Their Eyes Were Watching God

Janie is the protagonist of the story and the book describes the struggles that she goes through in finding herself. When we are first introduced to Janie she is older but goes into a story describing her past and she takes us back to when she lived with her grandmother. Her grandmother, Nanny was a slave before the emancipation. While she was a slave she was raped by her owner and had a child. Soon after the birth of the child she fled the plantation to try and find a better life for her daughter. She made it her mission to try and give her the life she didn’t have, but she wasn’t able to give it to her she ended up pregnant and she left the baby with Nanny and ran away. Nanny saw this as an opportunity to have a second chance and she can try and give this baby a better life. Nanny tried to push all of her ideals on Janie.
“Honey de white man is de ruler of everything as far as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it’s someplace way off in de ocean where de black man is in power but we don’t know nothin’ but what we see. So de white man throw down de load and tell de niggerman tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t do it he hand it to his women folks. De nigger woman is de mule of de world so as far as ah can see. Ah been praying fur it tuh be different wud you.”(14)
Nannys intentions weren’t bad, just trying to get a better life for Janie. Her views of a better life are security, with a man and money. This is why she arranged a marriage between Janie and Logan. He is a farmer and has money and is able to provide for Janie. She tried to love him, giving it time and trying to see the best of him. In this relationship she was just as she was with her grandmother. She wasn’t independent she was property.
When she meets Jody she felt something that she never felt with Logan, an attraction. She feels free and not as confined as she was with Logan. Not long after the freedom dissolved away the relationship began to turn into her last relationship. Jody begins to treat her like a trophy wife not allowing her to wear her hair down and confined her to the things she was able to do. Jody soon became the Mayor and really began to confine her. Her life became mundane, like how it was with Logan. Her life was again unsatisfying.
When Jody died she finally was relived and was able to be independent. He left her with a lot of money so she didn’t not need to continue to find security with a man because she has made her own. So when she meets Tea Cake she doesn’t need to worry about anything other than her feelings for him. She was truly able to evolve with him. He showed her things that the others couldn’t. She wants to go with him to places and work in the field with him. She if a completely different person and she seem to be the most in her element.