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Their Eyes Were Watching God Transformation

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In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie has allowed the audience to better understand the limitations, and emotional challenges that women had to deal with in a male dominated society. Janie’s relationship with her first husband, Logan Killicks, consisted of tedious, daily routines. Her second husband, Joe Starks, brought her closer to others, than to herself. In her third and final marriage to Tea Cake, she eventually learned how to live her life on her own. Janie suffered through many difficult situations that changed her as a person, and her opinion on love.
As a young girl Janie had some romantic bones in her body. Her introduction to love—watching a bee pollinate a flower while lying underneath a blossoming …show more content…

She hoped that her obligatory marriage with Logan would make her feel loved. She wished to please her grandmother's wishes in marrying Logan. Janie does not find Logan appealing. In other words, “The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree but Janie didn’t know how to tell Nanny that. She merely hunched over and pouted at the floor” (Hurston 13). Janie did not know how to tell Nanny that she did not like Logan nor found him attractive. Logan was a working landowner and expected Janie to help him work on the farm. Janie had a strong backbone and would tell him that she is not helping him. After living with Logan for a short period of time, Janie seeks freedom from him and longs to seek new love. As an example Hurston said, “The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off” (Hurston 32). The author professed to us as readers that Janie is seeking freedom away from Logan because their optimal pictures of love do not …show more content…

Instead, she extends her energy toward keeping his memory alive. Janie doesn't despair; she picks herself up, goes home, and passes on her story. Once she reconnects with her best friend, Phoeby, she explains her new insight on what true love is. In the quote
"Dey gointuh make ‘miration ‘cause mah love didn’t work lak they love, if dey ever had any. Then you must tell ‘em dat love ain’t somethin’ lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore” (Hurston 191).
Janie lectures Pheoby that love is not the same for everyone who experiences it. Changing from the beginning of the novel where she was willing to love the first man she comes in contact with. Instead, it is as fluid and changing as the sea only shaped by the shores, or men it meets. Janie ends up thanking Tea Cake for giving her the opportunity to experience love and for taking her far beyond her

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