Character Analysis Of Janie Crawford In Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

When Janie is about sixteen her grandmother finds her in the act of kissing a boy, and afraid for Janie, she arranges for Janie to be married to Logan Killicks, who is an older man with vast property to his name. Nanny, as Janie calls her, is unable to wrap her mind around the idea of marrying for love and mocks Janie saying, "So you don't want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh?" (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 13). Her grandmothers’ gift of life is different from the life that Janie wants to live. She tells Janie, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.'” (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 11). Nanny doesn’t believe that trying to find love and make a better life for you will succeed, she tells Janie that marrying and older man with land to his name will bring security, and she shouldn’t want more than that. Because of this Janie agrees and goes along with the plan. She is depicted as very compliant and rarely speaks her mind, even saying “But Ah hates disagreement and confusion, so Ah better not talk. It makes it hard tuh git along” (Their Eyes Were Watching God, 90).

Another desire of young Janie is to find true, passionate love in a relationship. Returning to the metaphor of the pear tree, Janie says to her Grandma, “‘Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think’” (Hurston 24). Janie dreams of a peaceful, pleasant, and comfortable love in her marriage, similar to the quiet bliss of sitting in the shade of a blossoming pear tree. In her article, Kubitschek also points out Darwin Turner’s understanding that “‘All Janie wants is to love, be loved, and to share the life of her man. But . . . she must first find a man wise enough to let her be whatever kind of woman she wants to be’” (qtd. in Kubitschek 109). Unfortunately, this love and freedom was not acquired in Janie’s first marriage. Despite her hope that feelings of true love would develop with her first husband Logan Killicks, “she knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 25). Discontent with lack of passion in her first marriage, Janie decides to abandon her dream of finding love with Logan and does not hesitate to run away with Jody Starks when the situation presents itself. Deborah Clarke comments on this change in heart, writing, “Janie thus gives up a

At the same time, however, Janie begins to confuse this desire with romance. Despite the fact that nature’s “love embrace” leaves her feeling “limp and languid,” she pursues the first thing she sees that appears to satisfy her desire: a young man named Johnny Taylor (Hurston 11). Leaning over the gate’s threshold to kiss Johnny, Janie takes the first step toward her newfound horizon. Nanny sees this kiss and declares Janie’s womanhood. She wants Janie to marry Logan Killicks, a financially secure and well-respected farmer who can protect her from corruption. The marriage of convenience that Nanny suggests is “desecrating … [Janie’s] pear tree” because it contradicts her ideal vision of love (Hurston 14). Because she did not have the strength to fight people in her youth, Janie’s grandmother believes that Janie needs to rely on a husband in order to stay safe and reach liberation. Ironically, Janie’s adherence to Nanny’s last request suppresses her even more because it causes her to leave behind her own horizon.

The book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about Janie Crawford and her quest for self-independence and real love. She finds herself in three marriages, one she escapes from, and the other two end tragically. And throughout her journey, she learns a lot about love, and herself. Janie’s three marriages were all different, each one brought her in for a different reason, and each one had something different to teach her, she was forced into marrying Logan Killicks and hated it. So, she left him for Joe Starks who promised to treat her the way a lady should be treated, but he also made her the way he thought a lady should be. After Joe died she found Tea Cake, a romantic man who loved Janie the way she was, and worked hard

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she sets the protagonist, Janie Mae Crawford as a woman who wants to find true love and who is struggling to find her identity. To find her identity and true love it takes her three marriages to go through. While being married to three different men who each have different philosophies, Janie comes to understand that she is developed into a strong woman. Hurston makes each idea through each man’s view of Janie, and their relationship with the society. The lifestyle with little hope of or reason to hope for improvement. He holds a sizeable amount of land, but the couple's life involves little interaction with anyone else.

     The plan for Janie’s future begins with her lack of having real parents. Hurston builds up a foundation for Janie that is bound to fall like a Roman Empire. Janie’s grandmother, whom she refers to as “Nanny” takes the position as Janie’s guardian. The problem begins here for Janie because her Nanny not only spoils her, but also makes life choices for her. Nanny is old, and she only wants the best for her grandchild, for she knows that the world is a cruel place. Nanny makes the mistake of not allowing Janie to learn anything on her own. When Janie was sixteen years old, Nanny wanted to see her get married. Although Janie argued at first, Nanny insisted that Janie get married. “’Yeah, Janie, youse got yo’ womanhood on yuh… Ah wants to see you married right away.’” (Page 12). Janie was not given a choice in this decision. Her Nanny even had a suitor picked out for her. Janie told herself that she would try to make the best of the situation and attempt to find love in her marriage to Logan Killicks. But, as time went by, Janie realized that she still did not have any feelings of what she had considered to be love in her husband.

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston, the author starts chapter three with Janie Mae questioning whether or not marriage brings love; she questions because she does not love Logan Killicks, her husband. After three months of marriage, Janie results to going to Nanny for advice. Janie confesses that she does not like Logan’s unromantic personality and his ugly appearance. When she starts to cry, Nanny sends her away, telling her to wait a while longer for love to come. Within a month, Nanny passes away, and after a year, Janie has learned that marriage does not bring love. At the end of the chapter, Janie’s dream of love has died, causing her to become a woman.

