"Their Eyes Were Watching God" Question 4

The heroin in this little book is Janie Crawford.  She is a mixed women who is known for her beauty.  At a young age she becomes infatuated with the idea of love.  The entire novel is dedicated to Janie's trials and tribulations of trying and failing to find love.  Throughout her little shpeal, we see what a caring and kind person Janie is.  Despite the fact Janie pretty much despises her second husband, Joe, when he's on his deathbed at the end of their marriage she still does everything in his power to help him.  She is also a strong minded individual, and when she realizes that she can do nothing more for Joe, she straight up tells him off.  She tells him all the wrong he's done by her.  So, you know, he wishes death upon her right before he dies.  That's how most spouses say goodbye...I guess.  Janie is portrayed as that girl who's got all the looks and gets all of the guys.  In the beginning when she is returning to town after killing her husband in order to save herself, she is in overalls and probably has looked much better.  Almost instantaneously the towns people begin to gossip about her;  the women about her lack of husband, the men of how smokin' she still is despite her age and state.  She is also portrayed as slightly ignorant and very blinded by her need for true love.  She is so infatuated with the idea of having someone to love her that she doesn't even see what a horrible candidate both of her husbands are until they have both basically decimated her to nothing.  In the end, Janie does indeed accomplish true love with Tea Cup.  WAIT.  Tea Cake** See!  It's just so tempting to put Cup!  After her trials and tribulations with her past husbands, she finally gets to experience real and true love.  I think that our protagonist represents goodness.  Janie goes through a lot as a women, men didn't treat women with very much respect during her time but even with that being true, she really got the short end of a lot of sticks.  Despite all of these things, she still remains optimistic enough to continue on.  She was hesitant at first, yes, but does indeed find her true love.  She shows us goodness of the heart and that it can pay off.




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