Jody As A Hero In Their Eyes Were Watching God

The word “hero” is defined as “a person who is admired for courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities”. Many people in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” are considered heroes. Janie is considered a hero for taking control over her own life. Nanny is considered a hero for protecting Janie from the life that her, and her daughter had lived. Most of the men in the story are considered “the villain” of the story. Joe, otherwise known as Jody, is a perfect example. Joe was Janie’s second husband, who is automatically shown to the audience as an ambitious man. He moves Janie to a town that is made up of mostly African Americans. However, later on in the book the audience is shown that Joe is a selfish, arrogant, and cruel person. Jody is an

How they are detrimental to many people and their surroundings. We see this in the character Joe “Jody” Starks. Jody is first introduced to the audience as a hardworking man and would do anything to get the respect he deserves. After he takes Janie to the town and elects himself mayor, the audience starts to see the true Jody Starks. The arrogant, self-centered, insecure version of Jody. The reader sees how he treats Janie and how power hungry he becomes. The author is trying to show us how the power dynamic between a black man trying to make it big in life, and a fragile but stern black woman. As Joe gets older and starts treating Janie wrong, there was a time when they were arguing in the store and Janie snapped, “ ‘When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change uh life’”. Then we see the insecure side of Joe, as the author tells the reader, “Then Joe Starks realized all the meanings and his vanity bled like a flood…. But Janie had done worse, she had cast down his empty armor before men and they had laughed,” (79). All Joe wanted to be was respected and liked, even if that meant hurting a couple of people. He was slapped with the knowledge that “Boys Don’t Cry” and that is heavily shown throughout his

However, the whole purpose of an “Unlikey Hero” is that they have to have some background to why they are acting like a villan. With Joe it has been shown that he doesn’t like it when his manliness is made fun of. As a man who thinks he has achieved his “American Dream” by being the mayor of his town, having a successful store, but he still feels deep down that no one cares. All they care about, shown later on in the story, is how he is getting older and Janie still looks like a blossoming flower. Joe shows his insecurities by making fun of Janie, and this shows how, as a African American man, he feels like he has some sort of superiority over Janie. 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. Zora Neale Hurtson pokes fun at a lot of stereotypes that most African American men have to struggle with. With Joe, the reader can assume that he struggles with admiting that men need help and that they can cry too. This might stem from the fact that most African