Their Eyes Were Watching God as a Bildungsroman

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a bildungsroman because of the change and growth that takes place in Janie. Throughout most of her life, Janie has always been under the supervision of someone other than herself. She was never allowed to be her own person, but was always what they wanted her to be. Janie realizes that in order to keep herself alive and to have some sense of being, she would have to store little pieces of herself away. Throughout the novel, Janie is looking for something or someone that she has never known. Because she did not know what it was that she was looking for, she made some mistakes along the way. However, like many things in life, one does not know how sweet something is until one has also tasted something bitter. Therefore, these mistakes only help her to realize and appreciate what she does have when she finally finds it. In finding Tea Cake, she found love as well as herself. She was no longer her grandmother’s charity case, Logan’s help on the farm, or a trophy on Jodie’s shelf. For once in her life, she was simply Janie. Even after Tea Cake’s death, she refuses to go back to the way she was before.