why did Janie come back to town after doing what and to whom?

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel about self-discovery. Janie Starks is a black woman living in Florida sometime during 1920-1935. (The novel was published in 1937.) In this first chapter, she has just returned from a two year journey. This novel is told "backwards" in a sense, because the first chapter begins with Janie's homecoming and only in the following chapters does the reader learn about the events leading to Janie's return.