Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God captures Janie Crawford’s chronological life story as an African American woman searching for the meaning and experience of love. Janie's evolving character is affected by the disadvantages she faces, due to her race and the societal precepts of relationships in the 1930s. Janie's roots with slavery result in the compliance of her grandmother's views of love, portraying the effects of society on one's opinions. Thus Janie is forced into her first unsuccessful relationship with Logan and due to her dissatisfaction is driven into a second relationship with Joe, fraught with negativity as she searches for her own meaning of affection. The burdens which Janie faces are a crucial part of her self
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This is seen through Janie’s grandmas (Nanny) fear that Janie’s lifestyle will be burdened by “the most terrible rebuke one can lay upon this [earth],” (Hurston, Zora Neale 59) the black race. According to Nanny “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see” (Hurston 14) and she had “been prayin' fah it tuh be different with [Janie] Lawd, Lawd, Lawd” (Hurston 14). Therefore, Nanny’s experience with slavery has warped her mindset of what black women need to survive for a tolerable lifestyle in the world of oppression as: money. Additionally, to protect Janie from becoming the “mule uh de world” (Hurston 14) and a disappointing marriage, Nanny makes decision for her love life. Thus, Janie enters her first relationship with a man chosen by Nanny. Logan, Janie’s first husband, represents security through his wealth as he owns a 60-acre potato farm yet is a loveless marriage that Janie escapes when Joe Starks comes to town as a “stylish dressed man” (Hurston 27) through which Janie believes she can rediscover love. In the beginning of Joe and Janie's marriage, his superficial compliments and control over Janie's actions is seen as a form of affection but rather is a form of possession: “pretty doll-baby lak you is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan yo’self and eat p’taters dat other folks plant just special for you” (Hurston 29). This possessive love infuriates Janie and is seen through the action of a mule that roams the town Joe and Janie live in capturing Janie's emotional state in her relationship: “[the mule] jerked up his head, laid back his ears and rushed to the attack” (Hurston 56) Janie addresses the discomfort of the mule with harsh language directed to the men who abuse the “poor brute
This is seen through Janie’s grandmas (Nanny) fear that Janie’s lifestyle will be burdened by “the most terrible rebuke one can lay upon this [earth],” (Hurston, Zora Neale 59) the black race. According to Nanny “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see” (Hurston 14) and she had “been prayin' fah it tuh be different with [Janie] Lawd, Lawd, Lawd” (Hurston 14). Therefore, Nanny’s experience with slavery has warped her mindset of what black women need to survive for a tolerable lifestyle in the world of oppression as: money. Additionally, to protect Janie from becoming the “mule uh de world” (Hurston 14) and a disappointing marriage, Nanny makes decision for her love life. Thus, Janie enters her first relationship with a man chosen by Nanny. Logan, Janie’s first husband, represents security through his wealth as he owns a 60-acre potato farm yet is a loveless marriage that Janie escapes when Joe Starks comes to town as a “stylish dressed man” (Hurston 27) through which Janie believes she can rediscover love. In the beginning of Joe and Janie's marriage, his superficial compliments and control over Janie's actions is seen as a form of affection but rather is a form of possession: “pretty doll-baby lak you is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan yo’self and eat p’taters dat other folks plant just special for you” (Hurston 29). This possessive love infuriates Janie and is seen through the action of a mule that roams the town Joe and Janie live in capturing Janie's emotional state in her relationship: “[the mule] jerked up his head, laid back his ears and rushed to the attack” (Hurston 56) Janie addresses the discomfort of the mule with harsh language directed to the men who abuse the “poor brute