Janie's Husbands

One thing I noticed while reading their eyes were watching god was how each of Janie's husbands seems to characterize a particular theme or characteristic. Janie's first husband was "chosen" by her grandmother after she had her first kiss. As our class discussed, Logan Killicks represented security and safety economically for Janie. He had a house and land, and he was eligible to be married, so he seemed to be the perfect choice for Janie. However, Janie could never fall in love with Killicks. Throughout their marriage, he became less romantic and started to order her to work around the farm. From an outside perspective, this could show equality and Killicks' respect for Janie, but she took it in a very different way. She believed that her role was to stay in the house while Killicks would do the outside work. For this reason, and a rise in Killicks' abuse, she decides to leave him for her second husband Jody Starks.

Jo Starks is depicted to be a very contrasting character to Killicks. Where Killicks was rough, simple, and expected Janie to work, Starks was much smoother with his words, ambitious, and does not want Janie to work at all. This actually ends up turning out to be the problem for Janie. In the initial stages of the relationship however, she is much happier than her previous marriage. While in her first marriage, she was frustrated with the amount of work Killicks give her, in this one, she gets angry internally about how Starks won't let her do anything. Starks's ambition and set ideas about his role in society has taken away Janie's independence. It made me curious how the author meant to portray Janie with these situations. Did she want Janie to seem unreasonable with her idea of men? or was she setting up Janie for a Goldilocks-type story where she finally meets someone just right for her? This raises the question about Tea Cake. Will he be another of Janie's ex-husbands she remembers with bad feelings or the one that Janie will be able to love even after he's gone?