FREE ESSAY ON THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

Lovely People Do Stupid Things
How is love to influence our lives? Love-struck people do crazy things to express how
they care for that particular person yet it is a long and windy road to these actions. It
is down this path that experience spawns and trouble and happiness are felt. Janie
Crawford of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, shows the road through the
steps of her three relationships. These relationships, though not fulfilling ones,
conclude in bettering Janie's search and understanding of life.
Johnny Taylor, Janie's first kiss and gatekeeper to her future, When Janie was sixteen,
she embarked on a sexual awakening. Johnny Taylor was a poor young man who lived in the
Florida area. Janie allowed him to kiss her over the fence. Unfortunately, Nanny saw
everything. With Nanny's horrendous background of sinful deeds done to her, she wanted
the best for Janie. As she saw the kiss, the doors of life opened for Janie and Nanny
wasn't going to have her make the same mistakes that she had. Yet, Nanny had been
impregnated under the circumstances of being a slave and this was not the case for Janie.
Nanny stated that "black women were the mules of the world", but she didn't want Janie to
be a mule. She wanted to see Janie in a secure situation before she died, and Logan
Killicks could provide that. 
Janie did not want to marry Logan, but she did so because Nanny told her "that she would
eventually come to love him." Ironically, Logan wanted to force Janie into the servitude
that Nanny feared. Also, he was disappointed that Janie never returned his affection and
attraction. If he could not possess her through love, he would possess her by demanding
her submission. At heart, his actions arose from the fear that Janie would leave him. Two
months after her marriage to Logan, Janie visited Nanny to ask when she would start
loving him. Nanny berated Janie for not appreciating Logan's wealth. Although Logan
pampered Janie for a year, he began complaining that she was spoiled. That night, Logan
criticized Janie for being spoiled and lazy. Janie voiced his deepest fears when she
suggested that she might leave him. Logan reminded her of her family's reputation, hoping
to hurt her feelings. Turning to these drastic of measures blew Janie into a frenzy and
she left with a smooth-talking gentleman that very next day.
Janie chose to leave Logan for Jody because he revived her dreams of love in marriage.
Her first marriage had taught her that marriage and love do not go hand in hand. However,
she still believed that love was the best motivation for marriage. Jody promised that he
would never turn Janie into a common pack mule. He promised her that she would reap all
the benefits of his work. His words eerily echo Nanny's dream of respectability and
financial security for Janie. However, Janie didn't marry Jody because of these promises.
She married him because he inspired the feelings she had experienced while sitting under
the blossoming peach tree when she was sixteen and the moment her womanhood became
crystal clear. 
Ironically, Janie's marriage to Jody was the very embodiment of Nanny's dreams for her.
Unlike Logan, he did not make her a pack mule. He gave her financial security and
respectability. However, the marriage was largely an unhappy union. Janie could not be
herself around Jody. Moreover, Jody still used Janie as a garbage even though he gave her
wealth and respectability. So it seems that Nanny's worst fears and her highest hopes
were realized in Janie's second marriage. It was until one afternoon in the store that
she met a lofty yet handsome young man who went, strangely enough, by the name of Tea
Cake.
Tea Cake's courtship was different from that of Logan and Jody. Janie's first marriage
was more of a contract of sale between Nanny and Logan than anything else. Janie's second
marriage was an escape from the first one. Moreover, it was based on disappointed dreams.
Jody courted her by talking about himself and his dreams. Tea Cake, on the other hand,
pursued Janie with a more romantic flair. Also, he allowed her equal footing in
negotiating the terms of their relationship. Gaining personal freedom was a two-fold
process. First, she had to be free in her private life, but she also had to free herself
from restricting social attitudes. Only then could she begin to heal the rift between her
outside self and her inside self.
She feels that what she has learned from her relationship with Tea Cake cannot be
conveyed through words. Self-realization is a personal journey that can only be made
through gaining life experience. Therefore, Janie acknowledges the flaws inherent in
retelling her life, but she does not necessarily undercut the importance of having found
her voice. Neither does she undercut the benefit of sharing her story with others. She
doesn't believe that her story should be the single, authoritative guidebook to
self-realization. It can, however, inspire others to re-examine their lives. 
Bibliography
Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God