Their Eyes Were Watching God

Born enslaved, Janie’s grandmother Nanny bore her enslaver’s child; when that daughter, Leafy, was herself sexually assaulted and impregnated—a trauma that permanently impacted Leafy’s mental health, Nanny reared her granddaughter Janie. Nanny’s ideas about marriage and respectability grew out of both her experience as an enslaved woman and out of watching her daughter be exploited. She believed African American women should marry for material security and that love and physical desire should be negligible considerations. She forced Janie to marry Logan Killicks; however, just before Nanny died, she realized that her dreams for Janie were perhaps wrong-headed.

Janie’s second husband Joe “Jody” Starks is an ambitious man who convinces Janie to move to Eatonville, where he eventually becomes the mayor. Joe changes little over the course of their marriage: He remains self-important and thrives on bending others to his will. He resorts to taunts and physical abuse when his standing is threatened, expects Janie to obey him unquestioningly, and sees Eatonville as a monument to himself. He forces Janie to assume the identity of the dutiful, middle-class wife, never delivering the passion she imagined beneath the pear tree. He dies of kidney failure.

Janie’s third husband Tea Cake is a handsome gambler and adventurer who woos Janie by treating her as a woman with desires of her own. A bluesman who plays guitar and piano, Tea Cake represents the fulfillment of Janie’s sexual and romantic desires; their love allows Janie to have experiences she has only dreamed about for much of her life.

Pheoby Watson is Janie’s best friend in the town of Eatonville, entrenched in the community but a fierce defender and loyal companion. Pheoby listens to Janie’s life story without the prejudgment shown by the other Eatonville residents who gather on the porch and gossip. When Janie finishes her narrative, Pheoby considers herself transformed and no longer satisfied with her own life.

Leafy Crawford was Janie’s mother, the product of a forced relationship between Nanny and her enslaver, who had light skin, hair, and eyes that she passed onto her daughter. Raised to fulfill Nanny’s dreams of respectability, Leafy developed mental health conditions after a brutal rape by a teacher, which caused her to conceive and give birth to Janie. Unable to recover psychologically, Leafy wandered and lived in the forest.