Examples Of Autonomy In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their marriage was not passionate. It did not entail a complete commitment. “Naw, Jody, its jus’ looks lak it keeps us in someway we ain’t natural wid one ‘nother. You’se always off talkin’ and fixin’ things, and ah feels lak Ah’m jus’ markin’ time”(Page 46). Jody hardly ever spent time with Janie.

He sees her as nothing but a possession and expects her to work hard on his farm. Janie is unhappy in this marriage, and it signals the beginning of her journey towards independence as she realizes

By watching the springtime occurrences, Janie comes to realize the emotional connection and physical duality she wants in her future marriage. Nanny promised that Janie would come to love Mr. Killicks naturally. But when that doesn’t happen after a year of marriage, Janie becomes disillusioned with romance and more pessimistic in her outlook. She’s given up on her springtime marriage.

Janie tells Joe “And now you got tuh die tuh find out dat you got tuh pacify somebody besides yo’self if you wants any love and any sympathy in dis world. You ain’t tried tuh pacify nobody but yo’self. Too busy listening tuh yo’ own big voice.” (Pg 87) Janie thinks very little of Joe.

(Hurston 55). Jody’s determination to keep Janie safe and protect her from other men causes Janie to be upset. Janie feels as if her only purpose “was there in the store for him to look at, not those others'' (55).

In the entirety of their marriage, up until Joe’s death, his attitude demoralized and objectified Janie as a person- failing to treat her as an equal. Following her husband's death, Janie sought out her independence by slowly departing herself from the authority Joe left behind,

One of the key displays of feminism in the novel is through Janie's relationships

Having never fully formed it in years past, the silencing of her opinions and lack of a community to support her actively works against her search for identity. However, once Jody passes, Janie is free from the oppressive stereotypes that he had placed upon her and is free to express herself. This shift in mentality can be seen through her change in physical

Janie is the symbol of feminism and independence for women in the novel and shows her heroism in many instances. Some of her heroic qualities include determination, empathy, and

Therefore, Hurston proves her belief that males feel the need to overpower women and show their dominance (Telgen and Hile 306). At the beginning of the novel, Janie is under inferior to men and allows them to be the boss of her. She lives under their shadows. Joe states that “she’s [Janie] a woman and her place is in de home” (43).

However, their relationship does not prove to achieve Janie’s dreams. As their relationship begins to deteriorate, it is stated, “The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired” (71). Janie emphasizes the lack of physical intimacy and passion in her marriage with Joe. She used to find joy and

As Claire Crabtree puts it “ The three marriages and the three communities in which Janie moves represent increasingly wide circles of experience and opportunities for expression of personal choice”(Crabtree).The first relationship with Logan was the most significant because it was the one most different from the way Janie had lived her life up until she met Logan. Janie grew up in a white person’s backyard and she was sheltered from the real world. Janie never had to work for anything in her life. This lifestyle was very uncommon for people of color. They often didn’t get along too well with white people.

This relationship is where we see Janie as not autonomous due to her not making the decision to leave the relationship. Janie is commonly mistreated by Starks and is physically and emotionally abused during this time. Janie tries to talk to townspeople on the porch of the couple’s store but is met with a jealous Joe who wants Janie all to himself. Joe acts like he owns Janie and controls her by telling her what, and what not to do. When Joe is elected mayor, the town wants Janie to give a small speech.

He becomes paranoid and tries to attack Janie so she shots her husband to protect herself. At the end of the book, Janie finishes telling her tragic love story to her best friend. Zora Neale Hurston uses figurative language to explain to the readers Janie's search for love and her struggles through her life in doing so. She gives us an image of Janie being a woman who has been through marriage three times already and has lost love through either death or

She expected to obey for her husband like others. “He ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store” reveals that she did everything to his happiness not for her. Even though she is a wife of a mayor, she didn’t get any privilege rather she lost her social relationship with other people. She lived under the dominance of her husband