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From the start we could notice that Janie is very similar to Daisy. Just like the latter, Janie seeks a better life where she isn't restricted and instead is surrounded by love. in order to do so she even "Every day after that they managed to meet in the scrub oaks across the road and talk about when he would be a big ruler of things with her reaping the benefits. " Later, when her husband died, she regained her freedom by "taking careful stock of herself, then combed her hair and tied it back up again. Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see, and opened up the window and cried, 'Come heah people! Jody is dead. Mah husband is gone from me.'“Just like Daisy who once again found joy in life after meeting Gatsby.

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As I began reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, It was clear to see from the beginning that it revolved around feminism. In the quote: "Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge.  He didn't want her talking after such trashy people" (53). Jody refuses to let Janie speak up and share her stories with the rest of the people on the porch, isolating her from the others. Janie’s voice empowers her and represents her freedom as a woman and she is being silenced by the men around her.

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Janie, the main character is portrayed by the author as a strong woman who grows with age. However, there are instances that aren't so positive. A lot of the time women, especially black women got the worst treatment. "So de white man throw down de load and tell de n***** man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De n***** woman is de mule ud de world so fur as Ah can see." (Chapter 2) Though it is hard to read, I think what Nanny is saying is that there are three stages. These involve the white man giving work to the black man and the black man giving that work to the black woman. The black woman handles most of the brunt.

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Throughout the book so far Janie's romantic life has gone back and forth, with it she continues to learn more and more from her mistakes, in chapter 3 for the first time she even "began to ... expect things." Things is such a general description but my interpretation of this was that for the first time she began to have some form of individuality. But then again when she runs off with Joe and after a while their relationships dissolves into what her and Logan's once was until he dies and "She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair." Once more she was free to be herself.

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When first reading the book, I began to think how one of the common theories would likely be feminism. I did not however realize the unique path that the book would take. For instance right at the beginning of the book, the narrator gives the following quote: “That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly." (Chapter 1) When looking at the theory of feminist criticisms, it is expected that men and women are portrayed as equal or fight for that equality during the text. I am very interested in the fact that the narrator explicitly sets up that men and women are not equal in the way that they handle things mentally and I found that very interesting. Later on in the book however, more traditional experiences of Feminism and Marxist Criticisms take root. In chapter 5, the narrator states that  "Janie soon began to feel the impact of awe and envy against her sensibilities. The wife of the Mayor was not just another woman as she had supposed. She slept with authority and so she was part of it in the town mind. She couldn’t get but so close to most of them in spirit." I love to see the different applications and viewpoints that can be contained within a single Theory

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I think feminism is what this book mostly revolves around. It shows the strong development of Janie from a young age. janie Stated that "Ah ain’t never seen mah papa. And Ah didn’t know ’im if Ah did.

Mah mama neither. She was gone from round dere long before Ah wuz

big enough tuh know. Mah grandma raised me. Mah grandma and de

white folks she worked wid. She had a house out in de back-yard and

dat’s where Ah wuz born."
with her being raised by her grandmother
shows how much of a stronger women she became because she was raised by a woman

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I think feminist theory can be applied in this book because the main character, Janie, can be seen as a strong woman who is beginning to understand what her path is in life. From the beginning of her discovery when "She had been summoned to behold a revelation", to her relationship with Jody, she grew so much and was able to show that she could stick up for herself. While it's hard to tell whether she intended to be seen as a feminist or if she was just sticking up for herself, we can see the amount of growth that has taken place since her past, as seen in her relationship with Logan

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The first lines of the book distinguish differences between men and women. The lines, “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board,” and, “women forget all those things they don’t want to remember and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly”, recognize how men and women view their lives differently. Men are more practical and realize their dreams are unattainable, while women can’t distinguish between dreams and reality, “the dream is the truth”; thus, they live a more idealistic and less practical life than men.

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Janie managing to go against past ideals

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Janie managing to go against past ideals

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Through the first chapters we see Janie constantly being pushed away from her feelings about marriage, having them being diminished by her Nanny. Her Nanny and the "other old folks" try to convince her into it and end up giving her expectations which will not be reached. When she brings up how she doesn't feel this love which she had been told would come along with marriage she is told that "If you don’t want him, you sho oughta"(chapter 3). This was said mainly due to the husband she married being very well off, giving the idea that love doesn't matter in marriage.
When she runs away with Joe, who is a very well off man himself, she does so in hopes of these expectations of marriage which had previously failed. Similar to her last marriage there ends up being a lack of love, but also a lack of equality, “Here he was just pouring honor all over her; building a high chair for her to sit in  and overlook the world and she here pouting over it!” (chapter 6). Due to this Janie feels a dissatisfaction with her relationship, but unlike previously when she had her Nanny to tell her that she should feel satisfied she trusts her own feelings and ends u speaking up about it.

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We see Death mentioned a lot in this story. But it is never just death, it is personified to make it feel real, like it's a living and breathing being that will come get everyone eventually. At the beginning of the book men's "dreams [are] mocked to death by Time" (1). While Death is portrayed as this all powerful being, it cannot function without time, nothing can function without time. We later on see Death portrayed as this strange but powerful creature when Janie begins to describe its house. Death is, "the great one who lived in a straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof." But "what need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him?" (8) In the eyes of Janie, Death is a creature, and Hurston lets us see that.

