Their eyes are watching God

In the film, Their Eyes Were Watching God, we have witnessed Janie evolve from a young girl at the tender age of seventeen to a beautiful grown woman. We have not only seen Janie grow as a person but also come into her own. Various characters in this film have played a tremendous role in the woman she became, from Logan Killicks to her true love Tea Cake. It is safe to say that by the end of the film Janie was successful at finding love and living life to the fullest. In order for us to fully see this we must first speak about her previous relationships.

Janie’s first marriage was to Logan Killicks, a man or more than twice her age. This marriage was arranged by her grandmother as more of a security blanket than for love. Logan only saw Janie as an extra hand to help him around the house and the yard. He also saw Janie as an unappreciative little girl who couldn’t be happy with the life she lived and all that he could provide for her even after he passed. Janie couldn’t see herself spending the rest of her life with Logan due to the fact that they were on two different pages and love was not present in their relationship. This resulted in her leaving with Joe who seemed to want to offer all the things Janie wanted in her life at that time and it didn’t hurt that she was attracted to him as well.

Joe Starks was Janie’s second husband who she met while freeing her first husband’s pigs from their pen. Joe was a man full of promises and ambition and Janie loved that about him. In the beginning you could clearly see the chemistry and connection between them. It was quite clear that they did indeed love each other and wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of their lives together. This was up until Joe started trying to control his wife by first making her cover her long beautiful hair and also stopping her from speaking when the town wanted to hear what she had to say. He started to become jealous and only wanted her to work in the shop or cook his meals and bring them to him at the shop which became habitual throughout the movie.

Although Joe was free to talk and mingle with the town’s people on the porch of their shop his wife, Janie, was not allowed to because that was not what the wife of the Mayor was supposed to do. Joe viewed her as a trophy wife; someone who was pretty to look at but was not to speak unless he said so. After twenty years we see their marriage deteriorating especially when he slapped her in front of the town. She than started to sleep in the little shed next to the house up until the day of his unfortunate passing. Even though they didn’t see eye to eye she still went to see him just minutes before he took his last breath.

Janie’s final relationship was with Tea Cake. You could see the chemistry as clear as day when they first met. Although she was worried about their twelve year age difference she enjoyed his company. Tea Cake was different from her previous relationships. With Logan Killicks it was more so arranged and he also was successful in his own right and owned a lot of land. With Joe Starks he was also successful due to the fact that he helped Eatonville become the town it was and he was elected mayor and continued to be mayor for 20 years. But Tea Cake was just a regular guy with a big heart. Throughout their relationship he never once told Janie what she could and could not do. He allowed her to make her own decisions and follow her heart and she was able to speak freely around him as oppose to watching what she said. He did not see her as a trophy wife but as his equal.

Tea Cake gave Janie the courage to leave Eatonville and go with him to explore different parts of the Country. With the two or so years that Janie had spent with Tea Cake it was fair to say that these were the best years of her life. It was evident that they had a good time, from slow dancing at a bar to finding a home in the muck all in the matter of months. They went through so much together from living through a horrific hurricane up until his unfortunate death because of rabies. With Tea Cake Janie felt a sense of belonging that she never felt with her other relationships and although it was short lived she appreciate every second of it.

In Janie’s forty years of life she had more fun and adventure than most people twice her age. She went through ups and downs in her relationships just as we all do but she came out of each ordeal smiling and ready for the next adventure. Although she did not get it right the first two tries the third try was apparently and luck one. Tea Cake and Janie’s relationship is a relationship many wished they had. A man to love them and treat them like a queen even though he didn’t have much to his name and also a man who let you be who you are regardless of what others thought. Tea Cake was Janie’s true love and with his help he helped her to live life to the fullest.