God, by Zora Neale Hurston is a book detailing the life of Janie Crawford. This book takes the audience on a journey of Janie Crawford starting out as a young teenage girl and then turning into a woman. Throughout the novel Janie moves around a lot, but she is brought back to the place she grew up at when tragedy strikes. The book is narrated from Janie’s point of view and her journey starts out when she is sixteen years old, and is going to be married off for money. On her voyage of life, she finds what the true meaning behind love is through her three marriages. Janie narrates the novel of her three marriages to her best friend Pheoby Watson.
Janie’s journey starts out on her grandmother’s plantation shack when she is sixteen years old. Her grandmother raised her after her mother walked out on her when she was a young girl. Janie’s grandmother’s view of the world is different from hers, because she was a slave. Her grandmother wants to marry her off to a husband who has good money and can provide well for her. Her first husband goes by the name Logan Killicks, he is an older farmer. Janie moves in with Logan and after a while she realizes that she will never really be happy with him. Being unhappy in her marriage with Logan forces her hand in flirting with young- and good-looking Joe Starks. Janie has an affair in the shadows with Joe for a few weeks, before she finally decides to runoff and with him and get married.
The newly married couple moves to the town of Eatonville, which turns out to be filled with all African Americans. Janie’s husband Jody becomes the mayor and hopes to have a big voice within the town. Janie was not meant for the rich lifestyle, so things became stagnant in her relationship with her husband. Being apart of Jody’s lifestyle would mean she could not surround herself with the common folk. Jody wants Janie to be his own trophy wife, so she silently obeys what he asks, but on the inside, she secretly still has her own goals set for her life. Being married for almost two decades finally begins to take a toll on Janie.
Their marriage begins to crumble into shambles. Meanwhile, Jody begins to get very sick. Jody later dies after she confronts him about the way he treated her during their marriage on his deathbed.
Tea Cake a young man, who is twelve years younger Janie comes along and peaks her interest. She is immediately attracted to him. They begin dating very soon after her recent husband’s death, and this causes gossip to spread like wildfire throughout the town. Nine months go by and Tea Cup and Janie get married, they then move to Jacksonville, Florida. While living in the Everglades, a hurricane passes through forcing the couple to have to flee their home. Tea Cake becomes very ill minded when he thinks that Janie is cheating on him and she kills him in self-defense. After Tea Cake’s death she moves back to
Eatonville where she recounts her life story of her three marriages to, he best friend Pheoby.
Overall, throughout Janie’s journey she learns about love through each of her marriages. Her first marriage showed her that love cannot just come with major it is something that you have to learn. Her second marriage taught her patience.
