Preview

Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie Character Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1291 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie Character Analysis
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hursten the main character, Janie, has trouble finding her true love. Though Janie marries two different husbands whose character are completely divergent, she has yet to find someone who makes her happy even though she doesn’t know the true meaning of love.
Janie's grandma wanted Janie to get married for her protection before she dies because she wouldn't be able to take care of Janie for long. So Granny planned Janie to marry Logan Killicks, even though Janie disagreed because she didn't understand the meaning of love. Janie thought that after she marries Logan, she would soon fall in love with him. Yet, Janie still doesn't love Logan. One day Janie had a girl talk with Granny about Logan. She mentions that she doesn't like the way he looks. For instance, "his belly is too big, and his toenails look like mule foots." (Ch.3 P.24) This shows that Janie favors looks more than protection.
…show more content…
He had ceased to wonder at her long black hair and finger it." (Ch.4 pp.1) One day Logan left to go purchase a mule while Janie stayed at home. As she was relaxing in the barn she heard "whistling coming down the road." (Ch.4 P.27) It was a man who was dressed fancy that didn't belong in the parts where Janie lived. The man was so focused on where he was going, Janie wanted to catch his attention by, jerking the pump handle hard while she pumped so it'll make a loud noise. The man "looked hard and the asked her for a cool drink of water." This shows that Janie knew this man was rich and wanted to "talk" to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    embody the very things that Janie is seeking in life, but he very quickly turns out to be as…

    • 1762 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie. finds herself. and discovers her. voice through her. marriages with Joe Starks, Tea Cake, and Logan Killicks. Each of. her relationships. bring her. closer to. her goal. of finding. love. Janie is. a girl. who. lived the. majority of. her life as others thought. she should. as a black. woman. When she was very young, her mother abandoned her and. her. Nanny raised. her. Nanny holds. a very. strict moral. code, and has specific. ideas about. African American. and gender. roles in. society.…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston exposes the story of the love life of Janie. The relationship between Janie and her third husband, Tea Cake, was above and beyond the most positive of the three relationships with men she had and summoned forth her best assets. The relationships she had with these three men permitted her to be subjected to her first true love, expand her knowledge of working and taking care of herself, and discover a new culture/society.…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A month after Nanny died Janie realized that being married to Logan was not going to bring about love. Zora Neal Hurston states “The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman”(25). Janie came to the realization that she does not want Logan, and Janie’s experience with being married to Logan had crushed her dream. Janie becoming a woman at the death of her dream means that womanhood is about hardship, and Janie had now experienced the hardship of womanhood. Janie Ultimately does not love Logan, and she now realizes that love cannot be learned with…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Janie’s strength and personality are clearly represented in three different ways. First is the first symbol her hair represents, whiteness. In Chapter 19, Mrs. Tuner is racist of all and anything related to “Negroes” except when the “Negroes” show a trait of whiteness. Mrs. Tuner sought Janie as a friend because of Janie’s “coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair” that showed the symbol of whiteness within Janie. She worshipped Janie since that hair brought out a sense of white power that Janie uses, which disrupts the balance between two themes within the novel – white over black, and male over female.…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Logan Killicks was Janie’s first husband and Janie does not have any emotional or physical attraction towards him. In a marriage Janie wanted to love the person but she could not love him no matter…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the story Hurston uses different men to portray the continuum that men fall into in their society. Janie's marriage to Logan Killicks seems like the first stage in her development as a woman. She hopes that her forced marriage with Logan would end her loneliness and desire for love. Right from the beginning, the loneliness in the marriage shows up when Janie sees that his house feels like a "lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where nobody had ever been" (Hurston 20). This description of Logan's house seems symbolic of the relationship they have. Janie eventually admits to Nanny that she still does not love Logan and cannot find anything to love about him. "She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman" (Hurston 24). Janie's prayer seems like her final plea for a change in her life. She says, "Lawd, you know mah heart. Ah done de best Ah could do. De rest is left to you" (Hurston 23).…

