To what extent does Janie acquire her own voice and the ability to shape her own life in chapter 1-9?

Much of the first half of Zora Neale Hurtson's
Their Eyes Were Watching God is about Janie's quest to discover her
own voice. In Janie's relationships with her grandmother, Logan Killicks, and Joe Starks
she struggles to establish her own identity and give voice to her personal thoughts and
desires. In fact, it isn't until Joe is on his deathbed that "something fell of the
shelf inside of her" and she finally voices her opinion to
Joe:

Dat's
just whut Ah wants tuh say, Jody. You wouldn't listen. You done lived wid me for twenty
years and you don't half know me atall.... Naw, you gointuh listen tuh me one time befo'
you die. Have yo' way all yo' life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh
let yo'self heah 'bout it... Naw! Mah own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh
make room for yours in
me.

The cumulative experience
of all three of these relationships is to instill in Janie a desire to be heard and
understood by those around her. By the end of Chapter 9 Janie has found her voice; she
has found the ability to voice her opinion and make herself heard. As we read on in the
novel we encounter Janie learning when and when not to use her voice and also how to use
her voice for greater purposes.