Zora Neale Hurston Character

Words: 1125
Pages: 5

Janie Crawford is the main protagonist of the story Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Janie’s story takes place in an era of American culture where women are subservient to men. Janie marries three men in her lifetime, and the last two husbands she had treated Janie differently. The reason that the last are significant and the first is not because Janie acts noticeably different with the last two husbands.The manner in which Janie’s husband acts, reflects in her social life. With her first husband Jody, she forces herself to act reserved. With her third husband Tea Cake, Janie acts more freely with others. Janie moves from being a female oppressed by men to one that is more free of the overbearing influence of men. Janie loses her shackles of male authority and donned the metaphorical vestments of a liberated woman with her drastic changes in her social standing as she transitioned from being with Jody to Tea Cake. A liberated woman is not defined, but if one were to take the words literally, it would be “freed woman.” The liberated woman could also be someone without the ideal freedom of being without rules to follow. It would make sense to include non-extreme …show more content…
She is able to hold parties or get togethers with other folk and enjoy the company along with Tea Cake. Jody would never have allowed Janie to be serving people outside the store. Tea Cake is careful not to be possessive unless the danger to Janie is eminent. A local of Janie and Tea Cake’s area of the ‘Glades by the name Mrs. Turner was trying to hook Janie and her brother up, but Tea Cake did not let that happen. Tea Cake beat Janie that time to show Mr. Turner that she was his, and Janie did not voice any serious disagreement to Tea Cake’s method. Janie progresses to a free spirited lady when she got together with Tea Cake. Her relationship with Tea Cake sculpted her to being expressive of her feelings and