    • 921 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though she is skeptical of it being true, Nanny and others have her convinced that it may be a possibility, so she believes that it must be true. But she doesn’t want to be alone for her whole life so she decides to walk out on faith and hope for the best. “Yes she would love Logan after they were married. She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so. Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that’s what marriage meant. It was just so. Janie felt glad of the thought, for then it would seem so destructive and moldy. She wouldn’t be lonely anymore.”…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Men would not have life without women, and women would not have life without men, therefore the importance of both genders are mutually just as important as the other one. Gender roles are vastly different and society treats them differently as well. Society makes women believe that they can not live their life at all without a man constantly in it. Women also start to believe that they always need a man in their life to make them happy and keep them company. This leads to women having low self esteem and unhealthy relationships. Janie in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” shows women how much more important it is to be strong and independent rather than relying on other people.…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    All throughout Their Eyes were Watching God, the main character, Janie, seems to swoon over her third husband Tea Cake. She’s obsessed with the fact that he makes her feel worthy or even smart unlike her other husbands, Joe and Logan. He actually takes the time to teach her how to play checkers, something she was never allowed to do. Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods also makes Janie young and spontaneous. Their adventure filled relationship make her glow inside. To the sudden night fishing trip, to romantic picnics, even to dancing until her feet hurt at Jacksonville clubs.They way he cuddled up to her scratching her head and petting her hair make her feel beautiful and loved deeply. All these factors may all make Tea Cake seem like a “good” man, but Janie really fails to narrate or even look into his cons, which happen to big ones overcasting his pleasant traits. He’s stolen her money without her permission, caught practically cheating on Janie with another…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He invites her to play checkers on the porch as Joe never had, "and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play." Perhaps most significantly, "Look how she had been able to talk with him right off!" ("Their Eyes Were Watching God."). This shows how Janie is no longer being oppressed of her speech like she was when she was with Joe.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Joe is jealous of Janie because she’s an attractive young lady and all the men flirt with her and “droll” over her. “Maybe he makes her do it. Maybe he skeered de rest of us mens might touch it round dat store.”(p.50) One day Janie was working in the store that Joe and her own, she had her hair dangling down when Joe saw one of the men playing in Janie’s hair so Joe ordered Janie to wear a hair wrap. One day Joe called Janie off the croquet grounds and said to her,”Dat’s somethin’ for de young…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Not only did the men in Janie’s life oppress her self-growth and independence as a women, Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, was also another influential figure in Janie’s life who negatively shaped how she thought about marriage, gender stereotypes, and race. At a young age, Janie was lectured by Nanny when she tried to resist an arranged marriage to an older man, Logan Killicks. Nanny responded to her granddaughter’s refusal by slapping her and then telling her that "Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it's some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don't know nothin' but what we see…De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see" (Hurston 14). This advice, which not only dismissed African-Americans as being equals to people of white decent, but also objectified women, specifically black women like Janie herself, stuck with her for many years of her life. Janie’s hesitation to assert herself sooner in her toxic relationship with Joe Starks can be primarily credited to Nanny’s advice and how that impacted Janie’s character. The cause and effect that Nanny had on her can be shown following the death of…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As a woman, at times it can feel as if society has deemed conflicting roles upon us that we are expected to fulfill all at once. Historically, most cultures have honored the “home keeper” role in which we are expected to take care of our husbands and families. However, as time passes and ultimately, norms and customs evolve, women are more inclined to seek careers that establish an individual sense of purpose. While there are tons of women who successfully handle both the role of nurturer while fulfilling their own, separate goals, how does a woman distinguish how to meet the needs of one role while not feeling as if they are neglecting the other? In Zora Neale Hurston 's novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, the main character, Janie Crawford, tells the story of her life through her three marriages, yet still, leading to the discovery of her own true self. Thought to be a “mirror” of Hurston 's own life, the ending of the novel is in contradiction to her reality, in which she chooses her career over the man she loves.…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    She meets Joe Starks, an opportunistic individual with big dreams of becoming mayor of a small, unknown town by rebuilding it into a flourishing one. Janie decides that with Joe Starks, she can start anew and search for happiness. Janie had no influence over her life with Logan, so she flings off her apron binding her to Logan and with this new freedom, runs off with Joe. Joe does not “represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizons” which intrigued Janie all the same (29). Little does she realize, being with Joe does not yield happiness. In fact, Joe is both possessive and controlling over Janie’s every action as they are actions that “should” or “should not” be done by the mayor’s wife. Joe expects Janie, as the mayor’s wife, to be set apart from the others. Sitting on a chair of power and authority that Joe placed her on, Janie inspires both “awe and envy” from the townspeople, but she could never “get but so close to most of them in spirit” making her feel “far away from things and lonely” (46). Janie seems like she now has power and influence, but she does not have any over her personal life. Joe controls her, and as a result none of the townspeople truly know what Janie is like and think that she “always did class off” (112). However, it is Joe who classes her off . He restricts Janie and takes charge of her actions, especially…

    • 1515 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays