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Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's Identity

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In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie, the female protagonist, evolves as a woman throughout her marriages with three men– Logan Killicks, Joe/Jody Starks, then Tea Cake Woods. Living up in the South during the Jim Crow period, Janie struggles not only with her racial identity but also with her identity as a woman. During her marriages to Logan and Joe, Janie is dissatisfied because she is constantly dismissed, silenced, belittled, and abused; however, by taking away her power, these men only make Janie stronger. Throughout her marriage to Joe Starks, which was the longest of her three unions, Janie experiences significant growth within two decades as she learns about her own desires and finds her worth. When Joe and …show more content…

It clearly bothers her, but she cannot seem to find the strength to speak up for herself. Early in their marriage, Joe talks about his promises for Janie in the marriage. He says, “Ah told you in the very first beginnin’ dat Ah aimed tuh be uh big voice. You oughta be glad, ‘cause that makes uh big woman outa you.” (46). Joe believes that he is doing Janie a favor by providing her with the life he thinks she wants, and this causes her to feel isolated. Although she is still unsure of herself, she knows that her vague idea of the life she expects does not align with Joe’s vision. Despite their conflicting viewpoints, she chooses to suffer in silence because of her fear and reliance on Joe for financial security. Janie allows him to create an uneven power dynamic in which she becomes simply a part of Joe’s image for the public eye. Later on, Joe emphasizes that Janie is his property by controlling the appearance of her hair. When Janie is working in the store one day, Joe catches Walter gently brushing Janie’s hair. Joe is shocked as anger and jealousy fill his body. Later that night, Joe asserts his authority and control by “order[ing] Janie to tie her hair around the store… She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others” (55). The uneven power dynamic is emphasized through Joe’s control on his wife’s appearance and her continued

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In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Janie is held back from growing to her full potential. Janie is married three times and in each marriage there is one item that restrains her. In her marriage with Joe she was forced to wear a head rag to cover her hair because it is so long and beautiful. The red rag resembled the restraint Joe put on Janie.

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Joe then interjects and stops Janie, saying that she doesn’t know how to make speeches. In the text Joe says, “ “ (Hurston __). In this quote, you can see a classic example of subtle control. While Janie doesn’t notice it at first, it is clear that Joe is starting his way into taking control of Janie’s entire life. Another example of Joe Starks seeking control over Janie when she tries to participate in town activities and talk is when the porch gossipers outside of Joe’s store start talking about Matt Bonner's mule and Joe stops Janie from adding to the conversation.

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This relationship is where we see Janie as not autonomous due to her not making the decision to leave the relationship. Janie is commonly mistreated by Starks and is physically and emotionally abused during this time. Janie tries to talk to townspeople on the porch of the couple’s store but is met with a jealous Joe who wants Janie all to himself. Joe acts like he owns Janie and controls her by telling her what, and what not to do. When Joe is elected mayor, the town wants Janie to give a small speech.

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Janie finds she never loves him as a husband, and he

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Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over” (Hurston 72). Janie figures out that Joe is not the man she had married when the “image of Jody tumbled down” she begins to understand that Joe was not at all significant to her because he never cared for her and instead he was a bad influence. Janie figures out that he “never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams” the life she desires of with Joe Starks, is an allusion and Janie’s dreams are once again crushed. Janie is deceived by Joe because he represents empty dreams for Janie, he was a “drape [for] her dreams” Joe took advantage of Janie and manipulates her to do excessive labour for him in the store and constantly silences her. Furthermore, Joe Starks never treats Janie with respect as he views her as an object and spends his time commanding her.

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She did not experience satisfaction or self fulfilment in the relationship, and their conversations were loveless and passionless. When Logan ordered Janie from chore to chore, she says nothing but, “Ah’ll cut de p’taters fuh yuh”(Hurston 17). This portrays how Janie has not yet released how she feels about being tied down into the marriage. The symbolism of the mule comes into play during Janie’s marriage with Logan. In American Folklore mules are silent creatures that bear the burden, yet they are still stubborn and unpredictable.

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In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie suffers from hardship in two relationships before she can find her true love. Janie explains to her best friend, Pheoby, how she searches for love. Therefore Pheoby wants to hear the true story, rather than listening to the porch sitters. Throughout the book Janie experiences different types of love with three different men; Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Vergible "Tea Cake" Woods. At 16 Janie marries Logan Killicks.

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Joe feels threatened by his wife possessing the same education as he does and he embarrasses her by making her feel inferior. Janie feels trapped and unlike herself at this point and continues to feel like this throughout their marriage. She “…pressed her teeth together and learned to hush” (71). Joe wants Janie to look down on the townspeople like he does but she like being a normal person and playing checkers with them. She keeps quiet about her opinion and denies herself and of her own ideas, making it hard to live this way and still be happy.

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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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Joe takes her confidence away, by taking control of Janie. He made her

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At the beginning of the story, Janie always wants to discover the outside world and has an ambitious attitude towards chasing her goals in life, and she often would “search as much of the world as she could”(11), showing how curious and confident Janie is to put herself out there. Additionally, enthusiastic and lively attributes are embodied by Janie’s character at first, as well as her aspirations because she has “glossy leaves and bursting buds”(11), wanting to achieve the chance to live life. Lastly, before Janie met Joe, she was happy and eager to get out and know the outside world and often “looked up the road towards way off”(25), longing for the adventure of that long road and not feeling discouraged or controlled to stay in one place. Although Janie was free and optimistic at first, when Joe came into the picture that attitude changed as he was restraining and controlling over Janie. With Joe wanting to be a big voice it ended up restraining Janie to just staying in the market place and having no value, which further lead her to putting “up a drape over her dreams”(72), showing how shattered and invaluable she felt in the position Joe gave her, not even

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563 Words | 3 Pages

Janie left Logan for Joe and they ran off for a new life. Joe was a rich man so him and Janie go to Eaton and he builds the town from the ground up. Joe became the mayor of eatontown and Janie was forced to act like the mayor 's wife she could not have an opinion of her own. Things start to really change when Joe announces to the people that they are officially a town and he does not allow Janie to say anything saying he did not marry her for that. Janie is very beautiful and everyone knows that she has very long hair that everyone find attractive

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In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie merely wants to love someone, but that choice is ripped out of her hands when Nanny makes her marry someone she does not love. This marriage as well as another one does not work out because she never learns to love them. Finally, she meets Tea Cake, and falls madly in love with him even though he is a lot younger than she is. He is someone that she can truly love while still being able to be herself. They go through their struggles as well and sadly, he dies by the end of the novel.

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Janie goes along with Jody’s requests for a while before she realizes what he is doing to her. Jody needed to have complete dominance of everything in Janie’s life to be content with their relationship, and when Janie had different opinions than his, this caused problems in their relationship. In another instance, Jody insults Janie’s age, which leads to a significant argument between them. When Jody insults Janie, it is accepted in their society, but Janie finally gets fed up when she says, “But Ah’m uh woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. Dat’s uh whole lot

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In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford experienced power and control in each of her relationships. When Janie was with Logan, their relationship started with very little control over each other but towards the end, Logan acted like he had more control over Janie. In her relationship with Jody, Janie was constantly told what to do and how to act and she was never allowed to make her own decisions. In her last relationship with Tea Cake, Janie was treated with respect and was allowed to do what she wanted. Power and control shows up in various places in the story and in different ways.

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