was glad to have true love in her life, even if it did not last forever. Although relationships are implied to be necessary to create a could be seen as Self centered, but Janie believes that finding herself along with herself worth is not as bad as the nosey porch sitters think it is. She frees herself from her unpleasant and abusive relationships with Logan and Jody. Those relationships were both draining emotionally, and physically, but the one thing those relationships did help with was Janie’s journey of finding herself. Through her relationship with Tea Cake, Janie experiences true fulfillment and enlightenment and becomes secure in her independence. She feels a deep connection to the world around her and even feels that the spirit of Tea Cake is with her. Even though by the end of the novel Janie is physically alone, she doesn’t feel alone. She has her everlasting true love given to her by Tea Cake.