Their Eyes Were Watching God

"Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore."(Janie, 191) This quote was said in Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. The novel is consisted with several themes, and one of them is about the different kinds of love. In the story, Janie has never truly experienced love when she was young. Her idea of love is that once you're married, that's when you will be able to feel the love. Unfortunately, she had struggles trying to find her true love. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie was married to three different men, who gave her different experiences of love.

Her first marriage was to a man named Logan Killicks. Nanny, Janie's grandmother, arranged for Janie to be married to Logan because he had 60 acres with a mule. In this time period, for a black man to have that much land meant he was wealthy in the black community. Janie was happy to be taken care of in the beginning, but she wasn't even attracted to him. Her marriage with Jody didn't fit her idea of love. According to Hurston, "She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dead was dead, so she became a woman."(Hurston, 25) Janie's idea of love was that she'll be married to a great man who can give her the full experience of love sensually and emotionally. But with Logan, that did not happen. She felt he was not that great man, and that he won't be able to love her like she wants to be loved. So after the experience with Logan, her idea of love changed completely. By becoming a woman, was that she was starting to realize how love is, but she was seeing the world differently.

Her next marriage was to a man who wanted a big voice, his name was Joe Starks. Joe Starks was richer and soon to be more successful compared to Logan. Janie was actually attracted to Jody unlike Logan. She liked what he spoke of. Hurston mentioned how Janie felt, "Janie pulled a long time because he did not represent the sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance."(Hurston, 29) Jody didn't fit Janie's idea of love neither, and that's why she didn't really consider leaving with him yet. But she liked how he spoke of making things better for all the black people. He was making his way over to an all African American town to create a better life for him and others. Eventually, Janie left with him for this new town, a new life and another chance of a love. They got to the town, and Jody felt there had to be changes to the town because it was a small town with no mayor. He was voted for mayor because he bought more acres to build more establishments. When he started to gain so much power that's when things started to change between him and Janie in their marriage. As the mayor's wife, she wasn't allowed to do much. Jody isolated her from doing much, he even forced her to tie up her hair. Her hair was significant in the story since she was