Lessons Learned

In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie, is a woman who develops her identity throughout the novel by using the knowledge and experience she obtains from her three marriages. Janie's marriages to Logan Killicks, Jody Starks, and Tea Cake are the most crucial elements in her development as a woman. After each relationship is over, her attitude undergoes a metamorphosis, directing her towards her eventual independence. Janie, through …

…mind of her own. In her defining moment of identity formation, Janie "pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see" (Hurston 193). At the end of a novel focusing on self-revelation and self-formation, Janie survives with the knowledge she has claimed her horizon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**