Best of Miami Portfolios 2001 - Units.muohio.edu

A Response to a Text—Stephanie Wood
Softly Spoken Strength
Through her use of southern black language Zora Neale Hurston illustrates how to live and
learn from life’s experiences. Janie, the main character in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching
God, is a woman who defies what people expect of her and lives her life searching to become a
better person. Not easily satisfied with material gain, Janie quickly jumps into a search to find true
happiness and love in life. She finally achieves what she has searched for with her third marriage.
Unfortunately, however, after years of a happy marriage, Janie accidentally kills her husband during
an argument. Her town forces her not only to deal with the grief, but to prove her innocence to a
jury. Enduring and overcoming her three husbands and forty years of life experiences, Janie looks
within herself to find and use her long hidden, but courageous voice.
Janie’s first attempt at love does not turn out quite like she hopes. Her grandmother forces
her into marrying Logan Killicks. As the year passes, Janie grows unhappy and miserable. By pure
fate, Janie meets Joe Starks and immediately lusts after him. With the knowledge of being wrong
and expecting to be ridiculed, she leaves Logan and runs off with Joe to start a new marriage. This
is the first time that Janie does what she wants in her search of happiness: “Even if Joe was not
waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good…From now on until death she was going to
have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” (32). Janie’s new outlook on life,
although somewhat shadowed by blind love, will keep her satisfied momentarily, but soon she will
return to the loneliness she is running from.
At the beginning of her second marriage, her new husband seems to hold all the qualities
she looks for. He treats her wonderfully and strives to make her happy. Soon after they move to a
new town, Eatonville, Joe concentrates his time and thoughts on being the mayor and becoming
powerful, not towards Janie. One evening, as the town gathers for the grand opening of its general
store, Joe denies Janie the chance to make a speech, even though the crowd wants one: “‘Thank yuh
for yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married
her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home’” (43). Janie, very hurt and
embarrassed, does not tell Joe of her feelings, but instead keeps them to herself. This nonconfrontational
attitude toward her marriage shows how easily Janie lets Joe control her with his
authority: “‘Ah hates disagreement and confusion, so Ah better not talk. It makes it hard to get
along’” (57). Instead of working out her anger with her husband, an important quality in any
working relationship, Janie keeps quiet and lets the frustration and emotion build within her.
As their marriage grows, so do Janie’s opinions and her ability to express them. She starts
to stand up to Joe when they get into arguments, although Joe continues to refuse to see or speak
with her. As Joe grows ill, and close to death, Janie forces him to listen to what she has to say:
Naw, you gointuh listen tuh me one time befo’ you die. Have yo’ way all yo’
life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh let yo’self heah
‘bout it. Listen, Jody, you ain’t de Jody ah ran off down the road wid. You’se
whut’s left after he died. Ah run off tuh keep house wid you in uh wonderful
way. But you wasn’t satisfied wid me de way Ah was. Naw! Mah own mind
48