I am women; here me meow.

In Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes were Watching God", women are portrayed in a inferior and seem to do a lot of thinking but not much action. The image of Janie we see in the beginning of her story of how she was brought up was the rebellious, strong-headed day dreamer. This can be seen by her kissing that boy and being memorized by the blossoms on the trees. She was the free spirited girl her grandmother, Nanny, did not want to raise. She wanted Janie to be the "proper" woman and marry well. Well being in the form of Logan Killicks: established and well off financially with his numerous acres will be sure to make Janie a respectable girl. With Jody Starks, Janie at first was her spirited self mostly, but as time went on, there relationship diminished. While married to both of these men, Janie was trapped in the stereotype of women at this time: Obedient and inferior to the man. The thing that caught my attention is, in both of these cases, the men pampered Janie to some extent, using that to manipulate her: manual labor for Killicks and playing the high society role of the Mayor's wife. Each of these roles restricted Janie's true self and feelings. She was living to fulfill the role Nanny had raised and wanted her to fill. They were used as puppets and objects, controlled to get what was going to help them from her. They were tools; property to control.

Now, Tea Cake is the man that loves Janie for Janie. He seemingly allows her to be herself, wild and free and loves her for it. He too is everything he has ever wanted in a woman. The problem that the townsfolk have is he is younger than Janie and they do not trust him. They all gossip about her, with only Pheoby on her defense, some of the time.They have adventures and fun but Janie is still worried to end up like Annie Tyler who had a younger man who ran off with all of her money. When he does run off with her money, they have their first fight but make it through it. Though Tea Cake is very different from Janie's first two husbands, he still shows the domineering, superiority side of men in the Muck to show he does have control over his woman, basically showing off to the other men. Women are property to be owned and used in accordance of how the husband wants to use them. Their opinions, views and most importantly feelings are not taken into consideration and are seen as unimportant to life. The women in this story are the stereotypical housewife role and that is their only use.