Never Belonging but Always Independent

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, a biracial woman living in the aftermath of the Civil War and in the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement learns to live life on her own terms. Janie is born half white and half black, and throughout the story never entirely belongs to either race. She is ostracized from both sides of her race at times, and at other points in her life she is “worshipped” because of her biracial status. It is because of her inability to truly belong to either race that she is able to recognize her own independence as a woman and choose to live her life on her own terms.
The story begins as Janie becomes a young woman, growing out of her teenage years and forced to think of her future stability. Her Nanny is of African descent, and therefore belongs to one race and one background. She imposes unto Janie the mentality that she was raised with, as a slave, essentially making Janie arrive at the decision to marry Logan Killicks in an attempt to maintain stability with a man that owned a house and land. When Joe Starks arrives, she makes her first real step toward independence and leaves Logan to marry him and move to Eatonville. However, upon arrival in Eatonville, Janie begins a marriage and a significant portion of her life in which she simply does not belong.
Her mixed-race status elevates her above the town, putting her in a situation in which she is simply the mayor’s wife that resides in a large house and manages the town store. Toward the end of her marriage with Joe, Janie begins to speak her mind when she notices the men in Eatonville speaking in misogynistic tones, while other women in the town do not stand up explicitly to their husbands.
When Joe dies, Tea Cake arrives for Janie and gives her another opportunity to discover her independence. Again, Janie makes a decision unlike the culture of the town she lives in, and leaves with Tea Cake for another life. Her mixed-race status cause her to begin her life in Eatonville as a separate entity, and in the end it allowed her to leave the town without the fear she would lose their acceptance, because she never had it to begin with.
The remainder of Janie’s story is centered on Tea Cake and their life in the Everglades. They live in a place in which the workers are migrant, therefore not establishing a solid society as was present in Eatonville. Janie belongs to this environment because of its lack of Unitarianism. Her biracial status worked to her advantage, and although she was not entirely accepted by either side, her independence allowed her to shape her own circumstances in her life, learning how to live on her own terms a little easier than those in the novel bound by one race and one cultural background.