With their meaning ranging from place of origin to profession, surnames have been used for centuries to distinguish and describe individuals. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, the author, experiments with and uses the meaning of the name as a means of characterization. Over the course of the novel, Janie Mae Crawford, the main protagonist, goes through three marriages. Each of her husbands, Logan Killicks, Jody Starks, and Vergged "Tea Cake" Woods, boast meaningful names that reflect their personalities and the way they treat Janie. Using this unique form of characterization, Hurston is able to portray Janie's values ​​and ideals by comparing them to those represented in her husband's names. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayHurston uses the meaning of the name to demonstrate the contrasting personalities of Janie Crawford and Logan Killicks. When Janie is only sixteen, her nanny, her grandmother, pushes her to marry Logan Killicks. The nanny, approaching death, simply wishes to ensure Janie's safety by marrying her off to a rich man. However, in doing so, the nanny completely ignores his feelings. As a result, Janie, who previously believed that "husbands and wives always love each other", never comes close to loving Logan, who she describes as "some old skull in the grave yard". He soon concludes that "some people were never meant to be loved and he is one of them." Besides their lack of adoration, they appear polar opposites, and while Janie longs to connect with nature and find her voice as a woman in the world, Logan is simply concerned with working and taking life one day at a time. As their marriage progresses, he increasingly tries to tame Janie's free spirit and make her work the farm like a mule. As a result, all these differences and errors are reflected in the name Logan Killicks. The words log killer can easily be derived from this name. For Janie, who identifies with nature and wants to “be… any flowering tree,” this represents a conflict. Because Logan is essentially a log killer and a force that opposes nature, he serves as an obstacle to Janie and threatens her well-being and happiness. As a result, it is evident that by choosing the name Logan Killicks, Hurston wishes to reveal Logan's mean personality while strengthening Janie's character. Soon after Janie meets a new man, Jody Starks. Jody promises Janie that he will treat her better than her last husband and rushes to marry her. Little did he know that his new relationship would be much more obfuscating than the previous one. Jody can be described as a narcissist. He had a similar future to Janie, as he grew up among white people. Due to his upbringing, Jody is wealthier than the average African American around him. He strives to be better than everyone else and wanted Janie to live up to his standards. Jody wouldn't let Janie talk to the poorer blacks because "He didn't want her talking to such trashy people." He wanted her to be submissive and do whatever he asked of her. He even went to the trouble of asking her not to show her hair in an attempt to hide her beauty from other men. Although Janie's second husband, Jody Starks, initially embodies some of Janie's beliefs, he soon comes to reject them. When Janie runs away from Logan Killicks with Jody Starks, she does so because she feels that although Jody does not represent "dawn and pollen and blossoming trees... she speaks of a distant horizon... change and possibility," qualities that Janie deems them vital. However, when Jody becomes.