Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots. Its popularity owes much to the lyricism of the prose, the pitch-perfect rendition of black vernacular English, and the memorable characters--most notably, Janie Crawford. Collecting the most widely cited and influential essays published on Hurston's classic novel over the last quarter century, this Casebook presents contesting viewpoints by Hazel Carby, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The volume also includes a statement Hurston submitted to a reference book on twentieth-century authors in As it records the major debates the novel has sparked on issues of language and identity, feminism and racial politics, A Casebook charts new directions for future critics and affirms the classic status of the novel. Included are leveled comprehension questions and suggested answers.
Her first two marriages, to the much older and determinedly unromantic Logan Killicks and the ambitious but self-centred and hyper-critical Joe Starks, both fail to bring her happiness. It is not until she meets Tea Cake, a much younger man with little money to his name, that she finally finds true love with a man who cares about and truly values her. Sign up Log in.
Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. The novel represents the story of Janie from her childhood to women with her hands on her own destiny.
The novel is set in southern and central Florida at the time of early 20 th Century but it was poorly received at the start. The novel has been adapted by various directors for films. The novel has been regarded as one of the best work ever done for women.
Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Telegram Whatsapp. He occasionally strikes Janie in order to show her and the other townsfolk his authority. Near the end of their relationship, Janie challenges Jody in front of the other men at the store and effectively emasculates him.
He resorts to hitting her as hard as he can, though in the end, he has lost the respect of his peers. Tea Cake is Janie's third and final husband. He is her ideal partner in her search for true love. He is charismatic, charming, funny, and creative with a tendency to embellish stories. To Janie, he is larger than life, wise, and genuinely cares for her. Tea Cake is loving towards Janie and respectful of her as her own individual person. Unlike her previous two marriages, Tea Cake never stops trying to make her happy.
He is more than willing to share with her what he has learned from his own experiences and show her the greater world outside of her own existence. He enjoys being with Janie and playing the role of a teacher. Through Tea Cake, Janie learns to shoot a rifle, play checkers, and fish among other activities.
However, Tea Cake shows tendencies of patriarchal dominance and psychological abuse towards Janie. For instance, he keeps her from working with the rest of the people down on the muck because he believes she is above common folk. Consequently, until Janie asserts herself with Tea Cake and joins the others in working, [32] she gains a bit of a reputation for thinking herself better than everyone else.
What differentiates him from Joe in this regard is that Janie regularly confronts him and he acquiesces to her demand that she not be excluded from aspects of his life. Another tendency that Tea Cake shares with Joe is his jealousy and need to maintain some amount of control over Janie.
When he overhears another woman speaking poorly to Janie about Tea Cake and attempting to set her up with her brother, Tea Cake decides to take matters into his own hands. First, he discusses with Janie, a conversation he overheard between her and Mrs.
Turner, a local cafe owner. He criticizes Mrs. Turner's appearance like Janie, she is mixed-race and then successfully executes an elaborate plan to ruin her establishment. Finally, he slaps Janie around in front of Mrs. Turner and others to show them that he is in charge and to assert his ownership over her. In the end, Tea Cake plays the role of hero to Janie when he saves her from drowning and being attacked by a rabid dog.
Tea Cake himself is bitten and eventually succumbs to the disease. Not able to think rationally and enraged with jealousy, he physically attacks Janie and she is forced to shoot and kill Tea Cake. Therefore, she effectively ends her emotional attachment to the men in her life and the desire to seek out and realize her dream of true love.
Janie is searching for her own voice and identity throughout the novel. She is often without a voice in relation to her husbands as she will not fight back. Janie is also faced with situations that make her feel that her value as an African American woman is little to none. She is seen as distinct from other women in the novel, who follow traditions and do not find a life independent of men.
Janie's physical appeal becomes a basis of Starks and Tea Cake to have jealousy and belittle her looks. Starks orders Janie to cover her long hair as other men are attracted to it. Similarly, Tea Cake remarks on Janie's lighter skin and her appeal to Mrs.
Turner's brother. But Janie begins to feel liberated in her marriage with Tea Cake because he treats her as an equal and mostly does not look down on her. As a result, she loves him more than she did the other two. Janie does not find complete independence as a woman until after the death of Tea Cake. She returns to Eatonville with her hair down and she sits on her own porch chatting with her friend Pheoby.
By the end of the novel, she has overcome traditional roles and cultivates an image of the 'liberated black woman. Janie grew up under the care of her grandmother, Nanny. Her experiences as a slave and freedwoman shaped the way Nanny saw the world.
She hoped to protect Janie, by forcing her to marry Logan Killicks, although he was older and not attractive. Janie followed her grandmother's advice but found that it wouldn't be as easy to love him as Nanny had suggested.
African Americans believed in marriage during the early 20th century because they had been prevented from such legal protection under slavery. After the death of Starks, Janie meets Tea Cake and they fall in love. Her community Janie thought he was a broke nobody and were suspicious of him. Tea Cake wasn't the perfect man, but better than expected by the community of Eatonville. During the early 20th century, the African-American community asked African-American women to set aside self-realization and self-affirmation values.
They imposed male-dominated values and often controlled who women married. Starks initially seemed to be good for Janie, but later beat her several times, in an effort to exert his authority over her. Domestic abuse was not entirely disapproved by the African-American community, and men thought it was acceptable to control their women this way. Tea Cake showed his respect of her. The early s was a time in which patriarchal ideals were accepted and seen as the norm.
In her relationships, she is being ordered around by the man, but she did not question it, whether in the kitchen or bedroom. After the death of Starks, Janie goes to his funeral wearing black and formal clothes. But for Tea Cake's funeral, she wears workers' blue overalls, showing that she cared less for what society thought of her as she got older.
In addition, critics say that Tea Cake was the vehicle for Janie's liberation. Tea Cake offered her a partnership; he didn't see her as an object through marriage. Throughout the novel, Hurston vividly displays how African American women are valued, or devalued, in their marital relationships. By doing so, she takes the reader on a journey through Janie's life and her marriages. Janie formed her initial idea of marriage off the image of unity she witnessed between a pear tree and a bee.
This image and expectation sets Janie up for disappointment when it finally came time to marry. From her marriage to Logan Killicks to Tea Cake, Janie was forced to acknowledge where she stood as a female in her relationship [44]. Starting with her marriage to Logan, Janie was put in a place where she was expected to work. On top of all the physical labor expected from her, Janie endured physical beatings from her male counterpart.
Hoping for more value, Janie decides to leave Logan and run off with Joe Starks. However, in reaction to this decision, she's only faced with more beating and devaluement.
Joe expected her stay in the home, work in the kitchen, and when she was in public, Janie was expected to cover her hair and avoid conversation with the locals. With one last hope, Janie engaged in a marriage with Tea Cake, a much younger soul, and things finally seemed to look up for her, even though she was still expected to help in the fields and tend to her womanly duties. Overall, throughout her marriages, Janie experienced the hardships that most African American women went through at that time.
From the physical labor to the physical beatings, Janie was presented with the life that a woman was expected to live. Janie was able to feel like a woman with her third marriage with Tea Cake.
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