At the start of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, a sixteen year old black girl growing up in rural west Florida around 1920 to 1935, is raised by her grandmother. The Civil War had been over for 40-50 years; however, America, particularly amongst the southern most states, is not changed dramatically after Lincoln's Reconstruction. African-American racism, prejudice, and just plain uneducated bias heavily exists throughout most of the United States.

Janie Crawford goes through major self discovery when the story starts. Janie's grandmother, her only caretaker at this time, grew up as a slave. Knowing how bad things could be if not properly taken care of - by a wealthy land owner - Janie's grandmother did only what she knew best. She had Janie marry at the tender age of sixteen. The depressing thing about this was

Janie, well into her first marriage, gets fed up very quickly with her husband. He treats her as his mule, yet still cares for her. He is unloving and has no emotional attachment to his wife. Naturally, Janie wanted to leave Logan, and he had no power to stop her -physically nor verbally. Shortly after a small dispute between Janie and her husband, she met a man named Joe Starks. He carried himself well, and like her husband Logan, he was not intimidated by any man. Joe was a smart, stylish, driven fellow. He said the right things to Janie, looked better than Logan, and had more interesting things going on. All these things attracted Janie, so she simply left her husband to go to run away with Starks to Green Cove Springs.

Janie and Joe arrive in a town called Eatonville. These people are simple folk. Joe, being the sophisticated and fearless man he is, is disappointed with this place. Mr. Starks is told there is no mayor, so he asks to buy this town's land so he can set up a store and post office. He ends up making a lot of money from the store and is soon elected mayor. Soon Joe has rumors about him going around town. Some people believe he is too stern with the people; he kicked a man out of town for trying to steal Joe's sugar cane wagon. Janie is also labeled. Some are jealous of Janie's position - that she is married to Joe as a trophy wife. Janie feels isolated; she, being the mayor's wife, distances her from the rest of the women in the town. Later on, Joe grows farther and farther away from each other. Joe's obsession with being a powerful man takes precedence over his relationship with Janie. Janie finally says something to Joe about their relationship when he asked her, "Well, honey, how yuh lak bein' Mrs. Mayor?" (The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature 326) Janie relies, "It's all right Ah reckon, but don't yuh think it keeps us in uh kinda strain?" (The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature 326) Joe disagrees and states that he will only continue to be a cold, distant husband. This is when Janie realizes "...the impact of awe and envy against her sensibilities." (The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature 326) She will need to leave Joe in order to find true love.

As the novel ends, the love Tea Cake and Janie share is golden. They love each other so much. Janie begins to see things around the town that she never saw before. She noticed music being played in the town. She got to know a woman named Mrs. Turner more as well. Mrs. Turner was a mulatto like Janie. She would try and convince Janie that the whiter men got, the better they were. She thought that black people brought down lighter colored folk, such as herself. Janie disagreed with Mrs. Turner and they were not good friends.

Janie fought her grandmother's plan, as she should have, but it was no use. Janie married Logan Killicks as planned. They married "in Nanny's parlor [on] a Saturday evening with three cakes and big platters of fried rabbit and chicken." (The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature 312)

This excitement of what was out in the world came to an abrupt halt when Janie's grandmother, one day, had a talk with her. Janie was unaware of how bad black people had it - especially black women. Since grandmother knew the levels of how bad humans could be to one another, she insisted on Janie's marriage right away. Grandmother overlooked that Janie had a future because she herself had a worse situation as a child. Janie's grandmother admits, "Yeah, Janie, youse got yo' womanhood on yuh. So Ah mout ez well tell yuh whut Ah been savin' up for uh spell. Ah wants to see you married right away." (The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature 308) Grandmother tells Janie of a man who has been interested in a young woman's hand in marriage. His name is Logan Killicks, and he had a wife that already grew old with him and p

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2867
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)