Dialectical Journal 56
(PG 62) Here he was joust pouring honor all over her; building a highchair for her to sit in and overlook the world and she here pouting over it!
Joe really doesn’t get that Janie doesn’t want fame and fortune. She wants to be like everybody else and she wants to live and enjoy her life. He is trying to compensate for the way he treats by giving her all these things and doing all these things, like making sure she doesn’t socialize with the less important folks, so she will be happy and not leave him. It just shows how little he knows Janie.
Dialectical Journal 57
(PG 67) The girls and everybody else help laugh. They know its not courtship. It’s acting-out courtship and everybody is in the play.
What’s going on here isn’t real, however there is a distinction between what is going on here and Joe and Janie’s relationship. Here everyone is laughing and having a good time whereas in their marriage Joe just treats Janie like she is something that he owns. He really doesn’t treat her like a wife at all, he just uses her to make himself look good and gain more money.
Dialectical Journal 58
(PG 71) All you got tuh do is mind me. How come you can’t do lak Ah tell Yuh?
You sho loves to tell me whut to do, but Ah can’t tell you nothin’ Ah see.
Finally Janie gets to tell Joe how she feels. Joe comes right out and says that he is the boss and Janie is supposed to listen and obey everything he says. Of course, Janie being the strong woman that she is will not stand for it. After this we can tell there is going to be tension between them and Janie will most likely not be so willing to obey every command Joe gives her.
Dialectical Journal 59
(PG 72) She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered.
Again we are seeing that Janie’s dreams of love and marriage are being shattered. She is finally accepting and realizing that she cannot hold on to this dream and fantasy forever and she has got to face facts.
Dialectical Journal 60
(PG 72) But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over.
Ever since her first husband Janie had just been looking for love and a happily ever after. When she met Joe she thought she had found it, but looking at the actual relationship now she finds that she was just pretending that Joe was the one. She so desperately wanted it that she was willing to over look how poorly he treated her but she can’t overlook it anymore. I predict that she is going to be brave and try and find her dream somewhere else.
Dialectical Journal 61
(PG 75) Janie did what she had never done before, that is, thrust herself into the conversation.
Finally Janie is taking a stand and fighting for her rights. She is tired of having to sit on the sideline because Joe makes her. She is tired of being controlled and overpowered so by stepping in she is letting Joe know that he isn’t going to be able to push her around anymore.
Dialectical Journal 62
(PG 76) No matter what Jody did, she said nothing.
Janie is really good about controlling her emotions for the most part and she is able to hold them in. But as we all know eventually we reach a breaking point and I feel like soon she is going to get tired of taking all the crap that Jody does and says to her and she is going to snap.
Dialectical Journal 63
(PG 76) She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface, but it was kept beaten down by the wheels.
Janie enjoys doing things that everyone else gets to do. She likes to be able to live her life and she is a very full spirited woman. However Joe is basically tying her down and not letting her live. Anytime she thinks about doing something or is offered to do something (such as give a speech) he says that she is not suitable to do so. Perhaps Joe keeps beating her down to make him feel better about himself. Janie is a better person then Joe is and since he is a man of power and desires looking good infront of his people, he bashes on Janie and gives her restrictions so that she is less of an admired person.
Dialectical Journal 64
(PG 77) then one day she sat and watched the shadow of herself going about tending store…while all the time she herself sat under a shady tree with the wind…
This is Janie reflecting on her life. She is sitting under the tree which means she is sitting under the life she wishes she had. While she is sitting there she reflects on the life that she actually has. Trees are a representation of life and growing through life, however all Janie can do is sit under the tree and wish she had the life she has been dreaming about.
Dialectical Journal 65
(PG 77) Somebody near about making summertime out of lonesomeness
Hurston uses the idea of seasons here. Summer time is about sunshine, happiness and love. Janie is finding it harder and harder to make this happiness out of the constant loneliness she is feeling. Even though she is with Joe she feels empty and alone.
Dialectical Journal 66
(PG 77) He just stood infront of the chair and fell in it. That made her look at him all over. Joe wasn’t so young as he used to be.
Janie fell in “love” (I say it was more lust) with Joe because of his energy and admirations for change. However with age Joe has lost his energy and his drive which makes Janie less attracted to him. She has also grown to resent change because that is all Joe focuses on and he is consumed by making change and building up Eatonville. So basically Janie has lost all sorts of attractions she had toward Joe. This also plays into the idea that Joe is growing old while Janie is staying young. Joe is so focused on power and money that his youth has disappeared. While Janie is still enjoying her life and remaining as happy as she can giving the circumstances. She still enjoys laughing and having a good time and Joe does not.
