Janie

     In the story, "Their Eyes Were Watching God, " the main character is Janie, and as being a current reader of the book, I have some mixed feelings about her. To share my ideas and thoughts about her, I must establish some points about her life first.
     The first thing that I want to discuss is her goal of finding love. Janie, in the first half of the book, has already gone through two marriages. Her first marriage with Logan Killicks was something that I found quite strange. The fact that she chose to leave him and run towards an uncertain future seems extreme to me because I could never dream of doing such thing. Another thing about this action is that she married someone who is of such age difference of her. I know, as being a teenager in the twenty first century, I must keep the time period of the story in mind, yet it seems a big gap. In addition to this, I personally think that she was being childish and immature when she claimed that she couldn't stand him anymore. I felt bad for Logan because the details of the story portrayed him to be a nice man that did everything for her. Most importantly, he loved her as well because her rejecting him ever so often hurt him every time. I could see her being impatient with him but I think that she should have stayed in the marriage and tried to fix the marriage in a more adult-like way.
     Despite her marriages in the story, I agree with Janie's desire to find true love. I do believe that there is someone out there in the world that will make you the most happiest person in the world. Yet, I know this person is someone who will not only have the joys of marriage but as well as disagreements and maybe tough times. The part of this dream that I disagree with Janie is the way she decides to find or meet him. Personally, I would get to know the person first and spend a few moments together. The way that Janie approaches love is by rushing in immediately. If the person gives her some type of confidence or momentarily happiness, she believes it's love and decides to act dramatically. An example of this is Janie running away with Joe or deciding to marry Tea Cake and to sell the store. These actions seem desperate and extreme because they could turn out to be a mistake. As with her running away with Joe, she never imagined her to be sad and lonely when being married to him. She also disapproves of things that men do that don't satisfy her dreams. These actions make her seem childish and someone who doesn't really know what she is truly looking for.
      Another part of Janie that I would like to discuss is her grandmother's perspective on life. When I was reading the beginning chapters of the book, I knew that it was not the grandmother's intention to be ruining Janie's life. From the grandmother's perspective it seems reasonable to desire someone worthy of Janie's hand who has a stable life already established. Another reason why I can understand her perspective is because their family's history is full of heartbreaks and abandonment. Yet I also understand Janie's desire to have the chance to meet someone who she likes instead of pressuring a marriage.
      In conclusion, I like Janie's character. Her unique background history and development of a character creates a sense  of women empowerment that I thoroughly enjoy despite some actions that she might have committed.