“Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore,” says Janie in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (Hurston 191). This novel is about a woman who refuses to live in worry, bitterness, doubt, or preposterous romantic dreams. It is a story of a passionately independent Janie Crawford, and her maturing selfhood through her three marriages. Each husband was compared by the people and each were different in their own ways. They also had different effects on her emotional, physical, and spiritual growth. Janie’s first husband was Logan Killicks. Janie married Logan only because it was a forced marriage by Nannie. She had hoped that the marriage would end her …show more content…
He is the man who fills the voids of loneliness and love, and continues her development as a woman. Joe’s impact on Janie’s emotional growth is that he emotionally abused her to the point where she wouldn’t talk anymore and he only wanted a pretty wife/show wife because he was the mayor of Eatonville. She felt like she had lost her identity because the people would call her Mrs. Mayor Starks and would never use her real name. She also feels like she lost her identity because she always listened to what Joe had to say about her appearance and whatever he suggested she would do it. Joe also had an impact on Janie’s physical growth is that he also physically abused her when every should would do the slightest thing wrong. Joe says “Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves” (Hurston 71). Joe is basically saying that women can’t think for themselves and need other people to do so thus taking away her freedom of speech. Joe also controlled her physical appearance by telling her what to do with her hair and what not to do with her hair, he would also tell her what she could wear and what she couldn’t wear. He also had an impact on her spiritual growth. His impact on her spiritual growth wasn’t that dramatic because when she was with Logan she prayed for another man. That man she prayed for was Joe Starks. When Joe hits Janie she sees that the