Dialectical Journal 67
(PG 78) Then too, Janie took the middle of the floor to talk right into Jody's face, and that was something that hadn't been done before.
Not only had Janie never done this before but no one had. Everyone had always just accepted the fact that Jody was in power and what he said went. But Janie has had enough of Jody making her look like a fool. This is her second outburst and I think there are more to come.
Dialectical Journal 68
(PG 79) Then 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.
Jody had been trying to divert people’s attention off of his condition and put their attention on Janie, by making her look bad and pointing out all of her mistakes. Unfortunately when you mess with the bull, you get the horns. Janie doesn’t like to be treated this way and since she has access to everything she needs to take Joe down, he had better watch his back.
Dialectical Journal 69
(PG 80) And the cruel deceit of Janie! Making all that show of humbleness and scorning him all the time! Laughing at him, and now putting the town up to do the same.
Janie is finally treating Joe the way he has been treating her from the very beginning. Joe was constantly putting Janie down in all different aspects to make himself look good and now that the same thing is being done to him he doesn’t know how to handle it. So of course (because he is a man seeking power the only way he can manage in the state he is in) he hits Janie.
Dialectical Journal 70
(PG 84) So Janie began to think of death.
Janie, as well as everyone else knows that Joe is going to die soon. And I think Janie is starting to think about her life with out Joe and how different it would be with out having all of her actions controlled. She may actually be wishing for death, not only for her own happiness, but for his. He doesn’t like to show weakness which is all that he can show right now. So he is in both physical and mental pain and death would probably be a huge relief for him. Although Janie doesn’t really love Joe all that much, she still cares about him and doesn’t want to see him suffer.
Dialectical Journal 71
(PG 86) Ah knowed you wasn’t gointuh lissen tuh me. You changes everything but nothin’ don’t change you—not even death.
This is the way Joe has been the whole time Janie has known him. He was always willing and striving to fix everything around him, but nothing was allowed to fix him. Joe is just being a stubborn old wretch and Janie knows it. I feel like in these last moments together that they have there was a sense of forgiveness and friendship between them. Janie accepted Joe for who he was and knew that was the way he was going to be. I feel like it gave Joe a piece of mind and so he was able to let go and die.
Dialectical Journal 72
(PG 87) She went over to the dresser and looked hard at her skin and features. The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair.
Now that Joe is dead Janie can finally have some time to focus on her self. When she looks in the mirror she realizes that she is no longer a young lady, she is now a woman. And she is still very beautiful. I think she realizes that there is still a chance for her to find true love and she just has to fully escape from under Joe’s influence. Therefore she lets down her hair and shows off her beauty. She is going to start being Janie again, and not Joe’s wife (trophy, possession).
Dialectical Journal 73
(PG 88) Janie starched and ironed her face and came set in the funeral behind her veil.
Janie has mixed emotions about Joe’s death. She is glad she is out from under the burden that he was on her life, but at the same time she had really grown to know him so there was sorrow in her thoughts. But she just decides to show no emotion that way people can think what they want, she really doesn’t care.
Dialectical Journal 74
(PG 90) These men didn't represent a thing she wanted to know about. She had already experienced them through Logan and Joe
If Janie gets married again she isn’t going to mess around. She has already been in two terrible and unhappy marriages that didn’t contain love at all. This next time she gets married she is going to make sure she is in love, not lust or feeling forced into a relationship. This next marriage is going to be under her own free will.
Dialectical Journal 75
(PG 91) Joe ain't been dead two months. Ain't got settled down in his grave.
Janie keeps getting all this attention from men because of how much money she has. She uses her “sorrow” from Joe’s death as an excuse to get them to back off. She could really care less that Joe is dead but she just needs space.
Dialectical Journal 76
(PG 96) But you got good meat on yo' head
Janie meets Tea Cake and she has finally met someone who tells her what she has been wanting to hear. It never hurts to get complimented and since Janie isn’t used to it based on her previous marriages this sparks an attraction to Tea Cake.
Dialectical Journal 77
(PG 99) He tipped his hat at the door and was off with the briefest good night.
Tea Cake is more of a gentleman then any other men who have been coming around. He is interested in Janie, not her money (or at least it appears that way to me). He spends time talking to her instead of telling her all the things he can and would do that would make him a good husband for her. He seems like he genuinely likes her.
Dialectical Journal 78
(PG 111) Some uh dem very mens wants tuh do whut dey claims dey skeered Tea Cake is doin'.
The other men have been promising all these things to Janie and have been promising that they would treat her a certain way, while Tea Cake comes along and actually does these things. He is a man of action and takes things into his own hands. This makes the other men jealous and envious.
