For example:
Hurston writes that Janie views "her life like great tree in leaf with things suffered, things, enjoyed, things done and undone" (8). The simile comparing Janie's life and a tree with all its leaves suggests that Janie feels she has a vibrant life and connects Janie to the natural world.
“So Janie began to think of Death. Death, that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the West. The great one who lived in the straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof. What needs has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him?” (104). It is interesting how Hurston personifies death and uses different metaphors to describe it. Death is personified by having “square toes” and a “house”.
ReplyDelete- Mary-Clare
“She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there. She took careful stock of herself, then combed her hair and tied it back up against then she scratched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people waNted to see, and opened the window and cried, “Come heah people! Jody is dead. Mah husband is gone from me''(108). Janie feels free now that her husband is dead, as she unties her hair. However, it’s interesting that she feels pressured to tie her hair, forming into “just what people wanted to see”, meaning her being sad that her husband is dead.
ReplyDelete-Nare
“‘You wouldn’t listen. You done lived wid me for twenty years and you don’t know half of me at all. And you could have but you was so busy worshippin’ de works of yo’ own hands, and cuffin’ folks around in their minds till you didn’t see uh whole heap uh things yuh could have’”(106). In this passage, Janie tells Joe that he never took the time to get to know her because he was too concerned with himself and his status. She stands up for herself when she explains how he never let her have a voice. Throughout their marriage, he was trying to shape her into the ideal woman that he wanted her to be instead of letting her be her own person.
ReplyDelete“Janie, Ah hope God may kill me, if Ah’m lyin’. Nobody else on earth kin hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom.” 131 The chapter ends with Tea Cakes promise that his love is true, but based on the past two chapters and how Janie is separate from Tea Cake in the beginning, it doesn’t seem like their relationship can be that good.
ReplyDelete"'Stop mixin’ up mah doings wid mah looks, Jody. When you git through tellin’ me how tuh cut uh plug uh tobacco, then you kin tell me whether mah behind is on straight or not'"(98). What does Joe think of Janie and what does he want to do? run away?
ReplyDelete"Ah'd ruther be dead than for Jody tuh think Ah'd hurt him" she said to Phoeby. "It ain't always been too pleasant, 'cause you know how Joe worships de works of his own hands, but God in heben knows Ah wouldn't do one thing tuh hurt nobody. It's too underhand and mean." I think that Janie would rather be dead than for Joe to even think that she would hurt him is pretty extreme as it mentions only a mere thought, and she would be ready to die just for that. She also doesn't hold any grudges against him, even if he already hurt her many times before, something that she, apparently wouldn't forgive herself to even think of.
ReplyDeletep 102
Delete“She was full of pity for the first time in years, Jody had been hard on her and others, but life had mishandled him too”(107). Is this Janie forgiving Joe, and if so, how does this forgiveness impact her path to finding herself again?
ReplyDelete"He could be a bee to a blossom — a pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God"(127)
ReplyDeleteThe nature imagery shows how Jainie is able to dream again. Tea cake will be able to make Janie happy and their future holds a promise, a fruit, that comes from Tea Cake’s (the bee) and Janie’s (the blossom) working together. By “crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps”, Tea Cake’s presence reopens Janie eyes to the beauty and wonders of life she almost gave up on. He, with his kind non-oppressive personality, seems foreign and exotic (spices) to Jaimie’s previously Logan and Joe dominated world, almost as if sent by God Himself after Logan and Joe.
-Alicia
Delete"Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play. That was even nice. She looked him over and got little thrills from every one of his good points." I thought this scene was really interesting because it really reminds the read of how restricting Jamie's past relationships have been. The checkers game symbolized her newfound freedom and her blossoming relationship with TeaCake that allows her to play games and be a women she wasn't allowed to be before because of the restricted men in her life.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of chapter 7, on page 100, Jody understands that “Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish, which was terrible... Janie had done worse, she had cast down his empty armor before men and they had laughed, would keep on laughing. When he paraded his possessions hereafter, they would not consider the two together. They'd look with envy at the things and pity the man that owned them.” By speaking up, Janie took away Jody masculinity and power that the town cherished and “bowed down to”. Now, he isn’t “all these things” (masculine, strong and powerful) and the townsmen separate him from his wife, who has now gained all these things.
