Essay Their Eyes Were Watching God

I had this assignment to make an essay about Janie and her three husbands. And this is the example for the essay about Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Janie's Wardrobe

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie goes through several marriages in her journey to seek love. As Janie's husbands change, her wardrobe also change. Janie's different marriages are symbolized by her very different wardrobes. Janie's first marriage was to Logan Killicks when she was just a young girl at the age of seventeen. Janie’s wardrobe mainly consisted of aprons and work clothes. Logan was very controlling over Janie, he made her work in the field and cook all day. ‘Most of her time was spent cooking and she almost always wore her apron. That made her feel the apron tied around her waist. She untied it and flung it on a low bush beside the road an walked on , picking flowers and making a bouquet.’ (page 32). Janie threw off her apron while she was leaving Logan, symbolizing how she was no longer under his control and she was now back on her journey for love.

Jody Starks was Janie’s second husband and was even more controlling over Janie than Logan. Janie usually wore very nice designer dresses because Joe was the mayor of Eatonville and felt that the mayor’s wife had to wear the best. The dresses symbolize the control and arrogance of Joe, because he forced Janie to wear things she was not comfortable in just to show off their money. Joe also made Janie wear head rags to cover her hair after an incident in the store. ‘That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others.’ (page 55). The head rags symbolize not only the control of Janie like in her first marriage but it also shows the jealousy Jody has towards his wife and other men.

Once Janie was an older woman in her forties she finally found the love of her life Tea Cakes. Tea Cakes soon became her third husband and has no comparison with the other two marriages. While married to Tea cakes Janie wore whatever she wanted because he was not controlling over her like in either of her other two marriages. Janie usually would wear overalls like Tea Cakes symbolizing how free and not under control she was. “They don’t need to worry about me and my over halls long as Ah still got nine hundred dollars in de bank. Tea Cake got me into wearing ‘em-following behind him” (page 7) Janie did not have to show off her money in clothing while being married to Tea Cakes as she did with Joe. But didn’t wear overalls because she was forced to work like with Logan.

Throughout her multiple marriages Janie’s wardrobe symbolized her marriage. Her first two marriages were very similar they were both very controlling and both wardrobes, although very different symbolized the control. Janie’s last marriage and wardrobe actually symbolized the opposite of the other two marriages being that her clothes represented her freedom instead of her control.

Nelva Kirana Nurafindraningrum.