Internal Conflict Rooted in Parental Expectations

In Chapter 2, after Nanny has seen Janie kiss Johnny, she is furious. Nanny was born a slave and was never respected as a human or a woman. She was raped by her master and never had much security in her life. This is why Nanny is so disapproving when she sees that Janie is interested in a boy that can't offer her much in life. She says she "don't want no trashy nigger, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin' yo' [Janie's] body to wipe his foots on. (13)" She wants Janie to marry a man who will appreciate her as a wife and will offer he security, something Nanny never had.
We can see how these expectations to be secure conflict with Janie's free spirit later on, when she is married to Jody. Jody offers Janie a huge amount of security, but he domineers her. He makes her tie her hair up while she is working in the store. Janie's hair is her most distinctive feature and defines her physical appearance. By making Janie tie her hair up, Jody making Janie suppress her free spirit in an effort to make her more conventional. Janie stays in this relationship because she loved Nanny and wants to live the way Nanny would have wanted her too.
This dynamic is similar to that between Biff and Willy in Death of a Salesman. Willy sets up expectations of who Biff should be and the way he should live his life. He wants Biff to work a white collar job, play the game, and achieve levels of success that Willy never could. However, these expectations are in contrast with the tangible work outside that Biff seeks for his vocation. This sets up an internal conflict for Biff in which he cannot decide to pursue his own desires or to live out the dreams of his father.

Characterization: Janie

After reading chapter 6-10, I definitely felt a deeper understanding of Janie's character - something she tried to get Joe to see. Janie as well as the general women public are diminished by Joe and the porch sitters. She is told that she is no good and can not do anything right. She bites her tongue, believing the men and not believing in herself. 

As the novel goes on, she comes to fully realize that the Jody she originally met as died. This realization expressed when the narrator states, "She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered" (72).  

Later, Janie feels offended when the porch sitters talk negatively about Mrs. Tony Robbins. Janie sees a similarity between Mrs. Robbins and herself. They both have husbands that do not support them. However, Mrs. Robbins seeks help from Joe. She asks for a small piece of meat to satisfy the hunger her and her children have endured. The men flout her actions and pity Tony for having a wife who would embarrass him in such a way. Janie jumps into the conversation and tells the men off, saying how they don't know as much as they think they do about women. She was not only defending women, but primarily herself. Janie further defends herself when Joe belittles Janie for cutting the tobacco incorrectly in the store. She puts Joe in his place by accusing him of being a hypocrite for calling her old when he is almost fifty.  Janie puts him down as he does her. This is a huge moment for Janie's steps towards the independence that she so deeply desires.

Joe gets sick and is on the verge of death and Janie gives final attempts towards trying to get Joe to listen to Janie. Their whole marriage was dominated with working for the down instead of for their relationship. Unfortunately, Joe does not change, portrayed when the Janie says, "You changes everything but nothin' don't change you-not even death" (86). Joe dies leaving Janie to enjoy her freedom. 

Janie is tempted to embark on new journeys, when suitors come to rescue the widow. She denies them all. However, one day a man named Tea Cake comes into the store and immediately allures Janie with his charm. She is flattered as he indirectly expresses how he believes women have equal capability to men. 

After recently being characterized as independent Janie sinks back into her hopes for love. Despite her past two husbands, she still remains hopeful that there is a man out their that will love her, but mainly respect her. She is ensured that this is possible through Tea Cake's character. Janie longs to prove to herself that she is worth more than she has been treated. She needs to prove this for herself and for all women. Janie subconsciously desires to return with the elixir, allowing women to lead happy and dignified lives.  

The Porch Conversations Influence on Janie

While Janie is working at the store, several members of the community sit on the porch and have discussions about a multitude of topics. I found the conversation about nature versus caution between Sam Watson and Lige Moss to be interesting and important to the novel as a whole. Lige challenges Sam to the question “What is it dat keeps uh man from getting’ burnt on uh red-hot stove- caution or nature?” Sam and Lige each take different sides of the argument and reason their individual points. While Sam believes humans naturally know not to touch a hot stove, Lige argues that humans are taught these actions. This conversation discusses the relationship between the human and the world around them. Sam rebuts Lige’s statement and claims “Naw it ain’t (caution), it’s nature because nature makes caution. It’s de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it’s the onliest thing God ever made. He made nature and nature made everything else.” This particular conversation brings up one of the main themes of the novel which is the relationship between each individual and the world around them. This relates to Janie because she wants to understand herself and be in accord with the world.
I think that the porch conversations have an influence over Janie. Janie sees and hears the conversations and is drawn to them because they are free thinking ideas and the people are able to express their opinions easily. As Janie is trying to understand herself these conversations help her to start thinking about her connection to the world and society. Although Janie is suppressed into silence by Joe, she is an independent thinker and finds the community discussions interesting. Janie probably wants to participate in these conversations but is not allowed to. With Joe’s death Janie is able to find her voice more and talk with others more frequently. The dialect of the townspeople further pushes Janie on her journey to understand herself and find her place in the world.

Hurston's Light

One symbol that really struck me so far in this novel was the lamp post Joe bought for the town. Although only one passage is dedicated to it, I think this light is extremely representative of Hurston's beliefs about her own race and the town where she grew up.

"All we can do, if we want any light after de settin' or befo' de risin', is tuh make some light ourselves. . .Dis evenin' we'se all assembled heah tuh light uh lamp. Dis occassion is something for us all tuh remember tuh our dyin' day. De first street lamp in uh colored town" (45).

The light is primarily symbolic of the town of Eatonville. When Starks says "make some light ourselves" it's like how all the town people came together to make an all-Black town for themselves with the same rights and privileges as white towns. They had to do it without outside help, and the fate of the town depends on everyone's ability to keep their culture alive, or keep the light burning, so to speak.

The light is also representative of the spirit Hurston carries for her own culture, and she sends a message to her African American readers in the next line made by Starks:

"And when Ah touch de match tuh dat lampwick let de light penetrate inside of yuh, and let it shine, let it shine, let it shine" (45).

Hurston is encouraging the celebration of the African American spirit within her readers, a focal point of her writing.

Characterization of Joe Starks

When Janie is stuck in a loveless marriage with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks seems to be the man who will "rescue" her. Joe represents everything that Janie longed for before getting married, as well as everything that Logan could not provide: she meets him spontaneously, not in a pre-arranged fashion, and she is physically attracted to him. Joe sweeps Janie off her feet and seems to be the savior that she has been waiting for.

We are aware of Joe's ambition early on. He wishes play an important part in the creation of a town just for black people. Once he arrives in Eatonville, he uses his intellect to become mayor. He makes it clear that he has big plans for the new town and his position in it, saying that he is "buying in, and buying in big."

It quickly becomes clear that Joe's ambition puts a strain on his relationship with Janie. He puts his work as mayor before his wife, and their love weakens steadily over time. He uses Janie as a tool to gain influence, putting her in charge of a store that is the center of life in Eatonville, and at times shows her off as something of a trophy wife to underscore his power in the town.

The conflict of interest between Joe's ambition and his marriage with Janie is developed further during the incident with Bonner's mule. In an apparently selfless act, Joe buys the overworked mule presumably to make Janie happy. Instead, the act soon turns into a way for Joe to gain more support by showcasing his compassion. When the animal dies, he holds a mock funeral for it, but does not allow Janie to attend the funeral because it would be improper for someone in her position. This is just one example of Joe keeping Janie on a pedestal to show her off to the townspeople. He doesn't allow her to sit outside the store and interact with the common people of Eatonville, for instance, claiming that it is below her. The vultures that descend on the mule's carcass after the funeral symbolize the shallow nature of Joe's actions.

On the whole, Joe is a man driven by ambition. In a white-dominated world, he wants to prove that blacks can be independent and successful on their own. The only way he knows how to do this to become a leader and put the town ahead of everything else in his life. Unfortunately, this includes Janie.

Characterization of Joe Starks (continued)

I know that Kirsten already posted the characterization of Joe, but I'd like to add on to this with material from chapters 6-10. In these chapters, his sense of insecurity becomes more and more apparent to the reader. As Kirsten said earlier, Joe definitely desires power and prominence, and thus prioritizes being the mayor of Eatonville over considering Janie's feelings. However, insecurity ultimately belies this megalomania.

The reason why Joe needs to feel powerful is because he is afraid of being an ordinary man. He is overprotective of Janie and treats her as a trophy wife rather than his equal. He claims her as a special privilege that no other men can even look at, evident in his thoughts that "She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others" (55). Notice that Joe only really needs her for managing the store, looking at her, and showing off. Never does he spend time cultivating their relationship. Instead, he lets his ego overpower and stifle any attraction they had for each other when they first met.

When I first read the passage in which Joe buys the suffering mule from Matt for five dollars, I thought this was cute. It seemed like Joe does this for his wife after hearing her mutter that the mule should be left alone and the others should be ashamed of themselves for making him suffer. However, after reading to the end of chapter 10, I'm suspicious of Joe's motives. It seems more realistic that he buys the mule in order to heighten his sense of greatness. I highly doubt he would have thought of freeing the mule without hearing Janie feeding him the idea by accident. Joe capitalizes on every single opportunity to make himself seem like a perfect mayor, similar to the passage in which he turns the lighting of the first street lamp into a grand festivity.

Furthermore, the reader witnesses Joe's extreme sensitivity even at the slightest hint of imperfection. Even though Steve Mixon was merely teasing Janie for cutting his tobacco off the mark in jest, Joe's reaction was explosive. Clearly, he accepts nothing less than perfection, and due to his sensitive ego he is unable to tolerate even harmless jokes about the Starks' store not being competent. However, he only succeeds in exacerbating this ultimate humiliation when Janie insults him in front of the entire store about his aging appearances, revealing his deeply seeded insecurities.

Notice Joe's bewildered thoughts after Janie insults him: "Joe Starks realized all the meanings and his vanity bled like a flood. Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish, which was terrible...she had cast down his empty armor before men and they had laughed...there was nothing to do in life anymore. Ambition was useless" (79-80). The powerful language Hurston uses to describe Joe's chagrin struck me. Saying that "his vanity bled like a flood" goes to show that Joe's pride is his blood and his reason for living. Rendering his "maleness" merely an "empty armor" illustrates that Joe is much too focused on maintaining his manly facade to actually realize that he is living an empty life. He is so dependent on his reputation that he simply gives up and cannot recover after his pride is shattered.

Moreover, Joe's dialogue right before his death further reveals his insecurities and fears: "Janie! Janie! don't tell me Ah got tuh die, and Ah ain't used tuh thinkin' 'bout it...Shut up! Ah wish thunder and lightnin' would kill yuh!...All dis tearin' down talk!...Git outa heah" (86-87)! Once again, Joe breaks out into hysterics and cannot stand the thought of dying. One of the main reasons why he is unwilling to die is because he is unwilling to leave his life with a stained reputation, thanks to Janie. Even at the end of his life, he is unwilling to reconcile with Janie and refuses to hear any criticism of himself. Joe simply cannot acknowledge his own flaws because he is so used to everyone yielding to his demands.

I think the picture is self-explanatory. Since Joe feels the need to constantly place himself above others, he is arrogant.

Characterization: Tea Cake

Although Tea Cake only appears in the last chapter of this section, he immediately draws the readers' attention and fondness.

Janie likes Tea Cake upon sight - when she doesn't know who is or, where he came from, or even his name. She sees him smiling when he comes into the store and "was in favor of the story that was making him laugh before she even heard it." From the moment she meets him, Janie is drawn to Tea Cake and feels that he is familiar to her. From the vivid physical descriptions, we can see Janie's attraction to him, but the most important aspect of their meeting that I noticed was the intellectual attraction she has for Tea Cake.

Janie has had many suitors since Joe's death, however all of them come to her with the angle that "uh woman by herself is uh pitiful thing. Dey needs aid and assistance." However when Tea Cake comes into the store, he never for a moment gives the impression that he thinks himself above Janie intellectually and in fact thinks it strange that no other man would have taught her how to play checkers because she's "got good meat on yo' head." This is a starkly different opinion than all of the other men encountered thus far in the novel who all want to abet Janie, but only for their own personal gain and would immediately try to subjugate her.

Even in just this first meeting, Tea Cake enables Janie to feel equal to him and fosters the emotions she felt in front of the pear tree years before. Obviously Tea Cake will be important in Janie's individual growth as he appears to be the type of man to enable her to be independent while still being in a loving relationship with him. However his character is curious because when Janie returns to Eatonville, Tea Cake is not with her and she says "Yeah, Pheoby, Tea Cake is gone...Ah ain't got nothing to make me happy no more where Ah was at." This raises the question of what happened to split these two up. When I read these lines, I had the impression that Tea Cake had left, which made Janie sad and gave her a reason to come back. However after reading the other posts that mentioned this line and seeing the ease with which Janie leaves her first marriage, I wonder if Janie simply felt that Tea Cake was no longer making her happy and so she left, which would be surprising considering their initial flirtatiousness and his apparent acceptance of her intelligence.

I also really agree with Tien's prediction of Janie following Robert Sternberg's Triangular Love Theory and that Tea Cake will be the culmination of this triangle, giving her all three points of the love triangle and leading to consummate love. From this one scene, we can see the passion possible between them through their flirtations, but also intimacy and commitment are there especially since Janie feels respected by Tea Cake, thus drawing her even closer to him.

Within the Hero Journey, I think that Tea Cake will be Janie's Mentor. He struck me quite clearly as this archetype because his first action is to give her new knowledge, albeit a rather simple one of learning to play checkers. Still, this simple knowledge sets a precedent for Tea Cake teaching Janie anything she doesn't know that he does; he will never turn her away from knowledge because of her gender and the stereotypes that surrounded being female at this time.

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