Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis

The roles of women in Their Eyes Were Watching God vary and are very interesting in chapter one through six. In the beginning, Nanny tell how men were able to take the innocence, sexually, from women. Nanny was raped by her slave owner, and then she had her baby daughter. She then was abused by the slave owner’s wife when she saw the complexion of the baby and knew it was her husbands’. Nanny was able to escape without being killed herself and having her baby taken away. Nanny’s daughter, leafy, was raped by her school teacher, and she wasn’t ever right after her horrific experience. Leafy went down a very destructive path with drinking the source of her problems. Those traumatic experience shaped the outlook Nanny had on what a women needs from a man and what roles Janie should have with men. …show more content…
Nanny goes on to explain that the ‘white man’ tells the ‘black man’ what to do, but the man doesn’t carry it, the women does. Therefore, the only way to avoid this fate is being with someone like Logan Killicks. Nanny says Logan Killicks provide protection and land to live off of. Nanny is telling Janie marriage is not about the image of love but rather the man having something to offer you, given her past experience with men.

Logan Killicks thoughts on the role of women is made straightforward when he stops talking to Janie in ‘rhymes.’ Logan Killicks believed women should be able to not only: cook, clean, and perform other house task, but help out with manual labor in the fields. Janie disagreed and thought that her job was in the house. Logan Killicks thought that the women was supposed to summit and do what she was asked without question. This was the point of no return in their relationship (climax). This ultimately ended their marriage and what caused Janie to run away with Joe