Personification In Their Eyes Were Watching God

After being with Joe she realizes that this marriage lacks a good partnership. Joe was able to control Janie and all those great qualities she saw In the beginning of the marriage vanished. He was no longer giving her the attention she wanted and stopped complimenting her. Joe was even abusive towards her, which she could do nothing about. Janie began to feel miserable, as well as trapped because she wanted to leave, but had no where to go.

Because her grandmother’s past experiences including slavery and rape, all she wants for Janie is security. This security takes form through Brother Logan Killicks, the farmer with sixty acres of land . Although Janie does not love him, she wants to respect her grandmother’s wishes and pushes down her own opinions. Janie comes to later regret her decision of entering the loveless marriage that she feels her Grandmother emotionally pushed onto her. Logan is an older man, and he is used to his life on the farm expecting Janie to follow suit.

Through her experience with Logan, Janie feels bewildered, as she realizes that he does not fulfill her emotional needs and desires. Janie learns that love and marriage should not be based solely on financial security and stability. Logan Killicks represents her loss of dreams in regard to love and marriage.

Young Janie’s first marriage was with a man named Logan Killicks. It was not Janie’s choice to marry him, but was her grandmother’s request. Janie said she would learn to love him, but never does because Logan was repulsing to Janie and he eventually put her through manual labor. Even so,

Janie states that her “‘own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room for yours in me’”(Hurston 87) portraying the relationship and power dynamics Janie has with her second husband. There is a shift in power dynamics because Janie chose to express her feelings in the most vulnerable state that Joe Starks was in. She makes her way towards the mirror and “had told her girl self to wait for her.” The little girl that she once saw had now become “a handsome woman” that “had taken her place”(Hurston 87). For Janie, Joe Starks was a lesson and a stepping stone to guide her path to finding herself in her relationships and where she stands as an individual.

Zora establishes exposition through storytelling of Janie’s past marriages and traumatizing events. The conflict in, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” was that Janie’s desire for love was eradicated when her first two marriages failed bitterly. When she did move onto, Tea Cake, she was scared to love him. The tone of this book was somber and effusive.

Janie was held back on a lot of her life just because she was trying to live her life for someone else, and she made a decision that her grandmother wanted her to do. She married a man that her grandmother introduces her to, not by choice, her grandmother thought that was the best bet for her. Janie first husband

Janie allowed her voice to be controlled by her lust in her relationship with Joe causing her to be unable to express her opinions to him. She let everything he did to her pass, “ no matter what Jody did, she did nothing” (76). She hopes

Janie is by herself when we first and last see her. The book is about her quest for a stable sense of independence rather than her search for a romantic relationship. Analyzing Janie's language use and relationship to her own voice allows you to see how she changes over time. The unusual linguistic style of Hurston's novel, especially her command of the rural Southern Black speech, is much recognized.

When Janie doesn't have control over her story, the town’s assumptions about her lead to her isolation. Janie has just gotten back from Jacksonville after Tea Cake’s funeral when she passes the women from Eatonville sitting on their

Janie shows determination as she persists and struggles to define love on her own terms through her marriages. First, her determination shows when Janie runs away with Jody. She becomes aware that her marriage with Logan does not satisfy her goals and dreams for love, so she takes a chance and marries Jody. Hurston states, “Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south.

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).

Janie’s courtroom case showed that lack of respect her fellow town mates tend to obtain. “ …the courtroom scene, in Chapter 19, after which Janie is comforted by white women but scorned by her black friends” (SparkNotes-Themes). Despite feeling disowned, Janie kept faith internally because her independence and care for herself made her realize that whatever effect comes along the way, she will have closure. Living for one-self motivates Janie to live the life that she never had the opportunity to live due to living under individuals that betrayed her destination for

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is a main character whose outward existence conforms, and her inward life questions. This tension helps to evolve the author’s theme of the importance of individuality and how individuality creates happiness. Janie experiences most of her life in trying to conform, and grows to despise it. Once free, she becomes herself and becomes happy. Early in the novel, Janie marries Logan Killicks.

Self-expression is a form of empowerment which Janie demonstrates throughout the novel as her confidence grows. When Janie expresses her emotions and thoughts, she comes to know herself. Throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God, as a young married wife, Janie is constantly patronized and overruled by Joe’s wishes. Her inability to make her own decisions prevented her from forming connections with the people around her. At one point Janie chimes into a discussion being held by Joe and some of the other men in the town.