Character Analysis Of Janie In 'Their Eyes Were Watching God'

Janie was now able to breathe. Nothing was holding Janie back anymore, and the possibility to learn about herself and what she wanted in life stimulated Janie, even at her age. Furthermore, after Joe’s death, it took some time for Janie to show interest in another man. Nothing regarding Joe, mainly because Janie didn’t want to settle down with another man that doesn’t treat her the way she wants to be treated. “You wants to be keerful ‘bout who you marry, Mis’ Starks.

https://prezi.com/lskays0kapua/janie-crawfords-journey/ First Clue Location: Classroom Note card: Today you will be retracing the steps of the character Janie Crawford from the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Throughout the class period you will be traveling to all the places she lived during the book and get a glimpse into her journey of self-discovery. The first place to visit is where Janie grows up, West Florida. To get to West Florida, go out of the classroom, turn left out of the classroom and go through the doors. Once outside turn right and look for a tree that contains the directions to get to the next city.

When Janie sees that Logan does not give her the affection and care she’s always wanted she allows herself to be wooed by Joe Starks. Swoon by his fanciful promises, Janie elopes with Joe and goes to a new town named Eatonville. There she earns herself the position of mayor’s wife. She lives a high lifestyle with Joe, but again lacks that needed affection. Joe starts to stop caring about her and focuses on his grocery store, his ambition, and his pride.

Janie’s first marriage is one she is forced into for stability, at at this time she has not discovered who she is or what she wanted from a marriage. Janie marries Logan Killicks she is still a teenager. Nanny forces Janie to marry Logan because the amount of land that Logan had, which would provide Janie with stability . Janie is an orphan who lives with her elderly grandmother. During this time in america , women needed marriage to be stable because they were not able to work.

I totally understand Janie I will also be scared. After Janie leaves she prays to god to care for Janie. A month later Nanny dies. A year passes Janie still feels no love for Logan. I was sad for Nanny death because that is the only person Janie actually has in her life.

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford experiences many hardships that lead to her eventual satisfaction and fulfillment. As a young girl, Janie always felt she was missing a part of herself which could not be found through self advocated discovery alone, but by the presence of a companion that provided her with affection. As she sheds the majority of her innocence through various abusive marriages at an extremely young age, Janie’s dream may have been altered, but never ceased to exist. There was always hope in Janie’s mind that she would find a man that helped her complete herself, and allow her to become liberated from the tiring desire of discovering love for herself. As stated by Farah Mahmood Abbas,

Their Eyes were Watching God Janie comes to her first doubtless questions about life. This evidence appears in her times when she was sitting under a blossoming pear tree in her back-yard, spending most of her day in a spring afternoon. A lot of bizarre things were coming up on her life, questioning about the meaning of love and life. By the metaphor of the tree, it makes her questioning about what and how her life will goes on.

She realizes that despite her thinking she married someone she was in love with she was never truly herself. She had to change in order for Joe to love, or even have affection for her and that wasn’t even enough for him in the marriage. He only wanted power and that was his town as mayor and power over Janie as a person. The death of Joe and end of that marriage left Janie free to find herself as a person something that for twenty years she was not allowed to do.

Jody controlled major aspects of Janie’s life, such as her appearance, when he forces her to keep her hair up. Janie does not like that Jody feels the need to control her: “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it... that was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was” (Hurston 55).

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, we follow our protagonist, Janie, through a journey of self-discovery. We watch Janie from when she was a child to her adulthood, slowly watching her ideals change while other dreams of hers unfortunately die. This is shown when Jane first formulates her idea of love, marriage, and intimacy by comparing it to a pear tree; erotic, beautiful, and full of life. After Janie gets married to her first spouse, Logan Killicks, she doesn’t see her love fantasy happening, but she waits because her Nanny tells her that love comes after marriage. Janie, thinking that Nanny is wise beyond her years, decides to wait.

Logan Killicks was just the beginning for Janie, leaving her with the realization she first developed herself as a woman with him. Joe Starks gave her only what she had thought was love. Janie was left in a dark place until she developed the courage in regards to standing up for herself, and voicing her opinion to Joe. Joe’s death later in the novel, was a door opening for Janie. She could be free of the pain and continue her development as a woman through courage.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie suffers from hardship in two relationships before she can find her true love. Janie explains to her best friend, Pheoby, how she searches for love. Therefore Pheoby wants to hear the true story, rather than listening to the porch sitters. Throughout the book Janie experiences different types of love with three different men; Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Vergible "Tea Cake" Woods. At 16 Janie marries Logan Killicks.

This eventually led to Joe’s death, where afterwards Janie was free to do as she pleases and let her hair down. After the death of a husband, it was usual for the wife to wear black while grieving.

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Janie, is influenced by others to change her ideals. Hurston vividly portrays Janie’s outward struggle while emphasising her inward struggle by expressing Janie’s thoughts and emotions. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening the protagonist is concisely characterized as having “that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions,” as Janie does. Janie conforms outwardly to her life but questions inwardly to her marriages with Logan Killicks, her first husband, and Joe Starks, her second husband; Janie also questions her grandmother's influence on what love and marriage is.

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston explains the journey of Janie, the main character,who struggles to find her independence and a place where she feels comfortable. She undertakes a bold journey to find her own self. She goes through several relationships, thinking they would somehow fulfill her life, but all fail because Janie does not feel content or the relationship leads to the death of a spouse. In the end, Janie uses her desire for power and independence for freedom to reveal that she does not need an unpleasant relationship to fulfill and appreciate her search for her true self. First, Janie struggles with her relationship with her first husband, Logan.