How The Black Heroine In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neal Hurston

In her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston portrays the story of a black heroine named Janie who seeks to find confirmation of herself through vision and voice. Janie struggles with the visions not only Nanny have, but also by the three different men in whom she marries of how she should live her life. During the 1930’s, women were not able to have their own voice and had to submit to the restrictions of being a woman at the time. Even though she toils with having to find her own vision and voice, Janie finds herself through her mangled relationships and is, therefore, able to gain control over her own vision and voice.
Janie’s relationship with Nanny affects Janie’s vision and voice in a distinctive way. Nanny goes through a life of turmoil and sees Janie’s life as a gateway for her to the unforeseen freedom and happiness which she never had. Nanny says, “Ah wants to see you married right away” (Hurston 12). She forces Janie to marry Logan Killicks, who is

Once appointed Mayor of Eatonville, Starks diminishes Janie’s voice and uses her as another possession in which he has control over, “Mah wife don’t know nothin’ bout no speech-makin’. She’s a woman and her place is in de home” (Hurston 43). Starks speaks without any regard to Janie’s voice leading her to a marriage of silence. Though Starks wants complete submissiveness from Janie to him, she does not fully submit to his empowerment. She comes to realize her inner self and learns how to master her own voice, “Dat’s just whut Ah wants tuh say, Jody. You wouldn’t listen. You done lived with me for twenty years and don’t half know me at all” (Hurston 86). While Starks is dying Janie revives her voice that had been muted for so long letting Starks know that he muted her, which caused them to never fully know each other. Through Sparks, Janie realizes the impact in which another individuals voice can have on the outcome of another person’s