In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Janie have shown many of her traits from being a black girl who lived in a white family backyard with her grandma to a wife of a first and second husband. Janie, the protagonist, is a grand-daughter of an ex-slave grandma, Nanny Crawford, and is half black half white due to an unfortunate event happened to Janie’s mother whom Janie never get to meet. The fact that she is a mixed black and white individual, Janie experienced moments where it bring out her personalities and traits that reflect who she is.
Janie as a pre-adult, is a bright and romantic youngster, and respected for her beauty and lighter skin. The moment when she encounter sexuality when she observes a honey bee pollinating a pear bloom in the backyard. “She saw a dust bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight.” (pg.10). For the first time, Janie feels that she is encountering a disclosure because honey bee gives off an impression of being ‘kissing’ the pear bloom. This made Janie feels an elated association achieved by the ‘marriage’ of the honey bee and blossom.
More of her trait were demonstrated when she was married to a middle aged man named Logan Killicks, a farmer. Due to the difference of Janie and Logan age, Janie started to draw some lines in her own way. “ “Whut you need two mules fuh? Lessen you aims to swap off dis one.”” (pg. 26). As the wife, Janie is happy to play out the tasks that she sees as legitimately hers, but those roles exclude plowing Logan’s potato field. At this moment, Janie demonstrate a sense of resilient because of her refusal to plow the potato field. Because of the fact that Logan fail to perceives the special characteristics that Janie conveys inside herself, this resulted a marriage without love. In addition, Janie want a superior life, so she trust that she will discover if she was married to Joe and that’s exactly what she did after living Logan. The action of leaving the surname Killicks and become a Starks prove she had a sense of independent.
Joe, the second husband in Janie’s life, needs her since he sees that she has class. She is a physically appealing young lady, far over some other lady Joe has known. “ “Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home.”” (pg.41). When Janie noticed Joe only takes her as a possession or something he has captured to show alongside his different belongings. Janie began to feel the loneliness similar to when she had a relationship with Logan. Neither her grandma or Jose ever talk about what she needs throughout her life. This made her always yearning for something special in her life. Janie feel unsatisfied and is a long way from being fulfilled. After living sometime with Joe as a major’s wife, she realized all she needs is to love and to be loved.
