Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis Essay

Janie didn 't start living until Joe died and she met Teacake. With Teacake Janie felt alive, they understood and respected each other. Their marriage was full of love and compassion, two things that Janie always wanted. Her marriage with Teacake ended in a tragedy, but Janie felt like she lived a life full of new beginnings, and she was content with that. All the men in Janie’s life

She could no longer take the abuse from Jody any longer. She confronted him in the middle of the store and strikes back. She insulted his “maleness that all men cherish” (Hurston 79). Jody struck Janie “with all his might and drove her from the store” (Hurston 80).

Jody values Janie as a trophy wife. Leadership and dignity cause Joe to neglect Janie. This neglect is evident at the earliest stages of their relationship. When Joe and Janie are newlyweds traveling to Eatonville, Joe’s ambitions drive him. Unlike Logan killicks, Joe does not “make many speeches with rhymes to [Janie]”

Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid.” She let herself experience an intense level of fascination towards relationships, and because her grandma was encouraging this, it seemed justified. In her eyes, it’s completely normal for somebody to chase after another person for the sake of just being in a relationship, which can be distracting and overwhelming to

Joe hides his fear of losing Janie behind the idea that women have no place in the "mess uh commonness" (Hurston) that this mockery of a funeral will bring together. What Janie doesn’t realize is that when Joe is dominating her, he is keep her physically but he’s also losing her

As time progresses, Janie and Joe’s relationship goes from arguably unloving to abusive. After Joe beats Janie for the first time, “She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she knew that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams.

This quote shows how as the story progresses Janie continues to discover more about herself and more about what she thinks is important when it comes to discussing love. She realizes she strongly dislikes her grandmother for putting ideas in her

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.

At first, he started off as a loving husband who really, just gave up not even a year into the marriage because he saw her as lazy. “Long before the year was up, Janie noticed her husband had stopped talking in rhymes to her. He had ceased to wonder at her long black hair and finger it.” (Ch 2. P. 26)

Next, after Logan she finds a man who she actually is attracted to; his name was Joe Starks. Janie thought he was the one she was looking for but as time went on she realized she could be living better. Janie, over their 20 year marriage began to lose love for him and on chapter 7, pg.77 she says “His prosperous- looking belly that used to thrust out so pugnaciously and intimidate folks, sagged like a load suspended from his loins.” Eventually Joe died from stomach cancer and now she was a widow and had to pretend like she cared in front of the people of her town.

Janie’s life story begins by her explaining that her grandmother raised her after her mother ran off. Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, loved her granddaughter took care of her as if she was her own after her mother walked out on her. Nanny was raised as a slave and with her being raised as a slave she had a very different viewpoint of what she wanted Janie’s life to be. After seeing Janie kiss Johnny Taylor by the fence, Nanny had a conversation with Janie about how she

It didn’t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was.” (Hurston 55). Joe Starks always controlled Janie. In this relationship Janie learned to become emotionally strong, and stand up for herself.

Hurston uses Nanny’s dialect to shut down and invalidate Janie’s feelings of regret about her marriage, resulting in the emphasis on the effect that Nanny’s ideals have on

He became materialistic, which was complete contrast from his positive, big hearted Joe. What we learn about Joe is that he is very superficial, he is charmed by Slemmons and easily fooled by people’s façade. Consequently, the conflict intensifies as Joe intends to show of Missie May to Slemmons in the opening of the ice cream parlor. In the text he says, “Go ‘head on now, honey and put on yo’ clothes.

Hurston creates an aura of self-acceptance and self-love. Thereafter, Hurston describes the transition of her life when she moves to Jacksonville,