Notes 3/21

Chapters  7-8

In chapter 7 and 8 we see Jody Starks start to break down and dies. Janie describes it as  “de change uh life.” The other men are gathered on the porch and hear her insult him like this and he hits her. This is basically the final insult Jody will be able to deliver to Janie.  

“Joe Starks didn’t know the words for all this, but he knew the feeling.”

After this incident, Jody moves into another room, refuses to interact with Janie and stops eating her cooking.  Not eating her cooking and refusing to acknowledge her as a housewife is a total rejection of her and her role in this marriage.

Before he dies Janie goes to see him one last time and they only end up arguing. He says she never appreciated all he has done for her—she says he never let her truly be herself.  So once again Janie is unable to be herself in life and she realizes she still has to work to do so. She is still not sure who she is.

The symbolism of her hair:

Janie takes the rag off her head, freeing her imprisoned hair, but then realizes that she has to be in a state of mourning. She end up putting the rag back on her head and will play the role of a sad widow.

Chapters  9-10

After Joe Starks’s funeral, Janie realizes that “She had been getting ready for her great

journey to the horizons in search of people; it was important to all the world that she should find them and they find her.” Why is this important “to all the world”?

Janie spends six months “mourning” Jody as she is supposed to but she is really thrilled to finally be free.  Many men attempt to woe her but she has no interest in getting to another relationship where she’ll be controlled again.

Teacake comes to the store one day as she is closing up early and they start to get to know each other. They play a game of checkers.

Why is it symbolic that they play a game of checkers?

By the end of this section Janie begins to realize that she may be able to realize some of her dreams and eventually achieve a certain amount of self-realization.

                       

                        Logan

Jody                             You can trace Janie’s development through these three men

                       

Teacake

Teacake pushes Janie further in terms of creativity and the ability to explore who she is. He is not interested in controlling her rather he wants her to be herself.  Logan and Jody would never “play checkers” with her because they did not view her as equal. Teacake does.

Tea Cake seems to Janie the man who will complement her and take her toward the horizon for which she longs.

Chapters 11-12

Teacake doesn’t come back for a week and Janie assumes he may never come back. She is rude to him when he does return but he quickly breaks that down and they end up playing checkers again. They sit together on the porch eating cake and lemonade. He suggests they go fishing even though it is late at night. Janie loves the idea and sees it as an adventure.

At first Janie thinks they are nothing more than friends but Teacake convinces her that they should be much more. He is much younger than her but they decide to go public with their love and this causes the town to gossip. She states  that she has lived her grandmother’s way and now wants to live her own way.  Her relationship with Teacake represents her true journey. She sees her horizon for the first time and it appears to be truly achievable.  Janie’s quest for self-discovery is literally a quest to find her own voice. Thus, it is important to note her description of Tea Cake’s meaning to her: “He done taught me the maiden language all over.”

Think back to the very first sentences of the novel:

"Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly."

Janie has spent her life like the women in the above quotation, she was not allowed to dream but now it appears she can. Janie has begun to see him in mystical terms and has developed a conscious sense that he is the partner that she needs in order to travel to the horizon.

            Why is this important “to all the world”?

Chapters 13-14

Janie moves to Jacksonville and marries Teacake. She hides $200 just in case it does not work out. Teacake finds the money and takes it town. He buys his fellow railroad workers a big lunch and it turns into a big party. When he returns he admits that he did not bring her because he thought she would consider it too low class. Janie tells him he wants to experience everything he experiences. She is establishing herself as his equal in all aspects.

Janie eventually reveals that she has $1200 in the bank but Teacake assures her she’ll never have to touch it because he will always provide for her. This marriage is different from the previous because Janie doesn’t need Teacake for money or anything else. She has a sense of freedom.

The two share a happy life in “the muck.” They plant beans, Tea Cake teaches Janie how to shoot a gun, and they go hunting together. She eventually develops into a better shot than he. This is further proof that they are on the same level.  Eventually she goes to work in the fields with him during the day so they can spend more time together. Ironically, she is doing the work Logan would have appreciated but because there is mutual respect in her marriage—it is different. This acceptance of inequality is related to the idea of gender differences explained in that paragraph at the beginning of the novel. Hurston may be implying that men have a fundamental need for possession that women lack. Agree?

At different points in this section Tea Cake manipulates her in subtle ways, raising, once again, the specter of male domination in her life. But it always ends up being okay—why is that? What is different here? Has he simply tricked her into thinking she is making the decision to work on her own?

Tea Cake has enabled Janie to begin her quest and, in the process, has become the goal of her quest. What does this mean? How can another person become a person’s quest?

Tea Cake often disappears for lengths of time in this section: what effect does this have on their relationship? Do you believe in distance making the heart grow fonder? Or does it make the heart forget?