Many scholars have considered Their Eyes Were Watching God as bildungsroman novel because it describes a black woman, Janie, finding her voice as she searched for love in a society where women and black people were oppressed. Janie has three husbands that help her understand herself and love. With her first husband, Logan, she realizes she needs someone to regard her more than a source of production, mule; therefore, she runs away and marries Jody, thinking it is love. However, Jody disappoints her because he belittles her intelligence and disregards her as a human being when he puts her on a display case. From Jody, Janie acknowledges that love is not physical abuse; therefore, she stops caring about Jody and locks her intimate feelings up after he slaps her due to an unsatisfied dinner. When love looks like a lost case, Tea Cake appears and marries her. Her third marriage teaches her about understanding and forgiveness in marriages and love. Furthermore, their relationship has freed her from societal constraints as she does not care to wear mourning clothes, as she remains silent at the trial, and as she silently returns to town. She matures into a woman who does not need society to define her anymore, thus, her power is her silence.