The main character in Their Eyes Were Watching God struggles with society and the search for self-identification. She defies the stereotypical black woman by insisting on independence. Janie Mae Crawford, the main character in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes were Watching God significantly changes both internally and externally throughout the novel due to her grandmother's influence, her relationships with Jody Starks, and her quest for self-identity.
             Janie's grandmother was the most influential person on Janie and her dream for Janie was to attain social and financial security. Nanny wanted Janie to "sit on high" by marrying someone that had a good position in the community that could protect her (Page 16). Nanny liked Logan because they "Got a house bought and paid for sixty acres uh land right on de big road" (23). Janie's grandmother dislikes that "De nigger woman is mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see" because she believes that black women are equal to mules (14). Nanny believes that she is in the lower class because she says, "the de white man is de ruler of everything" (14).
             Joe changed Janie significantly throughout their relationship. Janie wants to be a part of the community, however, Joe isolates her so she will not become a normal woman in the town. Joe made Janie put her hair up and he "wanted her submission and he'd keep on fighting until he felt he had it" (71), Janie dislikes the submissive role that she achieves through her relationship with Joe and she wants a new identity that was "a man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them" (72), Janie learns through her relationship with Joe about her self division. After Joe dies, Janie rejects her grandmother's revelation that women are supposed to be slaves to men. "She hated her grandmother and had hidden it from herself all these years under a cloak of piety. She had been getting ready for her great journey t...