ReplyDelete”You ain’t been used tuh knockin’ round and doin’ fuh yo’self, Mis’ Starks. You been well taken keer of, you needs uh man.” Janie laughed at all these well-wishers because she knew that they knew plenty of women alone; that she was not the first one they had ever seen. But most of the others were poor.“ Chapter 10. This quote reminds me to think of how social hierarchy and class influence feminism and stereotyping of women in this time period.
ReplyDelete“She thought back and forth about what had happened in the making of a voice out of a man. Then she thought about herself. Years ago, she had told her girl self to wait for her in the looking glass. It had been a long time since she had remembered. Perhaps she’d looked better... The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place” (108). Janie may have finally found herself, who she’s always wanted to be for all these years. Obviously, she may not have wanted it to take so long or to end up in the situation she was with Jody, but she does seem to have final found herself. She recognizes by looking in the mirror that she has grown strong.
ReplyDeleteAfter Janie makes Joe some soup, he declines the offer. Janie is so offended by his decline that she tells her friend, Phoeby, how hurt she felt, and says, "Ah'd ruther be dead than for Jody tuh think Ah'd hurt him" (102). I'm kind of confused by the whole situation. How would Janie hurt him? What does hurting Joe even mean? Poison? Why would Joe think that Janie would poison him?
ReplyDeleteWhen I read it, I thought he was trying to insult her cooking, but your explanation seems more plausible.
DeleteI thought it was interesting that Jody’s death results in Janie finally looking for her own purpose, and realizing stuff about her grandmother. I got why she hated her, but what did she mean when she said that her grandmother took “the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon...and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke her.” Is Janie saying that her grandmother framed the world as too dangerous for her, preventing her from enjoying it? (Instead of letting Janie have a childhood, she married her off for her ‘safety’).
ReplyDelete"She got up that morning with the firm determination to go in there and have a good talk with Jody [...] Something stood on an oxen's foot on her tongue, and then too, Jody, no Joe, gave her a ferocious look" (104). Two parts of this quote stood out to me. When she mentions an oxen's tongue it's similar to the idea of the mule representing silence as we discussed today. Additionally, it's interesting that she refers to Joe by his nickname (Jody) and then takes it back. This highlights her lack of connection with him and how she's done with their relationship.
ReplyDeleteOn page 108 Janie has just watched Jody die, and she feels free for once now that he cannot control her. She goes to announce his death, but only after making herself appear sad: "then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into what people wanted to see,". Overall this is a safe move by Janie because she avoids scorn and does the predictable thing.What would happen if she appeared happy and showed her honest emotions?
ReplyDelete-Evan
"A sound of strife in Jody's throat, but his eyes stared unwillingly into a corner of the room so Janie knew the futile fight was not with her" (page 107). Chapter 7 and 8 see the destruction of Jody and Janie's relationship, and more importantly their dreams. Jody's constant lashing out as he dies is a symptom of desperation, similar to Janie's love for him being a desperation for her due to her disliking her previous marriage. The difference between Jody and Janie is that Janie is able to live past her dreams being crushed while Jody is not. In addition, Janie's resilience is a contributing factor to destruction of Jody's dreams.
ReplyDelete- Seiyoung Jang
“She went over to the dresser and looked hard ather skin and features. The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there. She took careful stock of her- self, then combed her hair and tied it back up again. Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see, and opened up the window and cried, “Come heah people! Jody is dead. Mah husband is gone from me’’” I thought this was interesting as letting down her hair is symbolic of Janie’s newfound independence from Jody, who was constantly trying to reduce her beauty/features, yet she still ends up tying her hair back up as she she is unable to hide from the people of the town, thus demonstrating how she is still not completely free to express herself fully.
ReplyDelete"Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish, which was terrible...she had cast down his empty armor before men and they had laughed and would keep on laughing" This quote was interesting to me because it raised the idea of masculinity and how fragile society has sculpted it to be. In Janie's society, men have greater power and that power is often connected to masculinity whether it be the cause or the product. However after one comment in which Janie exposes Jody's inability to prove his "maleness", Jody feels as thought his image of masculinity has been shattered and all the townsmen who once looked up to him, lost all respect for him.
ReplyDelete“Janie talked and laughed in the store at times, but never seemed to want to go further. She was happy except for the store. She knew by her head that she was absolute owner, but it always seemed to her that she was still clerking for Joe and that soon he would come in and find something wrong that she had done.”(112). I found this quote interesting because even after Jody has passed away, Janie still feels restricted by him. I think the time she spent with him shaped her life negatively as she spent so much time following the orders of Jody. Even after he is gone, Janie still feels like Jody has control over her life.
