Before moving on to greater ideals and themes, we should take a moment to remember the first man Janie falls in love with; Joe Starks, or as Janie called him, Jody. He is the key character that frees Janie from the caged marriage with Logan Killicks. Without him, Janie would not have been able to experience Eatonville, and better yet learn that she can be fooled easier than she thought. But it is easy to see why she left with him; he promised her the horizon when her current spouse wouldn't want to show her the backyard. So she left with him, and they plopped down in Eatonville, where she spent the next couple decades. Janie feels safe and confident in Jody at first, with his actions and his becoming mayor, but Janie still feels alone like she did with Logan. She was expecting it to feel like she did sitting under a blossoming tree, but sadly this is not so.
Jody had a lot of potential, and he took advantage of it. He also gave Janie a job, the store, and expected her to fulfill it. It was fine, but then he would come in and yell at her for any tiny mistake she made. It is true that Jody is hard working, but he is too busy for his own wife, and the only time he communicated with her is when she screws up. Then when he gets old and fat, he points out Janie's bad points, and expects her to deal with it. It is this type of behavior that made Janie realize her poor choice in spouse.
And alas, he succumbs to kidney failure, and frees Janie yet again to find and love Tea Cake, but all these decades taught her not to be fooled, and made her stronger to experience upcoming hardships like moving to the Glades and knowing how to trust Tea Cake.
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I agree about how important Joe was in Janie's life. It is interesting that Janie loves Joe so much at first and then he suddenly changes to represent a different, more confining force in her life. Janie seems to never find that moment under the blossoming tree with Joe, and for that reason I would say she is never truly happy with him. His death allows her to move forward yet as you said she moves on with many important new lessons in her life.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Adam's post about Jody, I would like to add a couple of details to their relationship. Janie and Jody's relationship also makes Janie be a more independent person. She must take care of her shop until Tea cake takes her away, which makes her able to take care of herself. I would not say that Janie learns how to trust Tea Cake from Jody's influence. It seems they always trusted each other in their relationship until Tea Cake leaves for the day with her money. Janie never really learned about how to NOT trust men from Jody because Jody never actually stole money from Janie, etc. Overall I am in agreement with you, but also I believe other things not mentioned.
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