Their Eyes Were Watching God Characters

Janie Crawford, the central character in the novel, is one of the strongest female figures in American literature. Unlike her counterparts in many of the African American novels influenced by European realism and naturalism, her quest is fulfilled and her desire is celebrated.

Janie’s idealism forms the core of the novel. She desires not only romantic love but also connection with the natural and folklife that surrounds her. Hurston vividly illustrates this motif with the image of the blossoming pear tree kissed by singing bees, which is Janie’s picture of romantic love. Hurston elaborates the point by providing Janie with three husbands, each of whom reflects a part of Janie’s character and demonstrates the perils of the quest she has undertaken.

Logan Killicks, Janie’s first husband, embodies the dangers of passivity and the search for security. Nanny Crawford’s choice for Janie’s husband, Logan is the type of new African American envisioned by Booker T. Washington. He is a perfectly safe and secure man, a relatively prosperous small farmer who works his land with a mule. When it appears to Janie that she is also expected to work like a mule, she moves out of the passive mode instilled in her by her grandmother and escapes with the romantic Joe Starks. Starks, however, represents another of the possible traps on Janie’s quest for self-fulfillment.

Starks originally appeals to Janie’s sense of adventure and romance when he tells her of his plans to become a successful politician and businessman. She soon finds, however, that Joe intends to use her as an emblem of his success. Joe desires the status that comes from having a light-skinned wife; however, he commands Janie to keep her long straight hair hidden in a headrag whenever she is in public. Thus he controls the envy of his neighbors and Janie’s ambition to become one of the folk. Janie believes that Joe’s desire is to be like the whites for whom he once worked. He eventually builds a large white house for Janie that she compares to those of wealthy southern whites.

Joe’s materialism is nicely balanced by the egalitarian qualities represented in Tea Cake. Tea Cake is literally a man of the people, for he spends a majority of his time each year as a migrant farm laborer in southern Florida. He also has no desire to keep Janie above people; instead, he asks her to do what she wants. She decides of her own volition to work with Tea Cake out in the fields; he reciprocates by helping her with the housework after they both return from work, and he does his share of the cooking as well. He has his faults, including a fondness for gambling and knife-fighting, but to Janie even his faults add to his romantic appeal.

The townspeople of Eatonville and the migrant workers on the “muck” add yet another dimension to the range of characters Hurston represents in the novel. The Eatonville folk are out of reach of Janie as long as Joe is alive; their “signifying” ways serve as entertainment and culture in which Janie is not allowed to participate. The migrant workers and their bluesy style are Janie’s antidote to years spent caged by Starks in Eatonville, but even this group comes to resent her independence. Only when Janie returns to her home in Eatonville does she find fulfillment.

Janie Crawford Killicks Starks Woods

Janie Crawford Killicks Starks Woods, the novel’s central character, a beautiful, romantic, and hopeful black woman who, over the course of thirty years and three marriages, grows into an attractive, life-affirming, and independent woman. As an adolescent, Janie imagines life and especially marriage as a blossoming pear tree kissed by singing bees. She has her first experience of sexual ecstacy under the pear tree in her grandmother’s backyard. Her first two marriages end in disappointment, but Tea Cake, her third husband, reminds her of a pear tree blossom in spring. Even after Janie kills Tea Cake in self-defense, he lives in her memory, associated with sunshine and life’s plenty.

Nanny Crawford

Nanny Crawford, Janie’s grandmother, who rears Janie while keeping house for the white Washburn family. Born into slavery, Nanny flees a Georgia plantation when its white mistress, rightly suspecting Nanny to be her husband’s lover, threatens to kill her and sell her daughter Leafy (later Janie’s mother). Leafy is raped by her schoolteacher and leaves Janie to be reared by Nanny. Because experience has taught Nanny that “de nigger woman is de mule uh de world,” she forces Janie to marry for protection rather than love. Nanny dies a month after Janie’s first wedding, unforgiven by Janie.

Logan Killicks

Logan Killicks, Janie’s first husband, an older, responsible, and well-to-do farmer and landowner. Janie, at the age of sixteen, thinks that he looks like “some ole skullhead in de grave yard” and marries him only because Nanny insists. When Logan decides to buy a second mule so that Janie can work in the fields, she runs off with Joe Starks and never sees Logan again.

Joe Starks

Joe Starks, Janie’s ambitious second husband, whose goal is to become rich and powerful. Janie runs off with him because he promises her comfort and social position and because he reminds her of rich white people. In the black town of Eatonville, Florida, Joe opens a store and is elected mayor. As he gains power, however, he becomes less loving and less loved: He resents Janie’s desire for independence, as well as her youthful beauty, and he is resented by the townspeople because he demands their obedience. Mistakenly convinced that Janie is poisoning him, he dies a frightened, solitary, and pathetic man. His death leaves Janie an independently wealthy woman.

Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods

Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods, Janie’s adored third husband, who is playful, charming, and vital. Although Janie suspects that the much younger Tea Cake might be after her money, she takes a risk, marries him, and never regrets her decision. Tea Cake not only loves Janie but also, unlike Joe, encourages her growth toward independence by teaching her skills and praising her talents. During a hurricane, Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog while protecting Janie. When he becomes mad himself, Janie must shoot him to save her own life.

Pheoby Watson

Pheoby Watson, Janie’s closest friend, a loyal, intelligent, and affectionate woman. Janie tells the story of her life to Pheoby, with the understanding that Pheoby will share it with others. When Janie finishes, Pheoby says, “Ah done growed ten feet higher from jus’ listenin’ tuh you.”

Mrs. Turner

Mrs. Turner, a prideful, thin-lipped, light-skinned black woman who worships Caucasian traits and cannot stand dark-skinned black people. She tries, but fails, to have her no-account brother win Janie away from Tea Cake.