Nora Zeal Hurston's novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," protagonist Janie, chronicles her journey of self-expression. In the end of the novel, Janie comes to realize that how she feels has importance and matters.
In a sharp contrast to Janie's beauty and youth, she falls in love and marries Logan Killicks, an old and unattractive man. Logan believed that, in a marriage, the husband's role is to dominate his wife. His chauvinism disturbs Janie, and soon after their marriage, she becomes unhappy, believing that her grandmother had forced her into the marriage. Janie feels that Logan is insensitive and does not care about her. .
When Janie finally tells Logan that she is unhappy, he yells at her - but Janie reluctantly stands up for herself. When she was leaving, she had "a feeling of sudden newness and change.the change was bound to do her good"(32). As a result of this experience, Janie walks away from a bad situation and continues her journey. For the next step in her travels to find a voice, Janie decides to run off and elope with Joe Starks, husband number two.
Joe Starks is a man with a big voice who comes off pretentious and makes everyone feel a little uncomfortable because he has such a strong and overwhelming personality. He is ambitious, wealthy, well dressed, and carries himself with a lot of confidence that oddly resembles a white man from this time period. Perhaps that was Hurston's intention when she created Joe. Janie falls for him because he is successful but soon realizes there is more to life than just money. She sees that Joe's big voice silences others and in that in Joe's eyes, he chooses whose opinions count and who matters. Joe dying is a pivotal moment in Janie's life. .
After his death Janie learned that "no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you" (89). The horizon represents self-exploration and the fact that there is also something more out there to do, learn, or feel.
