Love and independence play very important roles in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Are Watching God. In her novel, the protagonist, Janie Crawford, craves a perfect love. Her dream of true love is combined with equality between both lovers and independence. Through different types of marriages Hurston is able to declare the effects on Janie as a character and add to the overall theme of the novel. Some people love or marry for the wrong reasons and desperately need to figure out, like Janie, the definition of true love.
Over the course of the novel Janie is involved with several men, one of which includes Logan Killicks. Janie marries Logan to please her grandmother rather than herself. Janie’s grandmother believed a woman should marry a man for financial security and love would come later on. So even though their marriage began with him showering her with gifts it soon turned into him using her for work. His relationship with Janie is very cold and there is very little communication between them. To him, Janie is simply another pair of working hands. He did not care for her dreams or aspirations. Although there was some independence, there is little …show more content…
This new man has a whole new set of issues. Starks turns out to be very self-centered and materialistic. He gives Jenny a different kind of love; one only filled with gifts and goodies. What Joe had for Jenny was more lust than love. He was overly protective and took away the little independence she had. Joe only wants Janie to be a prized possession or a sort of trophy wife. He is able to give her many riches but not liberty and affection. The little love they shared eventually dies and so does he. In Janie’s second relationship Hurston again describes the need for love, independence, and equality in a relationship by clearly demonstrating the effects on Janie and adding to the idea of finding one’s true
Over the course of the novel Janie is involved with several men, one of which includes Logan Killicks. Janie marries Logan to please her grandmother rather than herself. Janie’s grandmother believed a woman should marry a man for financial security and love would come later on. So even though their marriage began with him showering her with gifts it soon turned into him using her for work. His relationship with Janie is very cold and there is very little communication between them. To him, Janie is simply another pair of working hands. He did not care for her dreams or aspirations. Although there was some independence, there is little …show more content…
This new man has a whole new set of issues. Starks turns out to be very self-centered and materialistic. He gives Jenny a different kind of love; one only filled with gifts and goodies. What Joe had for Jenny was more lust than love. He was overly protective and took away the little independence she had. Joe only wants Janie to be a prized possession or a sort of trophy wife. He is able to give her many riches but not liberty and affection. The little love they shared eventually dies and so does he. In Janie’s second relationship Hurston again describes the need for love, independence, and equality in a relationship by clearly demonstrating the effects on Janie and adding to the idea of finding one’s true