In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character Janie struggles to find herself and her identity. Throughout the novel, many different people tell her who she should be and how she should behave, but none of these ideas really resonate with Janie. The main people who tell Janie who she should be are her grandmother and Janie's three husbands. The people in Janie's life influence her search for identity by teaching her about marriage, hard work, class, society, love, and happiness. Janie's outlook on life stems from the belief system that her grandmother, Nanny, instilled in her throughout her life. These beliefs include how women should act in a society and in a marriage. Nanny and her daughter, Janie's mother, were both raped and left with bastard children. This experience is the catalyst for Nanny's desire to see Janie marry a wealthy gentleman. She desires to see Janie married to a wealthy man because she wants to see that Janie is well cared for throughout her life. Due to Nanny's desire to see Janie married into wealth, she forces Janie to marry Logan Killocks, an older black farmer who owns 60 acres and a mule. Janie doesn't like Logan but because Nanny is pushing her to get married, she believes that love will follow marriage, but Nanny quickly says, "You come with your bitch full of mischief on a busy day." Heh, you have support for being skinny on all your birthday days, and great protection, and everyone tips you and calls you Mis' Killicks, and you come to worry me about love. " (3.17-20) Nanny thinks a woman should be satisfied with the amount of her possessions and Janie has difficulty accepting. Janie thinks she did something wrong by not being in love with L.. . middle of paper ....... does not encourage this kind of behavior in women. During the course of the novel, he is told what to do, how to do it and, at one point, who to marry. She struggles with her growing unhappiness until she finally meets her true love. Bibliography Shmoop Editorial Team “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Shmoop University, Inc., November 11, 2008. Web, April 22, 2014. Hurston, Zora. Neale. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Their Eyes Were Watching God” SparkNotes.com SparkNotes LLC 2007. Web April 9, 2014. “Janie's Learning Experiences in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” eyes looked at God Hurston” 123 Help Me, April 22... 2014. .