Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's Dream

“Looking, waiting, breathing short with impatience. Waiting for the world to be made” (11). Janie’s first dream is love. She believes that with love she can feel complete and happy. However, it takes Janie three marriages to finally experience true love. With each marriage, Janie grows more self-aware and realizes what her true desires are. She wants to be with a man who makes her happy, but also treats her with the respect and dignity she deserves. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s independence grows as she yearns for true love through her three marriages. Janie’s willingness to do what others ask, leads to her being pressured into marriage at sixteen years old by her grandmother. Janie was beginning

Because Janie wanted to get away from Logan, she quickly decides to run away and marry Jody. At first Jody treats her wonderfully and has big ideas for their future. Soon, however, Janie realizes that Jody worries more about his reputation and ego then he does for her. He wants everything in his life to be perfect, including Janie. When Janie asks Jody if she can go to the dragging out of the mule, Jody promptly denies her because the mayor’s wife “wouldn’t be seen at uh draggin’out” (60). Jody’s image of Janie changes her into someone who she is not, submissive and non independent. Again, Janie’s marriage was not made in love and she was trapped. Unlike Logan, Janie puts up with Jody for 20 miserable years before she is finally freed by his death. To Janie, Jody’s death is an eye-opener. Janie is no longer going to settle for less than what she

When first discovering her womanhood under the pear tree, Janie describes how “she wanted to struggle in life but it seemed to elude her” (11). Struggle seemed to be all around Janie, yet she didn’t let it affect her. After a pressured marriage to a man that she wasn’t attracted to, Janie kept looking forward and found a way out. However, that way out was even more difficult than the first. For 20 years, Janie waited for something to change in her abusive relationship to Jody, except it only ended when he died. Finally, she married Tea Cake who showed her what it was like to be loved and feel love. In each of these marriages, Janie fights for her independence that was previously denied from her. She refuses to give up on her dream for true love and is only satisfied after she finds it with Tea