Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Just about everyone has had a relationship. Sometimes these relationships can help a person grow and feel whole, and sometimes they can hurt and make a person question himself. In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, a woman named Janie Woods goes through life trying to find love. This search gives Janie heartache, self-doubt, and at times joy. Throughout her search for love, she meets and marries three men: Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. These three men have an effect on Janie’s emotional, spiritual, and physical growth.

The first man Janie marries that affects her is Logan Killicks. He is an older man who Janie marries because her nanny wants her to be protected. The narrator mentions, “She knew now that marriage

He is a man with a lot of ambitions who also runs away with Janie to Eatonville where he fixes up the place and becomes mayor. He causes one of the major changes in Janie’s emotional growth. In their marriage, she is constantly kept from having a voice which makes her sick and keeps her silent. Joe, during the opening of the store in Eatonville, says, “but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ’bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home”(43). This shows the beginning of his control over Janie making her more submissive. Another effect he has on her is physical. The narrator states that Janie must wear a head rag in the store(55). This is a symbol that she is Joe’s possession and that he has her under his control as well as another way of showing that she is submissive. In turn, she began to feel that she has no freedom and no voice. Lastly, about her spiritual growth, the narrator mentions, “Janie grows cold….” (43-44).This means with Joe’s constant belittling of her and her lack of love in their relationship causes her more loss of spiritual growth. In the end, Joe dies and she feels relief and after a while meets a new younger