Essay on Equality and Inequality in Their Eyes Were Watching God

In this act of coupling with Tea Cake following Jody’s passing, Janie defies the community's prospects as they gossip about what she does, what she wears, when she does it, or how she does it, and the fact that she’s spending a large quantity of distrustful time with a younger man who is also happens to be of lower class. In this companionship, Janie begins to draw away from compliance to others' ideas of what's appropriate or necessary for social life. As some may refer to Tea Cake as yet another obstacle for Janie to hurl over in her journey to independence, he also can be viewed as a catalyst, as the man who launched Janie towards her final steps in maturation and becoming self confident and self thinking. Although, Tea Cake did throw a metaphorical wrench into Janie’s progression, during the last moments of their relationship. The pent up tension between the expectations of Janie’s own set of standards and beliefs, ultimately shatters in her concluding interaction with Tea Cake, where Janie is forced to choose between dedication, loyalty, and the preserving of her own life.

In Janie's first marriage to Logan Killicks, she marries a guy her grandmother forces her to marry. She thought she would fall in love with him over time, but she could not. She could not love him because he did not show her; her definition of love. He was Nanny's, Janie's

Janie in her first marriage is her far from mesmerized with her husband's 60 acre land. The incompatibility between her and Logan ultimately cause the marriage to fail. Logan

One of the things Janie learns during this relationship is that she is just as important to society as everyone else. While she was married to Joe (Jody) she wasn’t allowed to participate in public events or have conversations with the guys at the store. This changed when she developed a relationship with Tea Cake. He taught her all the things Jody wouldn’t allow her to do like checkers and how to shoot a gun. “ … He set it [checkers] up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside.” (Hurston, 95-96). Janie was not only allowed but encouraged to participate in conversations with everybody. Tea Cake listened to her views

Janie’s first husband was Logan Killicks. Janie was not able to obtain this kind of love from Logan, considering that all he cared about was her helping him on his acres of land.

After all of Janie’s toxic relationships with men who don’t deserve to be loved such as Logan and Joe she finally finds her voice with tea Cake. Dealing with her two past marriages she begins to learn skills with Tea Cake that ultimately save her life and showcase her inner strength in finding herself and inner

From the early stages of Janie's life, her grandmother inserted herself and quickly stated her plans for an arranged marriage between Janie and a man named Logan Killicks. She wanted Janie to marry him because he would provide her with protection and a stable life. Janie’s grandmother grew up in harsh conditions as she was born a slave and simply wished for Janie to live a safe and fulfilled life as a black woman in society, like the life that she never received. Feeling the pressure from her grandmother and the need to become a woman, Janie agrees to marry Logan, believing that they will find the love she hopes for with each other as the marriage progresses. Janie soon learns that “Marriage did not make love” and that she did not truly love Logan for the right reasons.

He wins her heart with his energy, and willingness to make Janie his equal. Tea Cake is the only husband that actually takes a genuine interest in Janie. He takes her hunting, fishing, and plays checkers with her. She especially enjoys playing chess, the fact that he considers her intelligent enough to learn such a game shows that he thinks more of Janie than Logan or Joe ever did. The town disapproves of Janie and Tea Cake because he is poor and younger than her. They have the impression that he is just after her money. Janie and Tea Cake leave the town of Eatonville and travel to a town called Jacksonville where Tea Cake has work. The sense of gender equality is very important to Janie in a relationship. Tea Cake asks Janie to work alongside him in the Everglades fields. Logan and Joe both wanted her to work, but she resented it. The difference is that Logan wanted Janie to do hard labor because he thought of her as an object like a workhorse. Joe wanted Janie to work in the store, which she also disliked because Joe just wanted to publicly display her as his trophy wife. Tea Cake’s attitude about Janie working is completely different. He gives her the choice of working and doesn’t command her. Janie goes to work the next day, “So the very next morning Janie got ready to pick beans along with Tea Cake. There was a suppressed murmur when she picked up a basket and went to work. She was already getting to be a special case on the muck. It was generally assumed that she thought herself too good to work like the rest of the women and that Tea Cake "pomped her up tuh dat." But all day long the romping and playing they carried on behind the boss’s back made her popular right away.”(133) This is the first relationship that Janie doesn’t care to work. She actually likes working alongside Tea Cake. As time passes the town gets word of a hurricane coming. All the people start fleeing to different places, but the boss

