In all three marriages Janie grew up. She was only 16 when first married. Everything she learned was from the time she was 16 to when Tea Cake died. Not only did Janie become the women she wanted, but became someone she felt comfortable being. Nothing could take that away from her.
When, all of them were telling gossip and lies about Janie, her best friend came to defend her with a brazen of assurance. When the town’s people saw Janie, the women weren’t capering with joy to see she has returned home. The town’s women seemed to chastise Janie for how she looked and dressed but the men felt otherwise.
Janie’s treatment of Tea Cake shows that she does not consider him to be suitable for a serious relationship. In a sense, she is using him so that she can have fun. Janie’s progress as a person is still being overshadowed by her fear of being judged by her community. She had to make Tea Cake leave after their night at the lake because she knows what people will say if they find out.
He turned out to be very controlling and possessive of her. He did not allow her to do anything and thought that “a pretty doll-baby lak [her] is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan [herself] and eat p’taters dat other folks plant just special for [her]”(Hurston 29). Janie realized that she should be able to have some type of freedom in her marriage, and not feel
During this time period, men were seen as a really powerful figure, they were expected to have full control over their wives and daughters only because they were females. Joe Starks didn’t fully have the mentality of giving orders to Janie at first, but he slowly began acquiring it as time went by. Once, Joe ‘’order[es] Janie to tie up her hair [whenever she is] around the store’’(Hurston 55). Her hair is being used to represent the power and confidence she had been born with, and Joe ordering for her to ‘’NOT show it in [public]’’ (Hurston 55) is a symbol that highlights how Joe doesn’t want her to show how powerful, independent, beautiful, and confident she can be.
This story is centered around how Janie becomes a women despite her servile marriages that control her
Nanny’s portion of the novel shines a light on how Janie really views the world compared to her grandmothers. Ultimately Nanny wants Janie to be happy and well taken care of by any means necessary, regardless of how Janie feels. Nanny grew up while being in slavery and lived a hard, loveless life. She ended up getting pregnant with a white man, which to some degree helped her life and the life of her daughter better than it was before. Nanny believes that having the “ultimate life” is based off of status and what the man can bring to the table and provide for her, not solely from mutual
This alienation sadly marks Janie as a victim of men. Janie’s relationship with Logan ultimately destroys her romantic conception of love: “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (24). Hurston suggests quite clearly that it is only through loss, not fulfillment that Janie begins to develop as a character. Logan dominates Janie, forcing her to be submissive to his wants, but this domination is essentially necessary because it triggers the sense of
Women are confined to single roles and are expected to be submissive and respectful. When Joe married Janie, he forced her into a role of subservience. Hurston indicates that Joe attempted to mold Janie into what white women do on a daily basis which is to “sit on their high stools on the porches of their house and relax.” Doing this, Joe believes he is granting his wife all the wishes she ever wanted while neglecting the fact that Janie takes pleasure in the simple things in life like chatting, laughing, fishing and dancing. “Janie [especially] loved the conversation[s]” that took place on the porch and sometimes “she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge” because he didn’t want her to talk after those “trashy people” (Page 104).
Each of Janie’s relationships has a unique effect on her voice and her individuality. Hurston’s novel depicts Janie’s life as a series of events which help her to eventually obtain a “voice”, meaning the acceptance and self-expression of the person that she realizes herself to be. But it’s important to note that Janie does not undergo her transformation alone. Through each relationship, Janie learns the importance of a strong sense of self and learns to appreciate her independence. The gender differences that Hurston adopts require that men and women supply each other things that they need but do not own themselves.
She does not care about what society or her grandmother wants her to do. She took a stand, not only for gender equality but also independence for herself. Janie is tired of being a servant, specifically to Joe, but also to society and her grandmother?s expectation. Janie wants equality, independence, and happiness. This response is the start of a ?new?
Women in the 1600s to the 1800s were very harshly treated. They were seen as objects rather than people. They were stay-at-home women because people didn’t trust them to hold jobs. They were seen as little or weak. Women living in this time period had to have their fathers choose their husbands.
She expected to obey for her husband like others. “He ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store” reveals that she did everything to his happiness not for her. Even though she is a wife of a mayor, she didn’t get any privilege rather she lost her social relationship with other people. She lived under the dominance of her husband
Because Nanny grew up with nothing, she valued financial and material values rather than the love Janie so desired. Up until Janie was about seventeen, Nanny did not imprint these values. Furthermore, when Nanny heard Janie’s conversations with the local boys, she scolded Janie, and immediately starts to set up plans for marriage. There is one key reason for this decision on Nanny’s part; she wanted to maintain respectability in order to keep Janie for turning into the social wreck her mother is. We can see here that Nanny is just trying to do what was best for Janie, although Janie does not realize this until after Nanny has passed away.
The time when this story took place was a time when women were viewed as second class citizens. Mothers had traditional roles, which usually left them in the house, while men also had their roles, outside of the
