Sunday, March 1, 2009

External and Internal Conflict

(pictured from left to right: Nunkie, Tea Cake, Janie)



If chapter 15 in There Eyes Were Watching God was to have a name as opposed to just being numbered, that name would be "Jealousy: many conflicts arise out of just that one word". This is because in this chapter, there is both external and internal conflict. All of which arise from the jealousy of Janie towards Nunkie. First off, there is internal conflict with Janie and herself. She is angry at herself for this feeling of jealousy inside her. Janie wants to trust Tea Cake, and knows that she can, yet she still resentful towards this other female character because of the flirtatious relationship that is present between her and Tea Cake. Therefore, the fact that the emotion of jealousy is present is internal because Janie lives in agony with this feeling for weeks. But she could only take it for so long. Janie says that "a little seed of fear was growing into a tree" (136). This is yet another example of tree imagery that Hurston blazons in her novel. That is also when her internal conflict grew into an external conflict.

After a few weeks, Janie acted upon her feelings. When she noticed that Tea Cake and Nunkie were both missing from the bean field one day, she hunted them out in the sugar cane field. Janie yells at them with a "cold rage" (137), which scares Nunkie away. Once Nunkie is gone, the conflict continues between Tea Cake and Janie. This conflict is similar to the few others in the novel that are between Tea Cake and Janie in the sense that it is not large or relationship changing and it ends rather quickly, with no hard feelings between either of them. In the end, Janie just keeps the conversation going so that she can hear Tea Cake talk about how much he loves her and about how subservient Nunkie is to Janie in all elements of life and how meaningless Nunkie is to him. This need of affection and reassurance of how great she is shows that Janie has insecurities when it comes to men and love. She has made bad decisions in the past, heard about people who made bad decisions, and seen others make bad decisions, all having to do with men. So while Janie had her independence earlier in the novel, and still does, she seems more insecure about herself and about if Tea Cake's love is genuine. This is because Tea Cake is the first man she has ever legitimately loved, and therefore she does not want to lose him. Yet that fear of loosing her lover is so scary that Janie needs to find ways of making Tea Cake reassure her that his love for her is still there, and everlasting. So therefore her jealousy and these conflicts are a result of Janie's insecurities.

4 comments:

  1. I understand the point that you're making, but I think that the adjectives used to describe Janie are slightly too extreme. I don't think Janie is truly "insecure" about her relationship with Tea Cake, especially when she dissuades him from feeling jealous at Mrs. Turner's brother's "advances".

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  2. Annie, Janie definitely has conflicts dealing with her relationships. I think most people can relate to her situation in reality. You hear a lot of people being insecure because of fear or other emotions, in this case, jealousy.

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  3. I agree with this post. You could also say Tea Cake is as jealous as Janie. When they are located in the Mucks, Hurston describes how "some of the men made passes at Janie" on page 147. Later in the chapter it shows how Tea Cake became jealous and decided to whip Janie. The narrator describes this as an "awful fear inside him" (p 147). I believe the jealousy is equal for both sides of Janie and Tea Cake's relationship.

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  4. I'm glad you brought this chapter and the conflict between Janie and Tea Cake up. When I was reading the book, I enjoyed this little chapter because it showed me another facet of Janie and Tea Cake's relationship. Although their marriage seems perfect, this fight over Nunkie shows that there are occasional disputes and misunderstandings, which makes their relationship more believable. It is their mutual trust and respect that overcomes the jealousy.
    Good job discussing Janie's feelings and insecurities here. I agree with you.

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