erinc09’s Blog

At the time that this book was written it was not unusual for a husband to beat his wife to show power. A wife was just something that men seemed to have so that they could have control over something. I was very surprised when in the beginning of chapter 17 Tea Cake depicted this kind of husband, because I thought that he had different beliefs.

“Before the week was over he had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him. Being able to whip her reassured him in possession. No brutal beatnig at all. He just slapper her around a bit to show he was boss. It aroused a sort of envy in both men and women.” (145)

The fact that Tea Cake is about twelve years younger than Janie makes it even harder for me to believe that she would allow this sort of behavior from him. I would have thought that she learned she needs to be the one in control with her relationships. With Joe he had all the power, and we all saw how that turned out. It seems almost pathetic for her to cling onto Tea Cake; I would have expected her to hit him back but she took the whippings instead. She is probably afraid that if she tries to fight back he will leave her, and everyone will  say “I told you so.”

When Tea Cake and Janie moved they met a lot of new people, one being Mrs. Turner. She had a fascination with white people and hated the black culture/race. Janie appealed to her because of her light skin and long hair, but she hated Tea Cake because his skin was so black. Mrs.Turner looked down on anyone who was black and talked about how she disapproved of their loud behavior.

“Behind her crude words was a belief that somehow she and others through worship could attan her paradise–a heave of straighthaired, thin-lipped, high-nose boned white seraphs” “She paid homage to janie’s Caucasian chracteristics as such. And when she was with Janie she had a feeling of transmutation, as if she haerself had become whiter.”

Both of these quotes appear on page 145. Mrs. Turner is so obsessed with the white culture, and it is almost tragic because she will never be able to attain her dream of being white. No matter how hard you try to change you can’t always rid yourself of your background. Her race is something that will always be with her, and her choice to look down upon it has isolated her from the people of the town. She makes it very clear that she does not want to socialize with the rest of the black community, however this doesn’t make her the most popular person in town.

At this point in the book we are really able to see Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship developing. To Janie, the age issue seemed like a problem at first, but when she saw how much fun she had with Tea Cake it didn’t seem like a big deal. He actually wanted to have fun with her, and that is something that she did not experience with Joe. For the first time in a long time she was having a really good time.

“It was so crazy digging worms by lamp light and seeting out for Lake Sabelia after midnight that she felt like a child breaking rules. That’s what made Janie like it. They caught two or three and got home just before day. Then she had to smuggle Tea Cake out by the back gate and that made it seem like some great secret she was keeping from the town.” (102)

In the quote above Janie mentioned how she felt like a child, and how that is what made her like the experience so much. Now that I think about it Janie’s childhood was cut off so short. She was forced to marry at such a young age, and she was never able to finish having fun as a child. Her marriage forced her to grow up before she was ready. I think that is probably why she enjoys this relationship so much, because she is able to act like the kid that she never got to be.

In one of the earlier chapters when Janie embarrassed Jody in front of his friends something completely changed inside of him. After that comment he became completely transformed, and he was never quite the same. It got to so bad that he became physically ill, and in chapters 8-10 he unfortunately died. Although Janie felt guilty and had pity for him, she felt this new sense of freedom. For the past twenty years she had to hold herself back from being the “real” Janie; she had to fit the image of what the mayor’s wife should be. However, with Jody gone she let her hair down and did whatever she wanted.

On page 95 a man named Tea Cake/Vergible Woods comes into the store while Janie is working. Everyone else is at a game, so the store is completely empty besides the two of them. When he asks her to play a game of checkers she replies that she doesn’t know how, so he decides to show her. “He set it up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play. That was even nice.” Finally Janie is being respected and treated like a normal person, instead of just being pushed off to the side and being called a woman. After twenty years of neglect from her husband she is finally starting to feel more appreciated. It seems as if she is finally interested in someone since Joe died. However, in the first chapter before Janie goes into her flashback she mentions to her friend that Tea Cake was gone and left her, so it makes me wonder what might cause this to happen..

Throughout the book women are constantly depicted as people who are only good for cooking and taking care of the children. The time period of this novel can definitely be felt because of the way the comments made by the characters. For example, on page 71 Joe is talking to Janie and he makes some strong remarks: “Dat’s ’cause you need tellin’. It would be pitiful if Ah didn’t. Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves.” He then goes on to say that women don’t know anything, they just think that they do but they really have no idea how to understand anything. The fact that he is saying this to his wife is so ridiculous, and it sounds especially wrong to me since I have grown up in a society where women are being more and more respected each year. Joe could not be anymore degrading if he tried. He actually compares women to chickens and cows, but Janie has definitely proved that she is much smarter than that. However Joe seems too ignorant to realize this. I hope that Janie makes attempts in the future to either prove him wrong or leave him, because clearly he is not respecting her needs.

In this set of chapters Janie stood up to her husband and left him, only to be put in another bad marriage. She had so many high hopes for her relationship with Joe/Jody. He was so inspirational and told her of his dreams to make a change in the world for black people. She was drawn to him, but was unfortunately disappointed when he became too powerful as mayor. Once again she was placed in a situation with a man that did not make her happy.

On page 48 there is a line that shows how Joe changed his morals and personality once he had power. “It was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could be so different it put you on a wonder. It was like seeing your sister turn into a ‘gator. A familiar strangeness. you keep seeing your sister in the ‘gator and the ‘gator in yours siter, and you’d rather not.” When Joe approached the town about making changes and promising a safe place for them they believed him. He seemed so promising, but like many people in our society the power got to him. His head became bigger and the things that mattered to him the most before did not seem as important. This is such a common thing for people to do. Once they get so used to having power they completely forget about who they were before. It is sad to see Janie get put in this position, because she left her husband thinking that Joe would be a much better match for her. She had so many high hopes, but they are not being fulfilled yet.

In chapters 1 and 2 of Their Eyes Were Watching God there was a lot about the women of the town gossiping about each other and about Janie, especially in the first few pages. There is a quote on page 6 that discusses it. “To start off wid, people like dem wastes up too much time puttin’ they mouf on things they don’t know nothin’ about. Now they got to look into me loving Tea Cake and see whether it was done right or not! They don’t know if life is a mess of corn-meal dumplings, and if love is a bed-quilt.” “So long as they get a name to gnaw on they don’t care whose it is, and wht about, ’specially if they can make it sound like evil.” It’s such a common trait for people to get into other people’s business and make it their own, especially these days. Instead of admitting to their own troubles they just focus on others and criticize them to make themselves feel better about their situation. All of these women had so many opinions about Janie but I’m sure that their lives aren’t perfect and that they have a few secrets that they could own up to, but they wouldn’t because it would ruin their image in society.

The topic of gossiping reminded me very much of The Great Gatsby because there was that whole issue of the women gossiping all the time in that novel as well. Seeing that in both books it was the women who were caught gossiping, it seems that it has become the steriotypical image for women.