how is joe different from the rest of the town

Joe is different because he's well spoken, ambitious, and has a purpose. He has all the things that Janie believes she wants in a man, but she soon finds out that what she thought she wanted wasn't worth the price she ended up paying.

"Joe’s appearance is both indicative of his true nature and also subtly misleading. Janie is first attracted to Joe for his suave stylish looks. This is an outward manifestation of Joe’s pride and confidence which leads him to dress better than those he considers his inferiors. However, his flamboyant, peacock-like attire also reveals his vanity. Indeed, Joe’s entire lifestyle revolves around his high esteem of his manhood. Joe mixes conceptions of manhood with his right to power, wealth, and authority. Thus, he considers himself perfectly justified not only in building up the town but ruling it, deciding who can live there, and whose opinion counts. His high-handed tyranny of Eatonville often has the inhabitants grumbling and comparing him to white slave masters. And indeed, Joe resembles the white man in more than one way. He is well-fed and somewhat portly, like the well-to-do bourgeois Caucasians. He also carries himself with all the confidence and authority of a man sure to get what he wants. Though Janie initially admires these attributes in Joe, she quickly finds that too much of this good thing can quickly become stifling and pretentious."