ReplyDelete"Jody wasn’t so young as he used to be. There was already something dead about him … Eyes a little absent too. Jody must have noticed it too. Maybe, he had seen it long before Janie did, and had been fearing for her to see. Because he began to talk about her age all the time, as if he didn’t want her to stay young while he grew old" (97). In this scene, Janie realizes Jody is getting older, he pesters Janie about her age, because he is insecure. He doesn't want other men to think she is beautiful, and it is reflected in this scene. She realizes that he feels old and ugly, which plays into his insecurities.
ReplyDelete-sam burge
One motif I find interesting is that of trees and how they relate to Janie's romantic life. In chapter 2, Janie kisses Johnny Taylor under the pear tree while describing a blossom. A few pages after, however, the news of her becoming married to Logan "desecrates" (31) that tree. When Janie first meets Jody, she does so in the scrub oaks (46), and at the end of chapter 6, with her love for him waning, is described as "not [being] petal-open anymore with him" (91), suggesting a metaphorical "closure" of that blossom. Finally, Janie meets Tea Cake, real last name Woods
ReplyDeletelast paragraph of pg 107- first paragraph of 108
ReplyDelete-Jack Hayes
I found it interesting and even slightly ironic how Janie is expected to resent her actions after she stands up for herself on page 99. “Ah’m a woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. Dat’s uh whole lot more’n you kin say. You big-bellies round here and put out a lot of brag, but t’aint nothing’ to it but yo’ big voice...Talkin’ ‘bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change uh life.”(99). Despite the fact that Joe regularly makes negative comments towards her appearance and actions, when Janie pokes fun at his appearance she, in effect, shatters Joe’s ego and destroys the remains of their relationship. He sinks into an emptiness and is consumed by his lonesomeness. While this eventually kills Joe, it highlights how weak Joe’s self-esteem is in comparison to Janie’s. While she took daily verbal abuse, it only took one comment to ruin his life.
ReplyDeleteThe paragraph on 136 where Jamie talks about how her grandma lived vs how she lived is really interesting. It goes back to the point that I made during class about the differences in life goals of an immigrant vs their child who grow up in the country that is new to their parents. One values survival while the other values acceptance. It ssimilar to how Jamies says she was living for her grandma, meaning she was doing what her grandma wanted her to do so that she could live a comfortable life. But jamie doesn't want to live just to be comfortable and to survive, she wants to thrive.
ReplyDelete“Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time?”(101). Joe was embarrassed after the way Janie had “cast down his empty armor before men”(100). In Chimamanda Adichie’s Ted Talk “We Should All Be Feminists”, she talks about how men have to put on the “hard man” image especially if they are around other men. They have to be the strongest and toughest. This causes their egos to be fragile. When Janie had enough of Joe’s insults about how old she had become, she tells him off in front of all the men in the store which results in Joe’s ego being hurt. It also makes it worse because a girl, someone that is supposedly less than of men, had exposed him. -Angie Zhao
ReplyDeleteOn page 147, Jannie is unhappy about Tea Cake’s decision to organize a party without her. She says,"Looka heah, Tea Cake, if you ever go off from me and have a good time lak dat and them come back heah tellin' me how nice Ah is, Ah specks tuh kill yuh dead. You heah me?" With Logan, she never dared to say a word, and before ridiculizing Jody she never spoke up to him. On the other hand, with Tea Cake, she feels comfortable enough to speak up to him and tell him what she actually think.
ReplyDeleteHurston writes that "Before Janie slept that night she burnt up eery one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist" (110). In a way, Jody's death has liberated Janie as she is free to now finally be able to act like herself without having to worry about Jody suppressing her for being too outspoken or scandalous. Janie immediately frees her hair, a symbol for her whole personality that is now able to come out in the novel. -Jules Crocker
ReplyDelete“She got up with a firm determination to go in there and have a good talk with Jody. But she sat a long time with the walls creeping in on her. Four walls squeezing her breath out ... Something stood like an oxen’s for on her tongue, and then too, Jody, no Joe, gave her a ferocious look” (104) Why does Janie still feel scared or unable to talk to Joe even after already stepping up for herself before? I think it’s because no matter what she will still always be afraid of him for his years of oppressing and harassing her, but it’s also because she still does care about him, even if she may not want to.
