from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold the revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid." (Eyes 10) Only after feeling other kinds of love does Janie finally gain the love like that between the bee and the blossom. Nanny, Janie's grandmother and primary caregiver in the novel, gives Janie a kind of protective love, as does her first husband. Janie's second husband provided he with a kind of escape from this protective and unsatisfying love of her first husband. Joe, her second husband, is a man of lofty goals and charisma, and Janie feels that this might be the first time in her life that she may find true love. However, Joe is extremely possessive and abusive, treating Janie as a trophy. This is a major hardship for Janie, one that she must bravely endure and overcome. In her search for love and losses she suffers, Janie gains independence. Throughout this quest for independence and love, Janie encounters the harsh judgement of others. One woman, Mrs. Turner, is especially opinionated. " 'And dey makes me tired. Always laughin'! Dey laughs too much and dey laughs too loud. Always singin' ol' nigger songs! Always cuttin' the monkey for white folks. If it wuzn't for so many black folks it wouldn't be no race problem. De white folks would take us in wid dem. De black ones is holdin' us back.'" (Eyes 135) The porch sitters of the novel also serve as a judge to Janie. As the novel opens, they sit and comment about her return and her present lifeless appearance. Mrs. Turner, the bigoted restaurant owner, judges Janie in a way that she had never known possible; a new, terrible sort of prejudice and ignorance. This Janie got through with her own strong will. Janie definitely overcomes all sorts of adversity and hardship in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Because Janie endures the har...
