There Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Janie’s Journey

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston’s Janie takes a life journey through three marriages and finds her voice and herself. It seems that Janie’s destiny is decided for her despite her idealistic and naÐ"Їve view of love and marriage. Even though at times it appears “her dream was dead” and she accepts her fate and “became a woman”, Hurston shows us that though suppressed at times Janie never gives up on her dream (25). The symbolic use of the pear tree not only sets the bar high for Janie’s expectation of love, sex and marriage as a partnership like the “bee [sinking] into the sanctum of a bloom” leading to the “ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch” but also a need for personal fulfillment(11). Her journey to find her self begins under the pear tree but she had to travel through her marriage to the respectable, dependable Logan Killick, wind through her marriage to the showy Joe “Jody” Starks and end with her union and ultimately with the love of her life Vergile “Tea Cake” Woods.

Janie’s revelation under the pear tree foreshadows the journey that is about to begin. When Nanny catches Janie kissing Johnny Taylor she decides that it is time to marry her off. At first Janie resists because she does feel the way she thinks she should for Logan Killick. She is not impressed with his acres of land or his ability to provide for her nor is she swayed by Nanny’s dream for things to be different for her, for her to not be “de mule uh de world” (14). Nanny promises her that the feelings will come so she waits. After several months she talks to Nanny who tells her she should accept and appreciate what her husband is offering because he will not always be so good to her. It appears that she has done just that but really we see she has not when she refuses to help him with work outside. Janie has settled for being a wife not a partner but not really given in to that idea. When Logan leaves the house for the day to get Janie a mule so she can help him in the field, Joe Starks catches her eye. He promises her if she marries him he can “[treat] her lak a lady” ( 29).

The journey to find herself takes a completely different road when Janie marries Jody. Jody is a man with power; the power of money. He strolls into the town of Eatonville and takes over eventually becoming the Mayor. Janie as the Mayor’s wife must always appear better than the rest of the town’s women. Joe needs Janie to be seen and not heard and she learns this at the opening of the store when the townspeople ask her if she wants to make a speech and he lets them know that his “wife don’t know nothin’ вЂ?bout no speech-makinвЂ™Ð²Ð‚Ñœ and that he “never married her for nothin’ lak dat”(43). While she is a little annoyed she still does not get it completely, perhaps she is still enjoying the stature of being with a man with this power. The “feeling of coldness and fear took hold of her” after the lighting of the street lamp when Jody let her know he did not have time slow down and sit still with her he had plenty more to do (46). As time passes Jody’s control over Janie grows. She must cover her hair so men will not lust over her and even though he needs her to tend to the store; she is not to join the porch talkers. Janie is drawn to the socializing of the town’s people but he suppresses all the good in her and she in turn suppresses her emotions. She goes through the motions of being the mayor’s wife because even though she thinks of running off but dismisses the idea.

Janie’s voice becomes stronger as Jody’s voice becomes weaker. When she begins to