Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie And Logan's Relationship

Her first relationship with Logan Killicks helps her realize that she should not settle for him, even though he is rich and can support her financially. She learns that she has to fall in love with someone out of her own free will, not because her grandma chooses him for her. After the first few months of leaving her alone, Logan starts to demand manual labor from Janie and stops treating her with respect: "If Ah kin haul de wood heah and chop it fuh yuh, look lak you oughta be able tuh tote it inside. Mah fust wife never bothered me ‘bout choppin’ no wood nohow. She’d grab dat ax and sling chips lak uh man. You done been spoilt rotten" (Hurston 26). Although he does not know Janie’s character and her home life, he automatically assumes that she is spoiled and would not be useful.
This sets a precedent for the rest of their relationship, with Logan demanding that Janie should do work and treating her unfairly when she refuses.
In addition, Logan compares Janie to his first wife, which puts her down and makes Janie feel like she is not good enough for him.“By forcing Janie into the role of the mule, Logan shatters Janie’s imaginary identification: he desecrates the pear tree, Janie’s ideal of love and marriage” (McGowan 52). Although when Janie marries Logan, she does not love him, she expects to grow to love him. However, when she sees Logan, the image of him destroys her spirit of love and sexual awakening. Coupled with the fact that Logan makes her do manual labor, her ideas of true love and sexual awakening is destroyed. “Janie defines sexual communion through the natural process of reproduction—specifically through the image of a “pear tree soaking in the alto chant of visiting bees” (11). In contrast to this image, Nanny, Janie’s grandmother, forces her into a marriage with Logan Killicks, an old man with a home and sixty acres” (Miles
67). Janie’s grandmother seeks to help Janie be happily married and secure, unlike her mother, who was pregnant with Jamie at a very young age. By marrying her off to Logan, a man who can guarantee Janie financial security, she helps ensure that Janie’s life would be forever secure and comfortable. She also does not want Janie to be led by temptation and her sexual desire. Through Logan, Janie realizes that richness does not equal love, especially when the other person does not act lovingly.