Janie's Independence

Chapters 9 and 10 mark an important transition in Janie’s life. Since the beginning of her story, she has been controlled by someone, whether it be Nanny, Logan, or Jody. After Jody dies, Janie has a freedom that she hasn’t had in decades. She spends some time alone as a widow, learning to be independent. We see her talking freely and doing the things she wants. Then, Tea Cake comes along.
Tea Cake seems like a trustworthy character with a genuine interest in Janie. In some ways, he helps her to liberate herself, encouraging and teaching her how to play checkers, which she was never allowed to do when Jody was alive. Despite Tea Cake’s overall positive influence on Janie, she is hesitant to enter a relationship with him. She is much more wary, which seems to be a result of what she had to go through with Jody. While there are many joyful moments in their interactions, Janie quickly retreats into a place of doubt each time Tea Cake leaves.
As I was reading these chapters, I sympathized with Janie. Based on my intuition, I want to trust Tea Cake as a good character that will truly love and care for Janie. However, I also feel the uneasiness that Janie feels throughout this section of the story. The past experiences Janie has had with relationships has been horrible, and even I as a reader, feel worried for her. Additionally, I found it difficult to understand the purpose of Tea Cake’s arrival because the moral of Hurston’s story isn’t as evident as Ellison’s or Wright’s. Their Eyes Were Watching God seems much more like a story of someone’s life than the obvious societal critiques in Ellison and Wright’s novels.

What do you guys think? Do you think that Tea Cake will bring a positive change to Janie’s life? Do you think this highly developmental chapter of Janie’s life will serve a greater purpose?  

Comments

  1. Anya Kaplan-HartnettOctober 17, 2019 at 8:59 AM

    I was so happy to watch Janie enjoying her newfound independence after Joe's death. She's spent her whole life controlled by men who walk all over her, and now she can finally do what she wants. She can go fishing with her friends, let her hair down, and run the store how she wants to. Tea Cake seems to respect her individuality in a real and honest way that no other men have, but I'm also wary because men haven't ever treated Janie right. I guess we'll have to wait and see if Tea Cake really is good husband material.

    ReplyDelete
  2. HadiyahOctober 17, 2019 at 3:16 PM

    It was great to see Janie feel independent after Jody died. I also think Tea Cake seems genuine, but I'm still wary. I think it's a good thing that Janie is a bit uneasy, it shows that she knows that she shouldn't rush into a 3rd marriage after having gone through the first two which were terrible. So far I think Tea Cake has had a positive influence because she seems really happy & he's helped her realize that she is allowed to be treated equally & that others should care about what she wants. Also, Janie is still independent even though she's sorta having a relationship with Tea Cake, while earlier she wasn't, which I think is a good sign.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SashaOctober 19, 2019 at 10:32 PM

    I think Tea Cake is definitely bringing improvement into Janie's life. I don't think his arrival really has to have a purpose, though, nor Hurston's novel a moral. I think that Hurston's novel is absolutely socially important, but not in the same ways that Invisible Man or Native Son are. Instead, Hurston's novel seems like it attempts to fix the issues raised by Invisible Man, it tries to bring to light a community which official history ignores dismisses, and forgets.

    ReplyDelete
  4. IsabelaOctober 20, 2019 at 11:12 AM

    Tea cake seems to be the kind of character that just seems too good to be true. Granted this is a novel, but what are the chances that the perfect man for Janie just happens to walk in after she has finally gained back some independence after Jody's death? I think that he is bringing a positive change to her life, in the way that he seems to genuinely care for her, but I wonder if a lot of that 'positive change' or 'independence' was something that she found herself, after his death. He makes her really happy, yes, but I dont know if it would be good for me to say that he is the sole mean for change in who she is.

    ReplyDelete
  5. KatieOctober 20, 2019 at 12:08 PM

    I think part of what Hurston is trying to do is to show something that isn't just a critique of society. Instead, we get a glimpse into a rural black community. Because of this difference, we get to see things like dialect that we didn't see in the other novels. Hurston is showing us the everyday lives of these African-Americans, in a way that feels more realistic than Ellison's dreamlike book or Wright's almost scientific book. It feels more real, with more emotions, than either of the books we've already read.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Emi L.October 20, 2019 at 5:19 PM

    I really hope tea cake will bring positive change to janie's life. We kind of know that it does, even though they break up or something. In a way, her past relationships have prepared her for tea cake. They taught her to protect her value and independence and to keep those in the forefront when choosing a romantic partner. The sixteen year old janie might have married the first property-hunting sweet talker who showed up on the shop doorstep.

    ReplyDelete
  7. JoshuaOctober 20, 2019 at 9:45 PM

    I think it's a bad sign how scared Janie gets whenever Tea Cake leaves spontaneously. It's almost like she's scared to fall in love, or at least marry someone again, seeing how badly it went the past two times. Tea Cake also seems a little sketchy and lots of his life seems unknown, so it's probably some of that too. I'm rooting for them to work out, but I don't think they will.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Imposing Identities

During discussion in class today, Mr. Mitchell asked the question, “What is Gunnar so mad about?” regarding Gunnar’s drastic decision to (eventually) commit suicide by waiting for the atomic bomb to hit Hillside. This question made me reflect on the book as a whole, and it became clear that one of the biggest factors in Gunnar’s decision was the mentally detrimental effects of white people imposing identities on him throughout his whole life. From the beginning of the novel, Gunnar is framed as the “funny cool black guy”. Although he likes being this person, it’s also an identity that the kids (at his primarily white high school) gave him. In high school, Gunnar is framed as the basketball prodigy, and in college, he’s idolized as a genius poet. Most of these identities seem positive— and even things that other people strive for, which makes it difficult to understand why it’s a problem. However, Gunnar seems to have a big issue with it. He continuously fights back against these ...
Read more

The Ending of Ragtime

            Last week, we discussed the ending of Ragtime , and the general consensus was that it was a happy ending. Though it does seem to end happily for the newly-formed family, the endings for some of the other characters that we didn’t have time to discuss in detail, don’t necessarily achieve the happily-ever-after ending that Mother, Tateh, and their children get. It also seems that many of the characters that don’t end up very well are also the characters that wield the most power/privilege amongst the characters in the book.             One character we didn’t discuss in much detail at the end of the book was Morgan. The last scene of Morgan is him in Egypt, not being able to experience the revelation he was searching for throughout the book. Though Morgan is unbelievably wealthy, he doesn’t seem to be nearly as content with his life as the newly-formed family does by the end of the book....
Read more

Does Paul D's reaction make sense?

Is Paul D’s reaction to Sethe’s actions understandable? I would say yes.  There are a lot of different factors that play into his reaction, and after giving them all some thought, I think that he is justified in how he reacted. When I first read the section that describes Paul D’s reaction, I initially thought he was way too harsh. I mean, he basically called Sethe an animal for what she did and he just left without saying anything after promising a future with her and Denver. However, after our discussions in class this week, I think that his drastic response makes sense. One thing that Mr. Mitchell noted in class was that Paul D is in a very different situation when finding out about Sethe’s story compared to us as readers. We are already told the facts of what happened, and then we hear Sethe’s explanation. However, Paul D is receiving both the facts and the explanation at the same time. For one, that combination is extremely overwhelming as both the facts and the ...
Read more