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Hurston's language calls back to earlier passages.

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Hurston's language calls back to earlier passages.

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Something I really appreciated that Hurston did with her language was that, whether she meant for this to be the case or not, there were a lot of lines she'd use that would remind me of earlier passages and help me track a change in a character's perspective on something or a change in their identity. For example, there was a line Hurston used in Chapter 3 about Janie where she said “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Chapter 3). Immediately after reading this I thought to go back to that introductory passage where Hurston discusses general thoughts about men and women, and to me, this line seemed to really connect to the line, “Now, women forget all those things in life they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget.” My thoughts of there being a connection between those quotes turned out to be right, though not in the way I expected, because in the later chapters, Janie is, in fact, trying to push down the emotional burdens that come with her marriage. A second example I found of Hurston doing this was towards the end of the chapters we read in dialogue between Janie and Jody where Janie says "'And now you got tuh die tuh find out dat you got tuh pacify somebody besides yo’self if you wants any love and any sympathy in dis world. You ain’t tried tuh pacify nobody but yo’self. Too busy listening tuh yo’ own big voice.'" The last part of this quote very clearly seems to be a call back to Joe’s aspiration to be a big voice that he voiced to Janie right when he first met her. I would guess that Janie’s original perspective on this was one of hope because maybe if she were able to follow this man who knew what he needed to be happy, she’d be able to find happiness with him. However, now she talks about his big voice with contempt and regret because she’s seen how wrongly he’s used it.

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Throughout the first 8 chapters Janie struggles with marriage. When she is told that she “needs” to be married she is worried about having an unhappy marriage because “she knew...that marriage did not make love.” (Chapter 3, pg. 25) She was extremely unhappy in her first marriage to Logan because she did not love him. When she found Joe, she thought that her problems were solved and that “from now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything.” (Chapter 4, pg. 32) But after a while, she started to realize that she was struggling with more than just the person she was married to, but her placement in society as just a “wife,” especially when Joe said that “she’s uh woman and her place is in de home.” (Chapter 5, pg. 43) Joe continues to disrespect Janie and she struggles more with why she is unhappy in her marriage.

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The females in this book are portrayed as strong.  “If you don’t want him, you sho oughta. Heah you is wid de onliest organ in town, amongst colored folks, in yo’ parlor. Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road and ...Lawd have mussy! Dat’s de very prong all us black women gets hung on. Dis love!”. As you see women are making the purchases and moves that men normally make, I can already tell this is a female heavy book.

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Throughout the chapters we have read, Janie and Pheoby seem to be the only real stable relationship. They are there for each other and are ready to listen to each other for whatever they need. "Pheoby’s hungry listening helped Janie to tell her story." (Chapter 2) They are always respectful towards one another and that is a rather rare trait in people so far. They have such a genuine ability to get along and just do what they want with each other. Their friendship and reliance on each other continues and will hopeful keep continuing through the rest of the book. "So she went straight to her bosom friend, Pheoby Watson, and told her about it." (Chapter 8) Whenever anything goes wrong everybody wants to know but Janie immediately knows to go to her friend. I am glad to see that the women are being portrayed as strong and independent from men in this book.

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As Janie and Jody's relationship develops within the book, Janie begins to struggle with herself. In the quote, “She didn’t want to live like that. Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time? Had been doing it for years. Well, if she must eat out of a long-handled spoon, she must" (Chapter 8, Page 116), Janie stands up for herself against Jody's degrading comments about her appearance and capability. As Janie's broken relationship with Jody develops, her character changes due to her internal struggle of constantly having to choose whether she should put herself or Jody first. Janie, at first, tries to tolerate Jody's behavior mainly because she still in part loves him.  However, she eventually becomes fed up with him. Readers get insight of Jody's and Janie's individual perspectives on the relationship and observe how the fear of confrontation drives the conflict between the characters. Near the end of chapter 7 is when readers reach the climax of the conflict where Jody degrades Janie for her looks and criticizes her as an incapable worker. After years of tolerating Jody's abusive behavior, Janie has a character development in the end of chapter 7 by choosing to put herself first. By showing how Janie has decided to let go of her relationship with Jody and think of herself first, Hurston is able to efficiently draw an end to the conflict and mark another beginning for Janie.

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When "A feeling of sudden newness and change came over her. Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south" (Chap 4), Hurston leaves it up to the reader to make their own mind about whether Janie's decisions were naïve or the true next step in her life. Even when returning to it after Jody's death, you can still argue she wasn't throwing away her life because least she was able to make new experiences. But you can also argue nothing good has come from her decision to run away as even after her relationship with Jody ends, she is forced to hide her hair and structure her face, "forming it into just what people wanted to see"(Chap 8).

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Janie's ability to think and feel for herself is stunted the moment "Nanny's words made Janie's kiss across the gatepost seem like a manure pile after a rain" (Chap 2). In this moment, we are watching Janie become conscious of her need to repress what brings her joy. Janie continues to lock her truest, freest thoughts away as she silences herself around Joe, so much so that "a feeling of coldness and fear took hold of her" (Chap 5).