ReplyDelete"So Janie began to think of Death. Death, that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the West. The great one who lived in the straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof. What need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him? He stands in his high house that overlooks the world. Stands watchful and motionless all days with his sword drawn back, waiting for the messenger to bid him come. Been standing there before there was a where or a when or a then. She was liable to find a feather from his wings lying in her yard any day now. She was sad and afraid too." (86) This quotes emphasizes the personification of “Death” by capitalizing it, and giving it human characteristics of having toes and living in the West side. “Death” is given a dominant place in the novel by saying that “He stands in his high house that overlooks the world.“
ReplyDeleteOn page 96, Hurston writes, "Then one day she sat and watched the shadow of herself going about tending store, and prostrating itself before Jody, while all the time she herself sat under a shady tree with the wind blowing through her hair and her clothes" (96). The metaphor in this paragraph interested me because it cleverly shows Janie's fantasy of having a fake self that deals with Joe while a real self enjoys whatever it wanted.
ReplyDelete"The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there" (108). Janie's removal of her head rag from her head after her husband's death, symbolizes the removal of Jody's control from her life. She is now able to regain her own sense of self, something that Jody intentionally tried to destroy.
ReplyDeleteAfter Jody's death, Janie finds herself reflecting on the past and how she got to this point in her life. She starts thinking about her grandma and realizes that, "Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God had ever made, the horizon -- for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you -- and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter's neck tight enough to choke her. She hated the old woman who had twisted so in the name of love" (110). The horizon is meant to represent endless possibilities but Janie is starting to realize that grandma may have been misguided. She forced Janie into a life that restricts her from following her dreams. Janie will always hold a grudge against her grandma for the decisions she made.
ReplyDelete“They’d look with envy at the things and pity at the man that owned them”(100). Jody realizes that Janie recognizes the inauthenticity in the power he holds over her. His insecure masculinity is brought to light publicly and he has never had to confront that before. It makes him feel deep resentment for Janie because although he is the oppressor in the relationship, she is the only person who sees him for what he truly is. He lost his power in this moment as she exposed him, and in a blind attempt to reclaim it he resorts to violence and shunning— two very childlike and regressive coping mechanisms. It’s interesting that a man who holds all of the power in the community is so helpless and emotionally weak.
ReplyDelete- Camille Sandage
"[Janie] had found a jewel down inside herself and she had wanted to walk where people could see her and gleam it around. But she had been set in the market-place to sell... When God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered all over. Then after that some angels got jealous and chopped him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. So they beat him down to nothing but sparks but each little spark had a shine and a song. So they covered each one over the mud. And the lonesomeness in the sparks made them hunt for one another, but the mud is deaf and dumb. Like all the other tumbling mud-balls, Janie had tried to show her shine" (111).
ReplyDeleteThis quote suggests that everyone inherently has a desire that they fail to achieve in life, since Janie imagines that it was the supernatural that chopped up the human into little pieces that are trapped by the mud, where the mud is a metaphor for the world people live in. This relates to how Janie has not been able to have freedom (as Nanny forced her to marry) or healthy companionship (as she felt no love for Logan and was verbally abused by Joe).
"They were all so respectful and stiff with her" (114). This is a weird comment to me knowing most people use stiff as a disrespectful way of talking to people, it means they didnt want to talk, but its used with respectful in this quote.
ReplyDelete"The years took all the fight out of Janie's face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did, she said nothing. She had learned now to talk some and leave some"(96) This just goes to show how even the strongest of wills can be bent and broken with enough time. I feel like it will be very hard/impossible for Janie to regain her true self.
ReplyDelete"Most humans didn’t love one another nohow, and this mislove was so strong that even common blood couldn’t overcome it all the time. She had found a jewel down inside herself and she had wanted to walk where people could see her and gleam it around. But she had been set in the market-place to sell. Been set for still-bait. When God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered al over. Then after that some angels got jealous and chipped him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. So they beat him down to nothing but sparks but each little spark had a shine and a song. So they covered each one over with mud... Like all the other tumbling mud-balls, Janie had tried to show her shine." In Janie’s story, men are rendered as a victim of fate. In his story, the forces of fate are jealous angels, beings that beat down man and try to smother his shining, singing virtue in mud. By this logic, it means that man is destined to wallow in the mud, never being able to show his true worth to his fellow man.
