The Search for Identity in “Their Eyes were Watching God”

In, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” the antagonists are not truly evil people, rather they are misinformed. I find the “antagonists” to be damaged people, with humanly issues, imperfections, and occasionally have twisted morals, rather than being inherently bad people. Every one of Janie’s husbands share the common interest in wanting what they believe the best is for Janie. However their idea of “best” is not what Janie truly desires. I believe their intentions to be good most of the time, it is their execution and beliefs that is wrong.

Janie constantly finds herself in abusive relationships throughout the book, and fails to recognize she fully satisfy her own needs through other people. There is an apparent pattern in Janie’s behaviors, and the lovers she chooses during her life. She is hasty, and doesn’t think some things through. She has a desperate need for love, and she attempts to satisfy her needs through other people, and has occasionally unrealistic expectations which results in abusive and toxic relationships.

Nanny is Janie’s grandmother who has raised Janie to the best of her ability. Nanny is seen as an antagonist because she forces Janie into her first marriage to Logan Killicks, a character I will talk about later. Nanny has good intentions as she truly only wants the best for Janie. However the “best” in Nanny’s eyes, is not what Janie has in mind for her life. Nanny’s idea of Janie’s “best” is the life that Nanny wishes she had. Nanny’s own perception is skewed due to tragedies in her past. Nanny had been a slave, and was raped by her master resulting in the pregnancy of Janie’s mother. No one regarded Nanny as a victim, they rather regarded her simply, as a single mother. To make matters even worse, her own daughter, Janie’s mom went through similar tragedies. Janie’s mom was also raped, resulting in the birth of Janie. Her skewed perception can be attributed to these horrific events. This family has not seen true love by a true lover, and when you take a step back, all of the sudden this future Nanny sees for Janie makes a lot more sense. Nanny truly only wants Janie to go down a different path, a happy one at that. Nanny wants Janie to marry a good man who cares for her, but more importantly in her eyes, she wants Janie to be with a man who is financially stable. ""Yeah, Janie, youse got yo’ womanhood on yuh. So Ah mout ez well tell yuh whut Ah been savin’ up for uh spell. Ah wants to see you married right away.‘Me, married? Naw, Nanny, no ma’am! Whut Ah know ‘bout uh husband?’ ‘Whut Ah seen just now is plenty for me, honey, Ah don’t want no trashy nigger, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin’ yo’ body to wipe his foots on."" Hurston, 25. Janie doesn’t care as much for materialistic things and would rather find true love rather than money, something her first husband Logan doesn’t understand.

Logan Killicks is Janie’s first husband. He is described as old and ugly, and has poor hygiene, with habit of not washing his feet before bed. Janie was forced into “loving” and marrying Logan by Nanny who believed this was the best path for her to take. While Logan may be financially stable, he really doesn’t know what it means to be in a true loving relationship. He never seems very genuine, and seems very dry and monotone, something Janie dislikes. Logan seems uncomfortable with expressing his emotions, and would rather put up a manly and tough attitude, and refuses to make himself vulnerable. His idea of what it means to be in a mirage is twisted. He believes men should have a sort of control over women, an idea which was not extremely uncommon during this time. While Janie believes a man and a woman have their own roles in a marriage, Logan seems to believe the woman should help the man at all costs no matter what. ""Janie! Come help me move dis manure pile befo’ de sun gits hot. You don’t take a bit of interest in dis place. ‘Tain’t no use in foolin’ round in dat kitchen all day long’.

‘You don’t need mah help out dere, Logan. Youse in yo’ place and Ah’m in mine.’ ‘You ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh. Git uh move on yuh, and dat quick."" Hurston, 51. As we know Janie wants to be her own person, and these two characters are almost polar opposites, and it should be no surprise they aren’t good together. Logan isn’t a evil guy, he’s a man who acts on social normalities for the time, and seems very uncomfortable. We know Logan has feelings, he is just so scared of being vulnerable he refuses to express them. We can see Logan almost begin to express his feelings, and tell Janie how much he values her when she threatens to leave him. Unfortunately his stubborn “manly” attitude gets in the way yet again. Instead of allowing himself to be vulnerable, he decides to brush it off and say it’s not a big deal. This is the nail in the coffin for Janie, and she leaves him, to be with her next husband Joe Starks.

Joe Starks is Janie’s second husband. She is instantly attracted to him. He is well dressed man with ton of charisma and speaks confidently. However his confidence can quickly escalate to arrogance, which Janie notices quite quickly. He comes off as a misogynist, and believes women to be objects. “Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves. Ah knows uh few things, and womenfolks thinks sometimes too!"" Hurston, 180. At first Janie believes Joe cares for her, but soon realizes he cares for her as a material to flaunt, rather than another human being. Joe has become cocky because of him social status, and this takes over his life. In his everyday life he dresses better then people “below him” because he believes his expensive taste, express how he is above people who are not as financially blessed as he is. He becomes arrogant, something humans do often when we find success. He suffers from a god complex, and believes because of his social status, he is automatically above than those around him. Janie obviously builds up a distaste for Joe and she lets him know it all when he’s on his death bed. Even when looking death in the face, Joe refuses to take criticism yet again and dies insulting Janie.

In conclusion, I believe there to be no truly evil people in the entirety of the novel. The characters seen as antagonists take social normalities of the time to the extreme, or they do what they believe is the righteous thing to do. Nanny is just damaged and concerned Janie will go down a similar path as her and Janie’s mother. Neither of Janie’s husbands, are truly evil people simply people acting upon misinformed information. All of these characters don’t have evil intentions, they are just people with human imperfections, although occasionally to the extreme.

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora Neale, et al. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Distributed by Paw Prints/Baker & Taylor, 2010.

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