Chapter Seven 1 How is Janie able to

Chapter Seven

1. How is Janie able to “tolerate” her relationship with Jody? �She ignores him and stays out of his way as much as possible. ◦ “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face… She learned how to talk some and leave some… she lived between her hat and her heels, with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods– come and gone with the sun… She got so she received all things with the stolidness of the earth which soaks up urine and perfume with the same indifference. ” (76 -77)

2. What does the narrator mean by “For the first time she could see a man’s head naked of its skull”? �For the first time, Janie really knows what Joe is thinking and how he works. She has become more wise. ◦ Janie begins to observe and acknowledge Joe’s old age and decline in health �Her future with Joe, all of a sudden, seems narrow. �“She just measured out a little time for him and set it aside to wait. ” (78)

3. Why did the narrator say that the incident with the tobacco was “like somebody snatched off part of a woman’s clothes while she wasn’t looking and the streets were crowded”? �Janie was truly humiliated and publically shamed ◦ Mixon treated Janie’s mistake as a joke; Joe treats her mistake as a disaster �Janie stands up for herself in front of everyone for the first time, demonstrating a new side of the mayor’s wife not previously witnessed �“You big-bellies round here and put out a lot of brag, but ‘tain’t nothin’ to it but yo’ big voice. ” (Janie, 79)

4. How old are Janie and Jody now? �Janie is almost forty and Jody is almost fifty. ◦ “…Ah’m nearly forty and you’se nearly fifty… Ah ain’t no young girl no mo’ but den Ah ain’t no old woman neither. ” (Janie, 79)

5. How does Janie insult Jody about his age? �She says “When you pull down yo’ britches, you look like de change of life. ” ◦ “…Joe Starks realized all the meanings and his vanity bled like a flood. Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistable maleness that all men cherish. ” (79)

6. How does Jody react to the insult? �He reacts violently, out of humiliation, and slaps her ◦ “…she had cast down his empty armor before men and they had laughed, would keep on laughing. When he paraded his possessions hereafter, they would not consider the two together. They’d look with envy at the things and pity the man that owned them… Joe Starks didn’t know the words for all of this, but he knew the feeling. So he struck Janie with all of his might and drove her from the store. ” (80)

Chapter Eight

1. Why does Janie feel bad about hurting Joe? �She feels bad because she doesn’t like hurting anyone— even when the hurting seems justified. ◦ “Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time. Had been doing it for years. ” (81) ◦ “Ah’d ruther be dead than for Jody to think that Ah’d hurt him… God in heben knows Ah wouldn’t do one thing tuh hurt nobody. It’s too underhand mean. ” (Janie to Phoebe, 82)

2. What do the townspeople believe Janie has done to Joe? �They believe she poisoned him for purposes of revenge ◦ Irony = For close to twenty years, Jody has been poisoning/slowly killing Janie’s dreams/hopes

3. What is wrong with Joe? �He is dying of kidney failure. ◦ “When a man’s kidney’s stop working altogether, there is no way for him to live. He needed medical attention two years ago. Too late now. ” (the doctor, 83)

4. What does the author mean by: “She was liable to find a feather from his wings lying in her yard any day now”? �He was going to die any day. ◦ Irony = Janie sees death as an eternal being (“Been standing there before there was a where or a when or a then”) when death really introduces people to eternity. ◦ Janie’s concept of death is a vacuum – a space "without sides and without a roof" – signaling the emptiness and eternity of death.

5. Why does Janie visit Jody on his deathbed? What does she say? �She wants to set things straight between them. She wants him to know that she wanted the best when they got married, but things fell apart as he became more and more greedy and controlling. �She wants him to know that she never wished him ill-will, but that she grew to resent him because of the way she was treated.

6. On at least two occasions, Hurston refers to death as “square-toed”, which means exceedingly proper or straight-laced. Why might Hurston describe death in this manner? �Answers will vary. ◦ Death is proper because it always does what it is supposed to do. ◦ It creeps in unnoticed and disappears unnoticed.

7. Why is it that one of the first things Janie does after Jody’s death is let her hair down? �It is symbolic of her new freedom from the control and tyranny of their marriage. ◦ “She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there. “ �Janie’s womanhood is still in tact; it is something that not even Jody- nor anyonecould take from her �Years of confinement and concealment vanish

Chapter Nine

1. What do you think the author means by “She sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with springtime across the world”? �Answers will vary. ◦ She attended his funeral physically appearing to mourn, but in her spirit, she was rejoicing that she was finally free from Joe Starks. �She burns all of her head rags and begins to wear her hair in a long braid again

2. Why does Janie hate her grandmother so much? �Her grandmother made her marry Logan, and it was with this marriage that Janie lost who she was as a person. She blames her for being the person she became. Janie was never able to live her own life since Nanny made her marry Logan. �Janie is now free to live her own life, and to do what she wants to do.

3. What does the author mean by “Like all the other tumbling mud-balls, Janie had tried to show her shine”? �The narrator describes how God made man—that he made him out of a jewel, but then the angels got jealous of the shine, and broke up the shine. Then they were beaten to sparks and covered with mud. ◦ This is symbolic of the spirit and spark in people that has been lost. �Janie knew she had a spark buried deep inside her, and wanted to remove the mud and shine again. She means that everyone else is also trying to find their own “shine. ”

4. How have the men been treating Janie since Joe’s death? What is Janie’s reaction to these men? �No suitors have come to see her in six months. They are treating her as if she is fragile and helpless. They try to take care of her in every way. �Janie has no interest in them, and often finds their gestures humorous and silly.

5. What does Janie mean when she says, “Let ‘em say whut deh wants tuh, Pheoby. To my thinkin’ mourning oughtn’t tuh last longer’n grief”? Why is this statement important to Janie and her journey? �Janie is not sad about Joe’s death. She should not have to pretend that she is in mourning for his death when she is not really grieving over him. ◦ She knew that Joe’s death was imminent and had prepared herself for mourning before his death; she has also been waiting for liberation all her life

Chapter Ten

1. Where has everyone gone, leaving Janie alone? �Everyone has gone to a baseball game ◦ This sets the stage for her chance encounter with Tea Cake �While everyone goes off to see a game, Janie is about to play a game

2. What is Tea Cake’s real name? Judging from his nickname alone, what kind of person do you think Tea Cake is? �Tea Cake = Vergible Woods. �Answers will vary: ◦ Sweet? ◦ Good natured? ◦ Companion? ◦ Playful?

3. How is Tea Cake different from the other men of Eatonville? �He treats Janie as an equal. He doesn’t put her down, nor does he treat her as “fragile. ” ◦ Janie has already begun to develop a strong, independent sense of self �Tea Cake acts as catalyst and supports her rather than stifling her

4. What is Janie’s reaction to Tea Cake? �She is intrigued and attracted to him, but cautious ◦ Janie’s quest for the “horizon” is not one involving materialism (Jody); rather, the pursuit of her goals should be spiritual/mystical (Tea Cake) �However, she is so unaccustomed to being involved with a man so concerned with things beyond material life that she sees Tea Cake as ‘too good to be true. ’