ReplyDeleteOn page 99, there is a paragraph that reads “So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise. Soon its amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day” (99). I think this paragraph is important because it shows how at the beginning of every relationship, this time with Tea Cake, Janie goes to nature, as a way to refresh and renew herself. It almost seems as a way for Janie to cleanse herself of the past and start with a clean slate.
ReplyDeleteOn page 114 Janie tells Pheoby that”Ah jus’ loves dis freedom” to which Pheoby replies,”Sh-sh-sh! Don’t let nobody hear you say dat, Janie. Folks will say you ain’t sorry he’s gone”. This feeling of relief that Janie feels is looked down upon by the world and that’s probably because the world doesn’t realize that she was mistreated by Joe. Everyone who sees her happy due to his death will assume Jodie is being disrespectful or something along those lines. I think this is an interesting and unexpected way of showing how people will make their judgements about you without having all the information.
ReplyDelete"A deep sob came out of Jody's weak frame. It was like bearing a bass drum in a hen-house. Then it rose high like pulling in a trombone. 'Janie! Janie! don't tell me Ah got tuh die, and Ah ain't used tuh thinkin' 'bout it.'" (pg. 106)
ReplyDeleteThis quote and section of the book was quite shocking to me, as it portrayed Jody in a way that the reader is not used to seeing him. Despite the hard exterior and power Jody struggles so hard to exude (exemplified by his oppression of Janie), this scene exposes him as a helpless child. In his final moments, Jody is wailing and begging Janie for his life. This final scene of Jody's life demonstrates that Janie holds the real power in their relationship and forces the reader to see Jody in a new light.
"'Why, Tea Cake? Whut good do combin' mah hair do you? It's mah comfortable, not yourn.' 'It's mine too'"(124).
ReplyDeleteThis quote comes from chapter 11 when Janie wakes up to find Tea Cake playing with her hair. This shows the difference between Jody and Tea Cake's view of Janie when they're in a relationship with her. Jody made her cover up her hair when she was in public because he viewed her as property. By having Tea Cake assure her that playing with her hair is his comfort too it shows us that he doesn't just view her as a commodity, but that he values their relationship and he values taking care of her.
“Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon ... and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter's neck tight enough to choke her” this quote is showing Janie angry with Nanny for arranging her marriage to Logan Killicks, squashing Janie's dreams of love and happiness. While Nanny tries to pass on practical advice to Janie, the metaphor comparing the horizon to a noose suggests Nanny's viewpoint killed Janie's spirit and voice. In the end what she is doing is actually hurting Janie rather then helping her
ReplyDeleteOn page 96 Hurston writes that Janie is a "rut in the road" with "plenty of life below the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels" (96). This passage compares the wheels to Jody, suggesting that as Jody makes progress, rolling forward, this keeps Janie from expressing herself.
ReplyDelete"You oughta throw somethin' over yo' shoulders befo' you go outside. You ain't no young pullet no mo'. You'se an old hen now."(97). Jody tries to make Janie feel insecure by going after the thing that society judged women on most especially at this time. However, Janie sees through this cover of trying to distract her from the fact that he is getting older. Additionally, Janie has always been outside of tradition in her womanhood even if she doesn't always act on it. First when Jody came into her life and after when Tea Cake did, she still had hope that she could find love in which her partner would treat her as an equal. This optimism alone would be pretty nontraditional.
ReplyDelete-Jona
"He tipped his hat at the door and was off with the briefest good night. So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise. Soon its amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day" (95). Not only is this another occurrence of the sun's personification and liquid comparison motif, the wording of this sentence conveys a theme that, up to this point, had not been directly expressed. In contrast to many other works, many of the negative things that happen to Janie occur during the daytime, among other people. the night is her relief, her time to simply be herself and escape from the controlling expectations of her companions/neighbors. At this point it's still too early to tell why Hurston chose to pursue this idea.
ReplyDelete“The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there.” I think Janie's removal of the scarf from her head marks a symbolic removal of Jody's control from her life. In particular, she is now able to regain her sense of self as a beautiful and desirable woman, something that Jody deliberately tried to destroy, especially in the final days preceding his death.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of chapter 8, Hurston writes “Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see, and opened up the window and cried, ‘Come heah people! Jody is dead. Mah husband is gone from me.’” I was just wondering if it was normal in eatonville to announce this like that. I know everyone was impatiently awaiting news about Jody, but this feels very odd and public. It could signify that it’s almost a weight off of Janie’s shoulders.
ReplyDelete