Tea Cake encourages Janie to pursue her passions and desires, allowing her the freedom to explore her identity without fear of judgment or societal expectations. Through her relationship with Tea Cake, Janie learns to prioritize her own happiness and fulfillment over outward conformity, ultimately embracing her true self. The tension between outward conformity and inward questioning is further exemplified in Janie's interactions with the residents of

When Nanny sees Janie kissing Johnny Taylor, Nanny forces Janie to marry Logan Killicks because she claims that Janie needs protection because “[The African American] woman is [the] mule [of the] world so [far] as [I] can see” (12-14). This shows that Nanny gives into the stereotype that women are weak and need protection by a man. This also shows that Nanny does not trust men around Janie and despises men that Janie feels attraction towards. In chapter six, the pugnacious men of Eatonville scold Tony because he refuses to slap his wife when she disrespects him, the men say things like “If [that was my] wife, [I’d] kill her cemetery dead” (74). This proves that men have to assert dominance over women through violence. This also proves that the society wants violence in relationships because that is how the order is kept. In chapter five, Joe does a speech because he is the new mayor is Eatonville. When Janie wants to do a speech, Joe does not allow her, saying that “She’s [a] woman and her place is in [the] home” (43). This demonstrates that Joe wants Janie to live up to her gender role as a woman. This also demonstrates that Joe does not want Janie to have a say in most things, he just wants her to be a quite housewife. Sexism keeps the characters from happiness because their persistence to maintain gender roles does

            Janie's first husband was a poor old soul named Logan Killicks.  He was an ugly, dirty farmer whose prime concern for Janie was that she do her share of the work in order to keep the farm up and running.  Janie was simply another pair of hands to do some work.

Janie’s marriage to Logan was not anything special. In the beginning Logan was acted like a good husband and would do all the work on his land, and Janie would stay in the home, cooking and cleaning. Eventually, after a couple of months of being married, this so-called honeymoon stage was over. Logan now acted as if he owned Janie and she was his slave, commanding her to do whatever he wanted, not listening to what she wanted. Janie felt constraint; she felt like she was losing her freedom to Logan, she felt like she was not Janie anymore, she was now Mrs. Logan Killicks and she was now obligated to do whatever he commanded of her. Janie was tired of being in an unhappy marriage; she did not love Logan like Nanny said she eventually would: “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman”, and she did not like the way she was being treated. One day while she was outside she saw a man walk by, she thought he was very attractive so she drew attention to herself and the man came over. After having a conversation

Even before Joe’s death, Janie “was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew not how to mix them.”(75) Joe’s influences controlled Janie to the point where she lost her independence and hope. She no longer knew how to adapt to the change brought upon her. When she finally settles and begins to gain back that independence, the outward existence of society came back into play. “Uh woman by herself is uh pitiful thing. Dey needs aid and assistance.”(90) Except this time Janie acted upon her own judgment and fell for someone out of the ordinary. Tea Cake was a refreshing change for Janie, despite the society’s disapproval. “Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.”(128) This was what she had always dreamt of. When she was with Tea Cake, she no longer questioned inwardly, she simply rejected society’s opinions and acted upon her own desires.

Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie’s journey towards spiritual enlightenment and her development of individuality, largely through Janie’s relationships with others. Hurston uses the themes of power, control, abuse, and respect, in Janie’s relationships with Nanny, Killicks, Starks, and Tea Cake, to effectively illustrate how relationships impact identity and self-growth.

Tea Cake is Janie’s soulmate and the first person to truly understand her. Tea Cake cared for and loved Janie, teaching her things and showing her a love she had never experienced before. Their relationship was intimate and loving, which Janie lacked in her first two marriages. While Janie grows and finds herself throughout the story, Tea Cake effects her the most. After meeting Tea Cake, Janie experiences the most growth and finds herself truly happy, thanks to the love he shows her.