Janie's Conflicts In 'The Kite Runner'

Improved Essays
TEWWG Essay
Imagine a man who has all perfect qualities. Now look into the real world. Nobody is perfect, and nobody makes all the right decisions all the time. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Janie has conflicts with her three husbands and cannot find what she wants in a man. Even though Janie’s three husbands, Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake, show courage and provide for Janie, they often fail to appreciate her. Janie's first husband, Logan, provides for Janie, but fails to appreciate her for all that he makes her do. Most women like men who can appreciate them. Nanny, Janie’s grandmother, catches her with Johnny Taylor. Nanny doesn’t trust him and wants Janie with a man who works. So Nanny forces Janie to marry Logan Killicks. Even though Logan provides security for her, he never appreciates her for all that she does, He makes her work. One morning Logan says to Janie, “Looka heah, LilBit, help me out
…show more content…
He is a good businessman but treats Janie as an object rather than a person. Joe became the mayor of a town and made change, but he couldn’t change himself. While Joe is on his death bed Janie says to him, “Ah knowed you wasn’t gointuh lissen tuh me. You changes everything but nothin’ don’t change you-not even death” (86). Janie was implying that she did not like him and that she wasn’t going to make a huge deal about his death. She also left Logan for him and he still treats her basically the same way, just this time with too much freedom. Instead of Logan making her do too much, Joe makes her do basically nothing. Janie says, “Naw, Jody, it jus’ looks lak it keeps us in some way we ain’t natural wid one ‘nother. You’se always off talkin’ and fixin’ things, and Ah feels lak Ah’m jus’ markin’ time” (46). After a while Janie gets to feeling unproductive and just lazy. Joe provides but all she does is cook. So Joe was a bad husband for Janie because that wasn’t what she wanted in a man, it didn’t turn out the way she thought it

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Throughout their relationship, she is continuously oppressed and controlled by Joe which confuses Janie into believing that this is how love is supposed to be. When Jody finally dies, Janie is liberated from his oppression and finally feels free. It is because of this relationship that Janie feels the biggest need for independence and spending time finding herself instead of worrying about making others happy or finding “love” as she did before. The relationships in Janie’s life have, undoubtedly, shaped her character over the course of the novel, and contributed to the overall theme of Janie’s journey, which is finding her independence and…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Janie Christ Figure

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages

    1. Is Janie or Tea Cake a Christ figure? Choose one and argue for or against this, providing details from the novel to support your answer. Overall in my opinion I think Tea Cake was the Christ figure. He portrayed these characteristic by a lot of things.…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He forces her to cover her hair and shut her mouth, and soon enough, she, “learned to hush.” (71) Was Joe a necessary addition to Janie’s life or could she have realized what she was looking for in a relationship without experiencing the hardships she went through with him? He partially made her more cautious about quickly moving into marriages, but she still went straight to Tea Cake soon after Joe…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Janie Quotes And Analysis

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Joe told her that he would treat her like a lady and not a slave, like Logan. Janie for the first time felt wanted and true compassionate love from a man. In each one of her relationships her sense of pride gets in the way of continuing her relationships. She realizes that protective love does not satisfy for the need of love she desired. Over time each man becomes attracted to making her become someone she didn’t want to become.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He don 't even never mention nothin ' pretty.” (pg. 24) Janie longed for a hopelessly romantic relationship. Janie wanted to be spoiled and pampered not hard worked and smelly. Logan went behind Janie to her Nanny and asked for Janies hand in marriage.…

