Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale HurstonJanie Crawford, an attractive, confident, middle-aged black woman, returns to Eatonville, Florida, after a long absence . The black townspeople gossip about her and speculate about where she has been and what happened to her young husband, Tea Cake. They take her confidence as aloofness, but Janie's friend Pheoby Watson defends her. Pheoby visits her to find out what happened. Their conversation frames the story Janie tells. Janie explains that her grandmother raised her after her mother ran away. The nanny loves her granddaughter and is devoted to her, but her life as a slave and her experience with her daughter, Janie's mother, have distorted her view of the world. His main desire is to marry Janie as soon as possible to a husband who can guarantee her security and social status. She finds a much older farmer named Logan Killicks and insists that Janie marry him. After moving in with Logan, Janie is unhappy. Logan is pragmatic and unromantic and, in general, treats her like a pack mule. One day, Joe Starks, an ambitious and soft-spoken man, walks down the road in front of the farm. He and Janie flirt in secret for a couple of weeks before she runs off and marries him. Janie and Jody, as she calls it, travel to all-black Eatonville, where Jody hopes to have a "big voice." A consummate politician, Jody soon rises to become mayor, postmaster, warehouseman, and the largest landowner in the city. But Janie is looking for more than a man with a big voice. She soon becomes disenchanted with the monotonous and suffocating life she shares with Jody. She wishes she could be part of the city's rich social life, but Jody won't let her interact with the "common" people. Jody sees Janie as a fitting ornament for his wealth and power, and tries to mold her into his vision of what a mayor's wife should be. On the surface, Janie silently submits to Jody; inside, however, she remains passionate and full of dreams. After nearly two decades of marriage, Janie finally asserts herself. When Jody insults his appearance, Janie tears him to shreds in front of the townspeople, telling everyone how ugly and helpless he is. In retaliation, he beats her savagely. Their marriage fails and Jody becomes seriously ill. After months of not interacting, Janie visits him on his deathbed.