Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis

The Harlem Renaissance was the beginning of African Americans finding new cultural identities and ideals as America reached the end of slavery. One of these African Americans was Janie Crawford whose upbringing was different from that of the slave period. Janie, the main character in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (1937) by novelist Zora Neale Hurston is a perfect example of showing that humans have the skill to learn and grow by trial and error. She experienced life’s offers different from those around her and this is conveyed through her value of love repeatedly compared to her friends and families. However, instead of finding her perfect ideals of love in a man, Janie discovered herself as a woman in her adventure by introducing herself
Janie first did not understand what love meant to her, but at the age of 16 she came to know it because “That was before the golden dust of Pollen had beglamored his rags and her eyes” (Hurston 12). Hurston who compares the nature theme to natural born love shows readers that Janie fell in love with Johnny Taylor due to inexperience she had with identifying love. However, her unknown love does not stop there as her grandmother, who sees her approaching womanhood, persuades her to marry a man named Logan Killicks as an attempt to stop Janie from making the choice of just loving, but to obtain a sustainable future (Hurston 13). Janie discovers that her meaning of love differs from that of her grandmother and elderly because her grandmother who came from the slave period wanted Janie to achieve a marriage, which can provide for Janie’s needs in material value. On the other hand, Janie soon begins searching for her ideals of love by herself, as she knew “Even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good” (Hurston 32). Janie was through with the life her grandmother setup for her and instead wished to search for love even if she went in with no knowledge or experience of it. She did not care if Joe was there or not because her choice to leave the marriage was her own decision and would lead to her finding her independence. However, Joe was present and Janie allowed him to charm her back to her search for love. After the marriage with, was Janie’s last cold toe dip in searching for love as she accepts Tea Cake more hesitantly saying, “oh, Tea Cake, don’t make no false pretense wid me” (Hurston 109). A more experienced Janie learned not to rush in to love after finding out love does not work, as you want it