How Janie Crawford In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Many factors may cause or create a change in someone’s character. It’s usually from their relationships they have encountered in their life. Relationships good or bad can help shape a person’s character immensely, and from every relationship, a person’s character can be changed for the better or worse. The main character, Janie Crawford, in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston,had encountered several relationships that caused a positive and negative changes her character. Janie’s first husband, Jody Starks, and second husband, Tea Cake, both caused a change in her character. Jody made her dependent and impotent. However, Tea-Cake helped her became an independent and strong and potent women. Janie character change is

Unlike Jody, he was a straightforward man who wasn't wealthy. He was everything Janie wanted in a man. Tea-Cake gave Janie the independence to do whatever she wanted. he first met Janie when Hezekiah asked for the day off, so he could go play baseball. No one was at the store since everyone went to the ballgame, then Tea-cake showed up. He bought a cigarette, and then made small talk with her. He then invited her to play checkers which caught Janie by surprise, as the 3rd person omniscient explains “She found herself glowing inside” because “ somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it was natural for her to play checkers”(96). Janie felt really excited because no man, especially Jody Starks, had respected her enough to ask her to play checkers. This was the first event, where Tea cake gave Janie the independence and respect that no man ever gave her. Tea-cake also made Janie independence by respecting and remaining unthreatened by her empowerment. When they arrived at the Everglades, Tea-cake finds a job planting beans. They were living a comfortable, and unexpectedly Tea-Cake decides to teach Janie how to shoot and wasn't bothered about it, as evidence, the narrator explains “ Everyday they will practice. Tea-Cake made her shoot at little things just to give her a good aim. Pistol and shotgun and rifle. She got to be a better shot than Tea-Cake”(131). Janie been able to shoot a gun is

With Jody Starks, Janie became very dependent because Jody muffed her free spiritedness and did not allow her to speak her voice. Janie became helpless and powerless towards him. With Tea Cake, Janie became independent because he gave her the respect that she never got in a man. He also taught her how to shoot a gun, which made her potent and be in control of her life . Janie’s character change is important to the whole story because it shows how back in the 1930s women were easily controlled by men and how that a change of who they were as a person. However, Zola Neale Hurston shows how women can gain strength even after being put down and hurt by men. Like Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake, women can find a relationship in which both gender can provide for each other and not possesses over each other Also women become tough and mutually secure of their independence, just like the protagonist, Janie Crawford. Up to today, gender equality in relationships continues to be a problem. Women still feel control by men and not independent. However, if every women can become like Janie Crawford after going through many relationships that wasn't healthy, but in the end learn and become a strong independent and potent woman. Then every women in this world would be happy, achieve