jacquelinej’s Blog

  Reflecting on the past two class discussions, as well as the essay I’m working on finishing, it’s clear that the role of women is being explained thoroughly within the novel.  Janie is a woman with potential to live on her own, and she’s aware of that.  However, she longs for happiness and finds it in men.  She looks up to Tea Cake because he can give her the love she cannot give herself.  She’s stable and wealthy, but needs Tea Cake to assure her of that.  In chapter fourteen, we see that she begins to work with hin to spend more time with him.  Unlike many other women of the time period, she gets up and goes to work like her husband.  Townspeople laugh at her, yet I feel she’s a woman to admire.  Regardless of how wealthy she is, she gets joy out of working with her husband.  She separates herself from other women, and does all in her ability to stand by the side of her husband. 

   Chapter fifteen began to confuse me.  Was it necessary to include Nunkie?  What does she add to the novel.  It’s clear that Tea Cake loves Janie, but Janie still questions the love he has for her.  He looks to her to assure herself that he is not in love with Nunkie.  It seems that she looks up to him to answer a lot of questions she already knows the answers too.  Is she mentally unstable?

   Then we meet Mrs.  Turner who admires Janie.  Though they’re both black we see that Mrs. Turner admires Janie because she’s lighter than her.  For once, we see a character who looks up to Janie instead of looking down upon her.  But Tea Cake doesn’t like this.  He’s somewhat threatened by Mrs. Turner.  Perhaps he feels that Janie will grow some self confidence.  But we then see something else that’s interesting about Mrs. Turner.  After the fight at her bar, she puts blame on her husband for letting her bar get ruined.  What is with these women?  It’s clear that at this time in history, women depended on men for everything.  Yes, Hurston has created very strong women characters, yet she doesn’t let them overcome men.  Why?

  Though typically the death of a person marks a time of mournfulness and depression, Janie clearly benefitedfrom the death of her husband.  She was locked behind the bars in which he planted in frontof her, and there was no way for her to escape them. Though she’s there for him, before he dies, she assures him that he was wrong, and this demonstrates her stability and ability to speak the truth.  Again, we see a fake side of Janie.  Aside from how strong she is, she does give community what they want to see.  It’s almost as if all of her past relationships have been successful out of guilt.  She feels as if to succeed, she needs to be something she’s not.  She married Logan, because he loved her and could provide for her, but not out of love, and the same went for Jody.  She married him initially being attracted, but once the flame was gone and he began to mistreat her, she lost everything she had for him.  However, she stayed with him for society’s sake, and cared more about what the town thought of her than what she thought of herself.

     Subsequent to the death of Jody, relief fills Janie.  She’s free and loves it.  Still, she’s afraid of society.  After six months of “morning”  she begins to feel free again and at the same time, she feels that being happy is wrong.  She’s an independent woman and shouldn’t feel badly about it.    What I also found interesting was that she blames Nanny for her admiration of independence.  Why? I don’t get.  I feel that instead of blaming Nanny for this, she should look up to her.  Nanny, to me, is a character to look up to instead of looking down upon.  But, I must keep in mind the time period of the novel, and paciently wait to see how society will force Janie into another unhealthy relationship. 

   The relationship Janie and Jody have is growing more and more phony.  Thus far, it is clear that Janie has a strong self concept and personality, however it upsets me that she lets Jody control her life.  She is a woman that men admire, and Jody should be proud that he has her.  I continue to reflect upon the slideshow we saw in class.  He expects her to keep her mouth shut and do her job, while he provides for her.  However, this is becoming a growing issue.  She supports Jody and expresses her opinions to him…but he doesn’t allow that.  He doesn’t feel her opinion should be expressed, and here is where I see a downfall occuring.  Earlier in the novel,  Nanny expresses to Janie that Logan was a good man because he never put a finger on her.  However, we now see that Jody does.  His acts of beating Janie are unacceptable.   To Nanny, as well as Janie herself.

       Though Janie allows Jody to beat her, it’s clear this is going to be the downfall of their relation.  She’s too strong of a character and regardless of what society may think of her, I believe she’ll retaliate.  In the twentieth century, women have the right to stick up for themselves.  Prior to reading these two chapters, I began to think, what if this novel was published now?  If women had the rights they do now, and were equal to men in the 1900’s, how would Hurston change the novel and Janie’s reaction to her husband beating her.  Then I also realized that no matter how Janie complains about her relationship with her husband, she never blames it on him beating her.  He’s a successful man and his image is very important to him.  He won’t be talked down to by any woman and Janie accepts that.  It’s amazing how much times have changed.  I would have love to see Janie in this time period.  I feel she’d be much more self sufficient and happy.  Maybe she’ll change…and follow in her grandmother’s footsteps; the woman who glued her life back together when it shattered into millions of pieces, and made it beautiful. 

   Initially the question as to whether or not the dialect of the novel was representative/ important seemed rather unimportant to me.  I did not believe that the dialect was going to affect the book in numerous ways but once reading past chapter one, it was clear that race was anissue within the characters of the novel.  Though it does not yet come across as a major issue, it is clear that Janie and Nanny are both looked down upon by their neighbors and other people around them simply because they’re white.  Also, the situation regarding Janie’s mother and the fact that she was raped by her teacher seem to be correlated with her race.  There are strong racial aspects of the novel, but I’m not sure how much the dialect has to do with the racial issues.  Yes, they talk insouthern, black dialect but that’s because that’s what they are.  I feel that Hurstonhas made the dialect like this to bring reality to the readers, but not to discriminate against the characters or make them look unintelligent.  While the novel grows, I predict Hurston will prove that the characters she’s created are intelligent, and do not let the history of black people in the south get in the way of their dreams.  Nanny wants the best for Janie, and I predict she’ll be the growing character of the novel.  Though she may hit downfalls and struggle to ignore racial discrimination, I do feel that she will overcome what she’s portrayed as, and live the dream her grandmother wants her to live.