Character Analysis Of Janie In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale

Throughout Janie's life, she was told what to pertaining to her body and decisions. People around her in Eatonville criticized many of her choices, especially her deciding to live with Tea Cake. This decision, caused a whirlwind of events that start with Janie realizing that she could make her own choices, and that her life didn't belong to anyone else. She journeys from being an object to a respected person, and it all begins--and ends-- in Eatonville. In the community, Janie was the subject of criticism about her beauty as a result of jealousy. Women of the town would comment, asking "what she doin coming back here in dem overalls...what dat ole forty year ole 'oman doin' wid her hair swingin' down her back." (2) To make up for what they

She saw a picture of the other children around her, but another child was present that she did not recognize. She noted that she "couldn't recognize dat dark chile as me," (9), and upon asking she is told that "dat's you, Alphabet, don't you know yo' ownself?' (9) Janie assumed that she was just like the white children around her and did not realize she had a different place in society based on her darker skin. From childhood, she was put into a box of who she was without the opportunity to define it herself, which set her up to be seen as inferior in marriage. She was an object to be identified and categorized, and if she didn't know who she was herself, then how could she know what she

Mayor Starks, a woman placed on a pedestal of power. A woman on a pedestal, though, is not considered to be like everyone else. If she is a trophy to be protected from the dirty things in the world, then her own autonomy is at risk, as objects that are venerated aren't offered their own agency. Joe himself shows this when he refuses to let Janie accompany him to the dragging-out. He explains she wouldn't want to be around "everybody in uh passle pushin' and shovin' wid they no-manners selves? Naw, naw!" (60) Joe sees Janie as a thing that he has to keep from being stained by lower class individuals. He doesn't want her "goin' off in dat mess uh commonness," (60) because "de mayor's wife is somethin' diffferent." (60) She is different from other women in the town, since she is not seen as human but as a possession of Joe's that he may show off and control as he