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

918 Words4 Pages

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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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Janie has been through hard times, even as a young girl. She lived with her grandmother who took care of her because her mother ran off when she was young. It is because of her grandmother, who wants to be in control of Janie’s life and wants the best for her, that Janie ends up marrying a rich man and getting a good education. However, this is not what Janie really wants. Janie is more interested in happiness and love than being rich, high class, and educated.

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Janie’s skin color is lighter than most of the people in the book. Her mother was half white and half black and was raped by a caucasian man which created Janie. Janie had light skin, her light skin gave her many advantages such as more opportunities, people treating Janie kindly and also being more respected. Janie was treated differently by most of the people in her life such as Mrs. Turner. Mrs. Turner is a light skinned woman that was married to a dark skinned man.

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1109 Words | 5 Pages

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s flaws about love continuously brought her to the same ending with all of her husbands, no matter how long the marriage lasted. In The Odyssey, Calypso was trapped on an island to fall in love with men who washed ashore. The fatality of her faults was her over affection and her need for love while being so alone on her island, Ogygia. Their weaknesses are exact opposites, specifically in their relationships with men. The flaws are role in relationship, attachment to men, and lastly, their submissiveness to men.

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1364 Words | 6 Pages

Growing up, Janie was taught to keep quiet by society due to not only her race, but her gender. Keeping her hair from Society's eye was, in a way, keeping her voice from it, as well. “How about playin’ you some checkers? You looks hard tug beat. ’’Ah is, ‘cause At can't play uh lick.

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660 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Janie, is influenced by others to change her ideals. Hurston vividly portrays Janie’s outward struggle while emphasising her inward struggle by expressing Janie’s thoughts and emotions. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening the protagonist is concisely characterized as having “that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions,” as Janie does. Janie conforms outwardly to her life but questions inwardly to her marriages with Logan Killicks, her first husband, and Joe Starks, her second husband; Janie also questions her grandmother's influence on what love and marriage is.

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She was a rut in the road,” (Hurston 76). By this Janie was not well respected by Jody, she was not able to say how she felt. Considered being the wife of a rich man, she was treated less than

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574 Words | 3 Pages

Joe Starks uses the idea of living large to appeal to Janie; the idea of being taken care of, along with the ability to live with more freedoms convinced her to flee her first husband in hopes of finding the true love she yearned for. Starks obtained the title as mayor, displaying his status in the political hierarchy, to which she enjoyed happily; “Quote” accordingly, the theme of utilizing power to persuade a woman is displayed in both

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Janie takes a progressive, personal approach to growth and self-expression. She moves through her three marriages as they increase in opportunity and

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Joe is worried that the other men might touch Janie’s hair and he does not want that because he is really jealous. It is not right for Joe to tell Janie how to have her hair only because he his very jealous. Joe is also not a good husband because he just uses her as a trophy wife. The book says, “She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others” (55). He is just using Janie to look at in the store for his entertainment and nothing else.

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721 Words | 3 Pages

When Janie and Tea Cake move to the muck, she is first seen as a snobby wife who just sits around the house. “It was generally assumed that she thought herself too good to work like the rest of the women and that Tea Cake ‘pomped her up tuh dat’. But all day long the romping and playing they carried on behind the boss’s back made her popular right away” (133). An important step in Janie’s transformation involves her willingness to work in the fields along with the men. The symbolism of this action is that a gender barrier is broken and Janie shows a truly independent side of her.

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1660 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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1373 Words | 6 Pages

However, many times in the book, many of the characters have told Joe that Janie is too good for him. That she should leave him and get another man. Which would anger an insecure man, who feels that he needs to have all material things to have a good life. In this quote, “He didn’t really hate Janie, but he wanted her to think so” (81). It shows that he thinks that guilting people into thinking that he’s the victim, that people will start respecting him again.

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530 Words | 3 Pages

Janie reacts in different ways to people in her life trying to control her, and this can be seen with Grannie, Jody, and Tea Cake. Grannie forces her to marry Logan, but Janie stands up for herself when she decides to leave him after Grannie dies. Throughout the novel Janie is looking for love, and she

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697 Words | 3 Pages

The porch also gives a clear vision of the how segregation in this town of Eatonville. Men sat around on the porch and played games but women were not allowed to participate in these activities because it lacked “class.” However, clearly not all men are alike so when Tea Cake came along, Janie felt the freedom she never experienced in her past relationships. Even before meeting Tea Cake, the death of Joe exonerated Janie from the shackles that were placed on her individuality and "[she] did what she had never done before, that is, thrust herself into the conversation."

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585 Words | 3 Pages

Janie is both the narrator and the main character of her own story, and the way in which Janie's two styles of communication are used is integral to the illustration of the development of Janie's voice over time. During Janie's stifling marriage to Joe Starks, she is forced to be a woman of few words. Like her hair tied up with a rag, her voice is choked into silence by her controlling husband. Nonetheless, while her mouth is largely unmoving through large periods of her life, her brain is hardly unthinking. The separate ways in which Janie's thoughts and the dialogue of the story are presented emphasize the juxtaposition of Janie's internal self with her external reality.

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