Daniel Im

Moosman

IB Lang 11

Their Eyes Were Watching God Summary

Janie Crawford is an attractive, confident, middle aged black woman who has gone

through a lot in her life. She starts off with explaining how her grandmother raised her while her

mother ran off. Her grandmother loves Janie very much and is dedicated to raising and is

dedicated to raise her. Her primary goal is to have Janie marry a man who can provide security

and social status as soon as possible. Her first wife is a farmer named Logan Killicks.Her

marriage was terrible. Janie was miserable because Logan is pragmatic and unromantic and also

treats her terribly. One day, a man named Joe Starks comes and sees Janie. He flirts with her for

a couple weeks in secret and eventually convinces her to run off and marry him. They traveled to

Eatonville which consisted of African Americans. Janie hoped that life would be different and

that she would have a big voice in society. Jody became the mayor, postmaster, storekeeper, and

the biggest landlord in town as well but Janie wanted more than that. She started to get a more

miserable life because her life became more monotonous and was stiff. She wished she could do

more and be part of the rich social life in town. However, Jody won’t allow her to go out and

interact with the people that were below her in power and was forced to work at the shop.

However, she stayed passionate and full of dreams through her tough marriage.After 2 decades

of marriage, Janie finally starts to insert herself but Jody starts to insult her. Janie tells the

townspeople about how bad Jody is and he later beats her. He later gets ill and after not

interacting with her, she comes to her deathbed and then leaves him, leaving him to die. After
Jody's funeral, Janie was finally free. She rejects any other men after her independence until Tea

Cake is introduced. He is 12 years younger than her and they start dating. She then marries Tea

Cake 9 months after Jody’s Funeral. She leaves Eatonville and goes to Jacksonville with Tea

Cake. The first week they married, they had many difficulties. Tea Cake once stole her money

and left on night which caused her to think that he married her from just the money. But he

returns explaining that he never meant to leave and stole the money in moments of weakness. He

then promised to get the money back and share everything together.They later move to

Everglades and with Tea Cakes quick wit and friendliness makes their shack the center of

socializing. Later, a hurricane occurred. They flee but a rabid dog bites Tea Cake. No one

realizes that the dog was rabid and he falls ill. He goes mad and becomes convinced that Janie is

cheating on him. He starts firing a pistol and Janie is forced to kill him to save herself. She is

immediately put of trial for murder but all the white and male jury finds her not guilty. She then

returns to Eatonville where her neighbors start to gossip about her saying that Tea Cake left her

and took all her money. Janie ends up going to Pheoby and in the end, feels at one with Tea Cake

and at peace with herself.

Reflection

This book shows off the things women have to go through back then and now. Though it

may not be so evident but that doesn't mean it doesn't go on today. In the book, Janie has to go

through so much in her life. A husband that is rude to her treating her like an animal rather then a

human while another husband treats her as a slave rather then a wife. She is expected to do all

these things and isn’t allowed to do what she wanted. She felt like she wasn’t free at all and

having to suffer. This is a thing that I feel is going on today where women are expected to do all
this hard work while on the other hand, aren’t allowed to do what they want. This isn’t just to

women however. Men also have to go through something similar. They have all these

expectations to fulfill and their freedom is limited just to fulfill these expectations. However,

men don’t have it as hard as men do. The reason this is a big problem is because this isn’t really

being taught to the children and people of the world. They are taught and exposed to these

gender stereotypes and they feel they have to fulfill this. However, if they were taught about the

problem, they can start changing at a young age and since they are the future of society, they can

change this problem and change it up so that everyone can be happy and not suffer. So all in all,

this book shows the struggle and single women would/could go through and that education is the

solve for this.