In chapter 3 of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie gets married to Logan Killicks. Janie, 16 at the time, is forced by her grandmother to marry Logan. When Janie shows her displeasure for her relationship with Logan, her grandmother tells her that the stability of marriage is more important than love. This moment shows the contrast between Janie and her grandmother’s ways of thinking. I think Janie’s grandmother is fearful that Janie’s hopefulness and more positive but less realistic view of life will keep her from having a stable, comfortable life. Since Nanny is getting old and feels like she will die soon, she wants Janie to marry as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Janie is not satisfied with her life being married to Logan Killicks, in a lot of ways he represents her losing freedom and her childhood. He often makes fun of the way she grew up and tries to force her to do work she doesn’t want to do.
Janie’s dissatisfaction with her life and Logan Killicks drives her into another marriage with Joe Starks, or Jody, who she meets in chapter 4. Janie’s first impression of Jody is that he reminds her of Mr. Washborn, the white man who Nanny worked for and Janie grew up around. I think that since Logan in many ways represents an end to her childhood, she immediately likes Jody because he reminds her of her childhood and the things she lost when she married Logan Killicks. One of those things would be freedom. When Jody and Janie first meet, he tells her that he would never make her work like Logan does, “‘Janie, if you think Ah aims to tole you off and make a dog outa you, youse wrong. Ah wants to make a wife outa you.’”(29, Hurston). When Janie hears this, she most likely sees Jody’s offer as freedom because it is so different from the confinement of life with Logan. Janie runs off with Jody not because she actually loves him, but because she sees him as a freedom away from Logan and the life her grandmother forced her into.
Joe Starks and Logan Killicks, however, are more similar than they originally seem. Both trap Janie into their ideas of what they think a “good wife” would be. To Logan Killicks this would be working on the farm with him and doing whatever he says without complaint. This is actually kind of similar to Joe Starks, who wants Janie to work at the shop and do whatever he says without complaining. The main difference is that Logan wants Janie to do more draining work, while work at the store generally bores Janie, and she is not allowed to really talk to anybody or have much fun. When Jody dies, that is when Janie finally has freedom because she is no longer trapped into someone else’s vision of her.
Great job on your post! I liked how you connected her life experiences, particularly with marriage, to freedom. I also definitely agree with you that, while Jody and Logan may seem different, they actually are very similar in their restrictions of Janie. Great job!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I thought it was really interesting how you were able to show how her marriages kind of led her to where she ends up in the book. And I do agree that even though the men had different ways of treating Janie that they were pretty similar overall. And I agree that it did sort of take Jody dying for Janie to realize she can be happy on her own.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I like how you demonstrated the restrictions that are put upon Janie with her relationships with Jody and Logan Killicks. I like your point on how Killicks and Joe seem to be very different in their treatment of Janie from the outside, yet when viewed closer they have very similar intentions.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I like how you talked about how Janie's relationship with Killicks changed her life course. I also think that you made a really good point about how Jody had to die to help Janie come to the conclusion that she could be satisfied alone. Good work!
ReplyDeleteYou make a really good point about the men in Janie's life. Each of her relationships were built on what the men wanted from her, and even though she too had her own reasons for marrying each of them, at the end of the day her husbands were the ones who reaped from their marriage with Janie- especially Joe Starks. Even Tea Cake used Janie, manipulating her into following him into whatever he did. You have some great insight about Janie's freedom! She was only truly free whenever she wasn't married and tied down. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! It loved the overall theme of freedom you used and how it highlighted how restrictive her relationships were. I liked how you depicted Janie's relationship with Killings as a loss of freedom and childhood, and her relationship with Jody as a way of her trying to get her freedom and childhood back. Nice Work!
ReplyDeleteHi Olive, this is a wonderful blog post! I really enjoy how you mentioned that Jody "reminds her of her childhood and the things she lost when she married Logan Killicks". This was not something that I had even thought of while reading, so I appreciate how you pointed that out! In your blog post, you do a good job of comparing the two seemingly different men that Janie is married to before Tea Cake. I agree with your summing up at the end that Janie gained her freedom when she was separated from others' idea and perception of how she should be.
ReplyDeleteIf Jody initially "reminds Janie of her childhood and the things she lost when she married Logan Killicks" (I like this idea a lot), Tea Cake serves this role even more so--we might add that he reminds her of the childhood and young adulthood that she's lost with BOTH of her previous husbands. Tea Cake essentially says this to Janie at one point, when they're discussing the age difference between them: she's spent her "ole age first wid somebody else" and she "saved up" her "young girl days to spend with" him (181). And Janie agrees wholeheartedly with this assessment.
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