Dialectical Journal 79
(PG 114) Ah done lived Grandma's way, now ah means tuh live mine.
Janie started off living her grandma’s way by marrying Logan even though she didn’t love him. Then she moved on to Joe who she didn’t love either. She stayed with him I think because her grandmothers influence was still lingering and he provided her with a sense of stability because he was rich. But she realizes that this isn’t working out for her too well. So she is going to make sure she lives her way now, which means falling in love.
Dialectical Journal 80
(PG 118) That was when she found out her two hundred dollars was gone.
This was a painful betrayal by Tea Cake. Janie has trust issues with men as it is because of her previous marriages so she is going to be very skeptical in forgiving Tea Cake for this.
Dialectical Journal 81
(PG 121) if you didn’t have de power tuh hold me and hold me tight…it’ll be because she got me in de same way you got me—so Ah can’t help mahself.
Tea Cake comes back and realizes Janie thought he stole the money and ran. So he sits down and reassures her that he loves her, and not her money. He knows the way she has been treated by men and knows that she is very hesitant to let someone in again so he tries his best to let her know that he wouldn’t do that and that he isn’t going anywhere.
Dialectical Journal 82
(PG 126) Let the old hypocrites learn to mind their own business and leave other folks alone
Janie has always lived under the influence and opinions of others, such as Nanny, Joe, and the people of Eatonville. But Tea Cake is encouraging her to not give a damn what all the other people think and just live her life. This goes along with the new lifestyle she will be living and plays into her living independently and happily.
Dialectical Journal 83
(PG 128) So her soul crawled out form its hiding place.
She is finally going to start living her way. She is liberated from her Nanny and Joe and anyone who tries to influence her. She is going to live by doing what she feels and what she desires. And she will no longer be controlled and influenced by the people around her. She is becoming her own woman.
Dialectical Journal 84
(PG 136) Janie learned what it felt like to be jealous.
Janie never really was the jealous type and I think that played into the fact that she never really cared about anything. When she was married to Joe she really didn’t love him so she was never jealous of the attention he was getting by all the other people and women. However Joe was jealous of just the idea of another man looking at Janie. This shows the real difference in love in their relationship. And the fact that Janie is jealous shows that she is finally starting to care about things.
Dialectical Journal 85
(PG 154) Hurricane coming.
This could either mean that there is literally a hurricane coming which means disaster for the people themselves. Or that there is a hurricane of trouble coming which could destroy Janie’s new life. Either way, it is not going to be good news.
Dialectical Journal 86
(PG 167) But you come 'long and made somethin' outa me
Janie didn’t get to start actually living her life and making something out of herself until she met Tea Cake. He is the first thing that has truly mattered to Janie. She needs Tea Cake in her life if she wants to live the life she has been dreaming about.
Dialectical Journal 87
(PG 174) Somethin' got after me in mah sleep, Janie
If you pair this with the idea of the hurricane it could be telling us that something bad is going to happen to Tea Cake. And if something bad does happen to him it would completely destroy Janie.
Dialectical Journal 88
(PG 181) Tea Cake was gone.
He hasn’t died but he has completely changed. He has lost all of his real personality and has been consumed by madness. Janie has to accept the fact that she doesn’t get to hold on to her true love anymore.
Dialectical Journal 89
(PG 188) It was not death she feared. It was misunderstanding
Janie really didn’t care if she got hung for killing Tea Cake. What she was mostly worried about was people misunderstanding and thinking that she had had enough of him so she was going to kill him off. When Janie kills Tea Cake it is out of passion in a sense. The fact that she loves him but he has turned into the rabid animal that she doesn’t even recognize anymore. It is a very deeply emotional thing and she is truly afraid people are going to judge her for it. Which also plays into the idea that she is starting to sink back into her old ways because she is starting to care about what other people think again.
Dialectical Journal 90
(PG 188) So the sun went down
Tea Cake was the light in Janie’s life. He pulled her out of the dark hole she had dug her self in (as well as was pushed in) and he helped her start living life the way she wanted to. So although he is gone she will still continue to live her life of freedom (just as the sun rises and sets everyday) but she will forever miss the light that gave her her freedom.
Dialectical Journal 91
(PG 191) The seeds reminded Janie of Tea Cake more than anything else because he was always planting things.
There was a big connection between Tea Cake and nature. He was the light that made Janie grow and he was also the reason she decided she could start to grow. Tea Cake was the roots to her blossoming tree which was the life she had always dreamed of.
Dialectical Journal 92
(PG 193) She called in her soul to come and see.
Janie finally found the happiness and life she had been searching or all along. Of course it was thanks for Tea Cake for helping her grow, but at least she made it.
