Zora Neale
Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God criticizes society’s restraints
on Janie as a woman. From the beginning of the novel, Janie is forced to make
hard decisions while under intense pressure. Janie compromises her ideal vision
of a marriage and ends up making bad decisions in regards to her first
marriage. This then leads to more decisions and a failed second marriage as
well.
When Janie
marries Logan Chillick, she abandons her idealization of a marriage all
together. Because of Nanny’s past experiences, she pressures her to marry a man
for financial and social stability. Janie does not find Logan attractive, on
the contrary she actually finds him repulsive. In order to set Janie up for a
good life, she abandons the idea of love to satisfy her Nanny’s sense of security
for her life.
Janie’s
second marriage is also not a result of her feelings for Jody Starks, but
rather finding Logan repulsive. When she runs away from her life with Logan,
she even says it does not matter whether Jody was there to meet her, she just
could not stand a life with Logan. She is attracted to the things that make him
different from Logan. She likes his ambition and work ethic as opposed to Logan’s
sedentary life style. She also likes the way he says he will treat her. She was
offended when Logan said he would buy a mule for her, but likes when Jody says
he will treat her daintily and almost like a trophy wife. She acts with an
impulse rather than thinking through a life with Jody. As a result, instead of
feelings respected and valued by Jody, she feels repressed and neglected while they
are married. When Jody dies, Janie feels relieved and as if a large pressure
had been lifted off of her. For a brief period after Jody dies, Janie simulates
mourning. She wears the appropriate clothing that would go with mourning, but is
not actually depressed by his death.
Janie’s
life after her second marriage is the first time she acts on her own without outside
influences. Although there are people who give her advice against Tea Cake, she
chooses to ignore them. They warn her to be cautious because of the age gap and
difference in economic status, but Janie chooses to follow her feelings. She
gets closer to her “pear tree” ideal vision and make her romantic decisions
based on love. Because of this, her time with Tea Cake is the first time in the
novel the readers are hopeful for Janie. Although we do not yet know what
happens, Tea Cake is the first time Janie’s relationship has a possibility of a
positive outcome.
