Logan Killicks v.s. Joe Starks v.s. Tea Cake

In "Their Eyes Were Watching God" Janie Crawford has three marriages.  Her first is Logan Killicks, a farmer who her grandma sets her up with.  Her grandma has the fear that she will die and Janie will be left to make the decision of who to marry by herself and will, of course, choose wrong and Nanny would be able to do nothing about it.  So she hastily decides Logan is perfect.  Nanny dies and Janie is miserable with Logan.  She tries to make the best of it for Nanny, but in the end Logan threatens Janie with an ax and that's it for her.  Over all, Logan has few redeeming attributes.  In the beginning of their marriage, he is half-way decent.  It does not take long, however, for it to die away and be replaced by constant frustration and anger.  Next, we have Joe Starks up to bat.  He is the man Janie leaves Logan for.  He is a determined young man who has heard of an all black civilization forming in Florida and is determined to make his fortune there.  He sweeps Janie off her feet, and she believes she is in love.  From the beginning, there are signals that Joe is a jerk, but Janie is so determined to be in love she ignores them, rather she embraces them.  Soon she realizes how constrictive he is.  He is a very prideful man who only want Janie for her looks and the envy she can arouse in other men.  Janie is not allowed to express her opinions, she is not allowed to dress how she wants, etc.  She is made into a trophy wife under the rule of her husband.  She gets her moment to shine when Joe is on his deathbed, however.  He is to weak to stop Janie and she lists off all of his crimes to him, telling him how he made her feel all these years and how wrong it was.  I guess you could say that in the beginning, Joe was just trying to make the best off his life, like we all are, and jumped on an opportunity as it arose.  In the end, however, he was tempted by money and power and it got out of hand.  How unusual!  Janie's last husband was Vergible Tea Cake Woods, her one and only true love.  He was indeed twelve years younger than Janie, but that did not stand in their way of love.  He was the only one of her husbands who saw Janie as an equal.  He talked and listened to her as a human.  Logan never shared with Janie, and Joe never listened.  So having a person, especially a man, who is willing to both makes Janie ecstatic.  Janie and he work along side each other in the everglade fields, growing more in love with each other as time goes on.  Through some freak events, Tea Cake contracts rabies while trying to saving Janie.  He literally looses his mind and to make it short, Janie must shoot him to protect herself.  Despite the ending to their relationship, Tea Cake was the best husband by far.  He cared, genuinely for Janie.  He wanted her around because he enjoyed having her around, not for her looks or the labor she could provide.  So in summary, WIN FOR TEA CAKE.  



Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.