"Their Eyes Were Watching God" Question 2

The conflict in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is that of love.  Shocking, I know.  Janie marries Logan Killicks.  FAIL.  He is cruel and takes her for granted.  She does her absolute best to stick with him for as long as she can possibly manage for her dead grandmother, but in the end he threatens to kill her with an ax.  Janie deems their relationship dead with no hope of revival.  First failed marriage: Check!  Next we have Joe Starks, an intelligent and promising young lad who Janie basically leaves Logan for.  I feel like she would have left after the ax comment no matter what, it was probably just a whole lot more convenient for her to have a carriage with a nice young man inside waiting for her inside.  She actually chooses to be with Joe, as opposed to being pressured into the relationship by influential family members.  It starts out all fine and dandy with a few little flaws that Janie makes nothing of.  Joe makes her run the story he built, makes her wear her hair up in public no matter what, he does not allow her to talk, and over all just wants her image and nothing more from her.  Janie can just feel the love radiating through their relationship. (I'M BEING SARCASTIC.)  He finally dies and Janie is finally free to live her own life how she wants.  Failed marriage number two:  Check!  Now here is where it all comes together.  Janie meets Tea Cake. Yes, I laughed as well at his name.  He is indeed the love of her life, despite her being twelve years his elder, but she has been hurt so many times by now that she is the definition of hesitant and all things precautionary and paranoid.  Janie has come to a place where she finds it extremely hard to trust men.  The cause of this?  She has had two failed marriages.  On top of that her grandmother and mother also had issues with men during their lives.  Both taken advantage of by men and then having to suffer the repercussions of each mans actions by themselves, both of these repercussions taking form as a child.  A gain of this conflict is a very slight one.  In my opinion when it comes to relationships, it is better to be more so hesitant than trusting. Due to Janie's experience with men she is definitely more hesitant than trusting.  Janie has developed a defense mechanism against men, that could indeed cause her problems, but at the same time can protect her.  It is a gain and a loss.  This makes it hard for her to trust Tea Cake and it takes a while for him to win her over, but he does in the end.  At the same time though, she was absolutely sure he wasn't a fraud when she married him.  Which is always a good thing.  


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