    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Logan and Janie's relationship was arranged and unsuccessful. Logan was an old and ugly man, but Janie was a young and beautiful woman. Janie dislikes Logan for his lopsided facial features and for lacking the common sense to was his feet before going to bed. Janie see's Logan as a blasphemy excuse of true love, so Janie goes into the marriage with disbelief surrounded by her naive version of love. Logan is emotionally needy, he shows Janie little amounts of love at the start of their relationship, after that dies out he only shows anger and disappointment when Janie refuses his commands tword her.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nanny, Janie's grandmother restrained her decisions to who she wanted to get married to. Janie did not have a choice and had to marry Logan Kellicks her first of her husbands. "She knew now that marriage did not make love Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman". (Ch ) 3 Janie was controlled by all the men in her life, however with her courageous personality she was able to stand up for her life.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Trudier Harris is a modern feminist writer and a part of the African-American community. She writes commentaries about the feminist messages, or lack thereof, in popular writings. In one such review, quoted above, she criticizes Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, a seminal work of 20th century literature. Harris especially disapproves of the relationships of Janie, the novel’s protagonist, with various men.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Were Watching God Motifs

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Janie runs away and goes to live with Joe in a town called Eatonville. Janie is very happy at that time but after Joe is elected mayor of Eatonville, he acts like the boss and doesn’t really want anybody to see Janie. But eventually, Joe makes Janie work at the store he makes in the town and janie is always so busy she doesn’t have time for anything so she is also unhappy with this relationship. As said in the book “She wasn’t petal-open anymore with him.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Nanny wants Janie to marry him before she dies because Logan has 60 acres of land and she knows Janie will be secure with him. Although Janie doesn't want to marry this man she marries him anyways to make her grandmother's wish come true. Janie appears to be content on the outside however Logan is hard on her and wants her to work in the fields instead of working in the house all day, she hopes for a new life because this isn't what she imagined. While her husband is out looking to buy another mule so she can work in the fields with him, she comes upon Joe Starks. He's heading down the road to Eatonville to start a new life in an all back town and invites Janie to go with him.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The American Dream is a broad supposition in which it varies amongst many particular individuals. Many people conceptualize it as being successful and wealthy, meanwhile others hypothesize it to be content and stable. Most of the times, the cases of which the American dream is portrayed usually is dependant on the race, ethnicity, and age of that certain individual. Some latino US citizens would say that their American dream is to buy a house and be contently stable in a state of alacrity, meanwhile some white US citizens would say it to be prosperous and well-living. It varies on whoever the specific individual is.…

    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Evidently without Logan she was poor, and alone, but on top of these crushing factors Janie was a negro woman, someone who is already viewed as the mule of the world. It was safe to say that without Logan there wasn’t much left in her life, these factors all contribute to Janie's desperation and lack of choice. This lack of opportunity, however, leads to something more significant it is the foundation for her relationship with Joey Starks, and for these very same reasons the relationship was doomed from the start and eventually disintegrated. The marriage begins after Janie leaves Logan for the promises made by this stranger in hopes that her life with Joey would be at the very least better. “You ain’t never knowed what it was to be treated lak a lady…

    • 1823 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Janie ran away from Logan to be with Jody, because she hoped for a happy ending. She thought that maybe Jody could give her what Logan had not. Jody bought Janie food and candy. He seemed to want to spoil her when the narrator said, “On the train the next day, Joe didn 't make many speeches with rhymes to her, but he bought her the best things the butcher had, like apples and a glass lantern full of candies” (34). When Jody and Janie arrived in Eatonville he planned for great change.…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Joe strikes Janie in public after the argument that Janie robs him of his maleness, which is another way he abuses her. Following the public fight between the two, Jody becomes very ill; he becomes too weak to work and fights for his life, but he soon loses the battle and passes away. After Joe’s death, Janie is seen without her head wrap which shows that she is ready to move on and continue with her life. With…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A literacy tragedy is a written piece that consists of courageous,noble characters who must confront powerful obstacles ,external or from within. A tragic hero is a character who starts off in a high position but has a major downfall in the end . In the short story “The Gilded Six-Bits” the author Zora Neale Hurston puts her tragic hero through a powerful obstacle to show tragedy in the short story. “The Gilded Six-Bits’’ is considered Tragic literature through the use of dramatic tragedy, tragic hero, and tragic plot. “The Gilded Six-Bits” is considered Tragic literature through the use of dramatic tragedy.…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays