Janie's relationships
Janie’s relationships have each taught her really important lessons, but unfortunately mostly through mostly negative experiences.
Even though we don’t really see most of her relationship with Logan (there isn’t really much to show), it is clear that Janie doesn’t feel fully comfortable with him, and also feels like she isn’t getting the respect she deserves. Despite her gut feeling to not marry him, Janie submitted to the pressure she felt from her grandmother and married Logan. She quickly learned that was a bad idea, and freed herself by walking away and marrying another man. I thought it was interesting how she wasn’t sure Joe would be waiting for her and would have a very uncertain future if he weren’t waiting, yet she knew that whatever happened when she left would be better than staying with Logan. Through this relationship she realized that she was the only person who could dictate who she loved and married. While marrying Joe was her choice, in a way their marriage was so rushed that she really didn’t have that much of a choice. She ran away from her husband and then married Joe that same night. She probably felt some sort of pressure to get married but convinced herself that is what she wanted. She was also completely infatuated with the idea of him and his promises, but it was mostly talk.
Joe was a terrible husband to Janie. He verbally and mentally abused her, isolating her from the rest of town, gaslighting her, focusing on his dream only, and calling her really ugly things. Janie stands by him, and doesn’t really argue with him, which in the end causes her to build up her anger. Who’s to say whether communication would work with Jodie (I think it wouldn’t), but she shouldn’t have to tell him that she doesn’t like it when he controls her and insults her. It’s also clear that Joe is insecure over how beautiful and well-liked by the town Janie is. When he dies I think Janie realizes that in order to find happiness she can’t let a man walk all over her and dictate what she can and can’t do. I felt sad when she blamed her grandma for teaching her to do that, but I understood why she felt that way.
Then Janie meets Teacake and he makes her feel different than the others. He doesn’t really make all these far fetched promises like her past husbands, he just wants to have fun with her in the moment. And unlike them, he doesn’t seem to really care so much about money. Logan wanted Janie to help take care of the farm, and Joe wanted her to manage the store. The dynamics of those relationships revolved around their businesses together, but Teacake isn’t like that. However, Janie gets a lot of backlash from the town about their relationship, and this time she follows her gut instinct and sticks with him. She finally puts her happiness before what other people want and expect from her.
Yes, I definitely think that part of the reason Janie was so attracted to Tea Cake was because he was the first guy who didn't want to be with her related to business. In this way, their relationship felt more fun and less calculated. While I'm glad she was finally able to make her own decisions with Tea Cake, it's unfortunate that even the initial "good guy" turned out to be an abuser as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree. One of the most interesting and important themes to me in the book was her relationships. Even when she is with Tea Cake I find myself wondering if he's still really the right choice. We discussed this a bit in class but I kept feeling like she was molding herself to what Tea Cake wanted rather than standing her ground in the relationship.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree - even though Tea Cake was a window to the world outside of her prior experience, she went along with every single thing he said, and I kind of wished she was able to teach him things too (I'm sure she had unique experiences, a childhood, etc... she just relied on him as the main source of decision making in the relationship)
DeleteThis is a really interesting and hard-to-answer question: does Janie actually *like* this new version of herself, shooting guns and partying all night with Tea Cake, working in the fields all day and getting her overalls muddy? Is this the fulfillment of her self in some way, or is she following his example and molding herself to him?
DeleteIn this context, I think about her identity as the "mayor's wife" as unquestionably molding herself (or being *molded*) into what Starks wants her to be, and we see her increasingly resist these constraints. It's true that the transformative experiences with Tea Cake are usually *his* idea (playing checkers, fishing at night, going to the muck, etc.). He chooses to teach her to shoot a gun, and encourages her to do so, but then she learns she really likes it, and it can be seen as empowering. At the end of the novel, she seems to feel as is she's come into her own, her "self," and this new self entails a total rejection of the bourgeois/respectable "mayor's wife" persona. Is she still "molding herself" to Tea Cake when she retreats to her bedroom at the end? An argument could be made either way.
While it's true Janie learned most of her lessons through negative experience, I think in general negative experiences are what teaches a person the most. That being said, it shouldn't be overlooked that the most meaningful lesson Janie learned was through her (mostly) positive and loving relationship with Tea Cake, putting her at peace by the end of the story despite his death. Also, I agree with you on the point that Janie's marriage to Jody was rushed, and I think that can be partially attributed to the feeling of "oh I actually have a slight interest in this man" Janie had after meeting him. Between that rush and the total lack of passion in her marriage to Logan she probably felt the choice to be a no brainer, though not very well thought out.
ReplyDeleteThe relationships of Janie is directly correlated to her character development and I think that your blog articulates this well. Janie slowly goes from a person who submits to peer pressure to a person who puts her wants and needs before others. Unfortunately, it took Janie a few bad relationship to develop her self-confidence but she had to have her own experience instead of adhering to her grandmother's and others' ideas.
ReplyDelete