Conflict In Their Eyes Were Watching God

In stories of self-actualization there is most often an incident that is written off as unimportant, and in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” this trend continues. Janie’s relationship with Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods is generally regarded as the point where Janie discovers who she is as an individual, while her relationship with Joe Starks (Jody) is often overlooked. What seems to be overlooked is the fact that because of her relationship with Jody, Janie discovers what she doesn’t want out of a relationship and that she should not settle for just anything. This realization that Janie has eventually helps her accept Tea cake later on in the story. Jody’s core values and way of life often clashed with Janie’s and this is what lead to conflict between the two characters. Over the course of their marriage there were three key events …show more content…
After Janie’s disastrous marriage with Logan Killicks, she was searching for a man that would provide her the missing aspect from her previous relationship and when Janie saw Jody coming down the road, she saw things being different. Jody “…spoke for far horizon…” and “He spoke for change and chance.” (29) and Janie was enamoured by this. While Jody may not have been the human embodiment of Janie’s pear tree (the pear tree acts as a symbol for Janie’s ideal man), she seemed to think that he was better than Logan. Unfortunately for Janie, Jody in many ways was worse than Logan. There was an overarching theme within Jody and Janie’s relationship, Janie seemed to be forced to be silent. The biggest example of this was when Jody had finished making improvements to the town and the townspeople held a ceremony for him and Janie as way to show