In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie battles to find Individualism within
herself. Janie, all her life, had been pushed around and told what to do and how to live
her life. She searched and searched high and low to find a peace that makes her whole
and makes her feel like a complete person. To make her feel like she is in fact an
individual and that she's not like everyone else around her. During the time of 'Their
Eyes', the correct way to treat women was to show them who was in charge and who was
inferior. Men were looked to as the superior being, the one who women were supposed
to look up to and serve. Especially in the fact that Janie was an African American
women during these oppressed times. Throughout this book, it looks as though Janie
makes many mistakes in trying to find who she really is, and achieving the respect that
Living with her Grandmother and theWashburns', Janie was surrounded and
raised with white children. She always believed that she was white herself, and that she
was no different than anybody else. As she was growing up, she was told what to do and
how to live by her grandmother. Janie's grandmother planned her life out for her. She
told her that she must get married right away. "Yeah, Janie, youse got yo' womanhood
on yuh. So Ah mout ez well tell yuh whut Ah been savin' up for uh spell. Ah wants to
see you married right away." Janie's grandmother did want what was best for Janie, but
she basically told her what to do instead of letting her know what she wanted for her.
Janie's grandmother told her exactly who she was going to marry and who she wasn't
even to think about. "Whut Ah seen just now is plenty for me, honey, Ah don't want no
trashy negro, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin' yo' body to wipe his foots
on. Brother Logan Killick...