Throughout a fair part of Zora Neal Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s low class create problems when it comes to men. She lives with men she does not love because they give her the financial stability she cannot have yet on her own. Janie marries Logan Killicks at a young age even though she does not want to

Nanny makes Janie believe that marriage makes love and forces her to wed a much older man, Logan Killicks. Jones believes that Janie?s first efforts at marriage show her as an ?enslaved and semi-literate? figure restrained to Nanny?s traditional beliefs about money, happiness and love (372). Unfortunately Janie?s dream of escasty does not involve Killicks. Her first dream is dead. Janie utters, ?Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think? (Hurston 23). Logan began to slap Janie for control over

While Janie yearns for “idyllic union” and emotional fulfillment, Nanny maintains the “prevailing sexual and racial milieu” by arranging her marriage with wealthy landowner Logan Killicks (Meese 264). Hurston purposefully compares Janie’s progressive ideals to those of feminists who were coined as “New Women” who sought marriages based on equality. She directly relates this contrast in beliefs to feminist’s dreams of and efforts towards success and equality through female autonomy rather than material wealth and security under a man’s control. Furthermore, as Janie settles in her second marriage with Jody Starks, she becomes increasingly dissatisfied. Janie’s feelings of confinement and entrapment steadily rise as Jody orders her to remain introverted and shuttle between the general store and home (Moss and Wilson 3). He forces Janie to play the role of a beautiful and submissive wife and “does not allow her to articulate her feelings or ideas [although she] longs to participate in everyday town life” (Moss and Wilson 3). Accordingly, Hurston scorns Jody for believing “She’s uh woman and her place is in de home” (43) and utilizes his chauvinistic outlook to promote women to establish importance outside of homemaking and caregiving. Hurston’s proposal directly reflects and supports Catharine Beecher’s influential efforts to “reconcile women to the limitations of the domestic sphere” (Cott 40) and expand women’s ability to excel in a multitude of different

“Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shape it meets, and it’s different with every shore”(Hurston 191). This quote demonstrates the self awareness by the protagonist, Janie, as she reflects on her past lovers at the end of the book. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, we learn of the struggles that Janie goes through to find true love. Janie has three different marriages thought out the story, explaining her struggles with love and death. Logan Killicks was the first man Janie married when she was 16 years old. However, as time moved on Janie meets other men that would change her views on love and what she wanted from a man. These struggles and experiences will deeply impact who

Janie's grandmother was one of the most important influences in her life, raising her since from an infant and passing on her dreams to Janie. Janie's mother ran away from home soon after Janie was born. With her father also gone, the task of raising Janie fell to her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny tells Janie "Fact uh de matter, Ah loves yuh a whole heap more'n Ah do yo' mama, de one Ah did birth" (Hurston 31). Nanny's dream is for Janie to attain a position of security in society, "high ground" as she puts it (32). As the person who raised her, Nanny feels that it is both her right and obligation to impose her dreams and her ideas of what is important in life on Janie. The strong relationship between mother and child is important in the African-American community, and the conflict between Janie's idyllic view of marriage and Nanny's wish for her to marry for stability and position is a good illustration of just how deep the respect and trust runs. Janie has a very romantic notion of what marriage should be. "She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace . . . so this was a marriage," is how the narrator describes it (24). Nanny's idea of a good marriage is someone who has some standing in the community, someone who will get Janie to that higher ground. Nanny wants Janie to marry Logan Killicks, but according to her "he look like some ole

Janie Crawford, protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, spends much of her life searching for the perfect symbiotic relationship. She marries two men before she meets Tea Cake-- her soulmate, the bee to her pear tree. Though there are bumps along the road, Janie and Tea Cake’s marriage is happy and secure until he gets bitten by a rabid dog. After Tea Cake is diagnosed with rabies, he becomes paranoid and insecure about his marriage with Janie. Tensions rise, and one day, Tea Cake pulls a gun on Janie. Janie gives Tea Cake the opportunity to put the gun down, but when it becomes obvious he is aiming to kill, she shoots him in self defense. Later that day, Janie is taken to a courtroom where an all white jury

In the beginning of the novel, it is seen that Janie starts to be curious about her womanhood. After the kiss with Johnny Taylor her grandmother, Nanny, forces Janie to marry Logan Killicks, so that Logan could take good care of her “De nigger woman is de’ mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see”(Hurston 14) Nanny preaches this to Janie so she can understand why she chose Logan to take good care of her. In Janie’s first marriage with, Logan Killicks, a wealthy but much older land owner, in the beginning of her journey to finding who she is meant to become. “Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” (Hurston 25) Her dream died because Janie thought that love came with marriage. But she realized that she could love this man, he was ugly, in her

If it wasn’t her grandmother, who she referred to as Nanny, it was the other three men she married. Initially, Nanny was the push in “right” direction as she educated Janie on how the world treated a young woman like her. For instance how in their society, single women needed to be married in order to ensure that they would be secured financially and physically. There was no such thing as a single woman living independently and making a living for herself. Nanny, who pleaded to Janie to marry as soon as possible to, said to her that, “‘Tain’t [a man] Ah wants you to have, [Janie], it’s protection” (Hurston, 15). Janie, whose parents died at an early age, only had Nanny to look to for guidance. For this reason, originally, Janie let herself be controlled by society as she entered a loveless marriage with an overbearing and abusive man, Logan Killicks. Hurston described Janie’s thoughts shortly after that “[Janie] knew now that marriage did not make love. [Her] first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston, 25). Janie let go of her original thought that marriage was as beautiful as the pollination between a honeybee and a pear tree and instead let herself be influenced by society’s expectations of her and followed Nanny’s