Janie's marriages

Janie’s first two marriages contrast in some ways, but actually share similar characteristics in that they both fail to keep her happy, and she very quickly becomes disillusioned with the man she has married. In the case of Logan Killicks, she goes into the marriage already against marrying him, and although Nanny makes her, she is apprehensive due to his looks and habits. Janie cares about loving him and wants to reach her ideal of marriage, while Nanny, who has had a tough life, believes the ideal marriage is one that can provide financial security and prevent much hardship in Janie’s life. Janie brings up her concerns to Nanny after she is married, asking Nanny why she doesn’t exactly feel love for Logan Killicks, even though they have been married for a while. During this discussion, we see the disconnect between Janie’s ideals of love in marriage, and Nanny’s practical idea of the necessity of marriage as a means of security and safety. Nanny tells Janie to just stay with Logan because of what he can provide for her, and also tells her that eventually she will develop feelings for Logan, or at least appreciate what he does for her. After Nanny’s death, it seems like only a matter of time before Janie and Logan’s marriage ends. Nanny was the one who was holding it together, and without her trying to get Janie to stick with it, Janie seems destined to leave. Sure enough, a year later, Janie meets Joe Starks.

Joe doesn’t fit Janie’s ideal husband picture either, but as she says in the book, he stands for something new, a change, which she wants to pursue. Her life in Eatonville seems to become a low point for her, since she has to suppress her emotions and act in ways that she doesn’t want to act. Jody is over protective of Janie and wants her to act high class and proper. Janie feels suppressed and restrained; she lacks freedom to do what she wants to do in the marriage. While she does do a good job at playing the part, helping in Jody’s store, she feels emotionless and detached, going through the actions rather than truly enjoying life. Again, she has a situation where she has money and financial security, as Jody is always helping out the town and is mayor of Eatonville, but her life doesn’t meet her ideal. Throughout the book, we see Janie struggling with the idea of the playing the part and accepting that her idea of marriage was naive and innocent in the face of the realities of the world, or to keep expressing herself and trying to find the right fit. This struggle is shown in her marriage to Jody,  as when as he is dying, she finally expresses why she was so frustrated with the marriage. She enjoys her independence very much, but again pretends to be in mourning to conform to expectations. She is wary of potential suitors now, and seems to be more experienced and less willing to rush into a marriage after her experience with Jody. However, she still seems to hold out hope that there might be someone who fits her ideal out there.

Dialogue

One of the most striking things about Their Eyes Were Watching God is the dialogue, and the way it is presented by Zora Neale Hurston. An important question that came up was whether the phonetic dialogue, representing a style of speech that especially at the time had connotations as being the way uneducated people speak, adds to the novel and how it does so. I think the phonetic speech seems a little downgrading, as it separates the narrator from the characters speaking. The narrator sounds polished and speaks in clear succinct sentences that are easy to read and understand while the dialogue is written with odd spellings and broken sentences to represent speech.

However, I do think that despite there being connotations that the people of the South aren’t as educated/skilled as the blacks of the Harlem Renaissance in the north, the dialogue adds a dynamic to the book that makes it more interesting. Sometimes, it is necessary to read the dialogue aloud to yourself just to understand the conversation better, and in this way I feel like the book truly conveys speech. In a book that is so reliant on the telling of Janie’s story, the dialogue gives it a personal feel. The way the book flows from Janie’s voice to the narrator is done well, as it fits in rather seamlessly. One concern with these two styles of writing is the disconnect that could disrupt the narrative, but the author does a good job of splitting up the styles and keeping things fresh while also telling the narrative in a cohesive manner. This all plays into the idea that Janie is telling the story, we are not just observers of her story, but she is actually telling it. It is a frame narrative, but the book reminds us throughout that Janie, having been through everything she talks about, is telling us the story. This also adds to the depth of the story, because we see Janie reflect on her feelings in the past and how they changed as she grew older and more experienced.