Their Eyes Were Watching God: Relationships

   Every person has a past that affects their lives in some way. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston creates a character, Janie Crawford, whose past relatives and other's opinions let control her life in someway. In this blog, I am going to discuss how Janie’s grandmother instilled ideals in her that manipulate Janie's own ideas and desires, and the end results of this.
   Almost everyone I know has religious view, political views, and morals that stem from their parents. So, Janie is not different from modern people today. It is easy to understand why Janie let her grandmothers ideas cloud her view of things when in her life. When you are raised by people, you are easily influenced by them. This also leads to kids lashing out and doing complete opposites of what they've been told. Which lots of teenagers do today, this is what I see Janie doing.

   As Janie is a young girl, her grandmother heavily influences the way she makes decisions. In the introductory chapters of the novel, readers learn of Janie’s grandmother’s and mother’s past experiences. While Janie is becoming older, she starts to think of marriage. Her grandmother tells her of how poorly men have treated her relatives, by raping them and leaving the women to fend for themselves. Janie’s grandmother advices her to choose a man who can provide stability for her. Her grandmother talks of Logan Killicks only as stability. She says "'Tain't Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it's protection" (15). Her decision to marry her first husband, Logan Killicks is purely to have a financially stable life. Her grandmother’s past and advice affect her decision making negatively because she is only in search for stability, not for love. She only does this because she knows that being a black woman, she would never be able to be on her own. The negativity from Janie’s first marriage follows her into her second.

   Janie’s next marriage is influenced negatively from her first. When Janie leaves her husband Logan, for her next, she believes it is for the right reasons. Unlike her first husband Logan, Joe Starks is not as financially reliable. As Janie pursues this next relationship, it is clearly evident she is searching for someone more closely fit for her. Due to the fact she never finds love with her first, she looks for immediate attraction, which she finds in Joe Starks due to he charisma and powerful attitude. The first thing she notices of him is clothes. She describes "the shirt with the silk sleeveholders was dazzling enough for the whole world... he walked liked he knew where he was going" (27). Though, as she finds out more through her marriage, she realizes attraction is not the only thing important in order to love a person. When Joe turns to hitting Janie to maintain her dominance over her, she decides she cannot love him. When Joe dies she is not sorrowful, but actually hopeful for her future that waits. Her marriage to Logan negatively affects her decision to marry Joe, but her marriage to Joe yet again changes her insight of love.

   When Janie meets Tea Cake, her relationship with Joe still cautions her. When Janie first meets Tea Cake, she is skeptical he might be using her for her money. As this idea fades, she begins to develop feelings for the young man unlike others she has before. Even this however, is not enough for her to fully trust the man she has fallen in love with. Then, Tea Cake steals her money and gambles it away, she ironically stays with him. Even after he does this she still feels a "self-crushing love" for him as he watched her asleep (128). It is then that she realizes love should not be about money or security, but about affection and passion. From her past relationships with her husbands, Janie learns to be cautious and not fall at face value or for material goods for a man. Her past relationships lead her to Tea Cake, and possibly contribute to her actions towards him.
   Janie's grandmother influenced her first relationship, and with her second and third, she was purposely going against what she learned was right from her and tried to go her own way. Although the second didn't work out well, she thought the third did with Tea Cake. This is what Janie thinks is true love. But really is it? Tea Cake beat her, stole from her, and controlled her yet she loved him unconditionally. The implications of this novel show what women look like in a abusive relationship. I think the novel did not end well because she was never treated well as she should have been, even if she truly was in love.