Their Eyes Were Watching God Summary

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The story begins with the main character, Janie Crawford, returning to Eatonville, Florida after being gone for two years. The black women of the town are talking about where she and her husband, Tea Cake, had been and why she is back in town on the porch of Phoeby Watson. The women continue to talk about how she seems to be very confident and self-centered because she didn’t stop to talk with them about what was going on in her life. Janie’s friend, Phoeby, sticks up for her friend and decides to bring her food to eat and in this visit, Phoeby learns about Janie’s life.
Janie’s life story begins by her explaining that her grandmother raised her after her mother ran off. Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, loved her granddaughter took care of her as if she was her own after her mother walked out on her. Nanny was raised as a slave and with her being raised as a slave she had a very different viewpoint of what she wanted Janie’s life to be. After seeing Janie kiss Johnny Taylor by the fence, Nanny had a conversation with Janie about how she …show more content…

He was the mayor, postmaster, and storekeeper and he wanted Janie to uphold the image of being a mayor’s wife. Janie becomes tire of the life Jody had given her and she wanted to be a part of the social community of Eatonville, even though Jody didn’t want her to frolic with the people there. After being together for almost twenty years, Janie and Jody finally have a confrontation. As the years went by, Jody would continuously insult her appearance and belittle her work ethic, but Janie finally tells him how she felt about him in front of everyone in the town. After she did that, he beat her and their marriage began to break to the point that they didn’t even talk to each other anymore. Jody soon becomes sick and after months of not speaking, Janie finally goes to talk to him about the way he treated her on his