Janie

Janie is the main character of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston. She is a young girl who is struggling to find true love in a tough world. She bears a lot of the same qualities as the author, and they also share a similar history. Hurston was born in Alabama but moved to Eatonville, Florida when she was very young. She had a happy and healthy childhood until her mother died. Hurston was only 13. Her father remarried and didn't care about her or her siblings anymore, so she got a job and made her way to Baltimore. By now, she was 26, but wanted to finish high school, so she lied and said she was 16, which she could easily pull off. She never added those years back on. In her life, she had a lot of spunk and defied typical gender and racial stereotypes, and was an inspiration to many young African American authors. Janie also had this spunky quality to her, and although she was not as big of a personality as Hurston, she still had a large influence on those in her community and kept her personal life out of business. Overall, they are very similar and I think it's interesting to see the parallels as we continue to read.