I am very suprised and happy to see how the character Janie has developed. It is impecable to see Hurston write about a woman character like this, especially during the enlightment of Women's Rights.
Janie sticks up for herself on page 78 and 79 of the novel, not only did she speak up for herself she spoke up to a man. I loved how she spoke up for her rights to look good and age well. This passage was just the start of her own sexual revolution. She put down "her man." He then moves out, Hurston is trying to portraty a sterotype between men and women. This is a different syle of writing in which we as a class have not read before.
I also like the passage right after Jody had passed. Page 87 describes it the best "She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight the length the glory was there." It is almost as if she is stripping the way of the past, and the feeling of being old that Jody had instilled in her. She knew that her marriage was over long a go but she still had to apear to be upset about Jody's passing.
That night she burnt her head rags. I imagined this as women buring their bras in the 1960's. She was standing up for her right to bare all for the wold to see she. She was no longer Jody's wife. She was her own person with her own style.
Hurston really is showing the race relations and the gender differenecs for the time period, I'm really not sure if other writers that we have read really portray this. If anybody can think of one let me know!
8 comments:
I agree with you, I was a little surprised to see how Hurston began to portray Janie as a woman, as well as surprised about her representations of the African American race. I know we have talked a lot about writers wanting to write African American’s back into history, but at the time when Hurston wrote this novel the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing, and I would think that this was just reinforcing stereotypes not only for African American’s but for women as well.
I found it sad that all Janie seems to want is romance and love and was married off by her grandmother to a man she clearly did not love, and then when Jody comes around it seems like she is finally going to get the romance and love she has been searching for. But, no the sadness continues. I kind of feel that maybe Hurston is correlating searching for love/romance to searching for identity.
I was really interested in how you talked about Janie creating her own sexual revolution. I didn't really think of it that way but it's a good evolution from the begining of the novel when she was really innocent and niave about sexuality.
I have also really liked the way that Hurston has portrayed the character of Janie. Throughout the entire novel, even when Janie was being controlled by Joe, I could see Janie's spirit and determination to be her own person. What I like so much about this novel is the way that Janie stands up for herself. Janie may not have been able to stand up for herself right away in some situations but eventually she was able to find her backbone. This character is such a testament to all of the strong-willed women of that time.
i think that one other author we lloked at briefly took on genderroles it was fauseete in that story we read --the handout marymay or something like that. I also liked how Janie developed, it was like a baby bird who was stuck in the shell way too long. I think everything tht happend to her made her the strong and confident women she became. She still shows signs of weakness however--to males--teacake--i wonder if this is because she was raised by her grandmother alone without a father?
I like how Janie finally stuck up for herself. I also liked how she reacted when Jody had passed because it was like she was finally being herself. She was able to bring out that independent person that she is and hasn't been able to be throughout her marriage.
I too have enjoyed the character of Janie. She is very interesting and the more and more I was reading, the more and more I wanted to know about her. I feel like we see Janie stick up forever herself a lot in this novel. Which is interesting to read.
I enjoyed the passage you pulled from the reading about her taking off the "kerchief". I didn't look at this as her stripping away the past, but after reading your post that makes a lot of sense.
I agree with you. I like Janie's overall journey as a women. She's struggling to be happy. She tried to be happy how her grandmother told her but thats not working and other women said Jody was a good husband but shes still not satisfied. I think Hurston wanted to bring to light that she is a woman who is finding her own path- not what everyone thinks she should follow.
That's very interesting, I never thought to equate Janie's charater to the struggle of women's rights/ liberation movements. Still, obviously, Janie's is liberated by Jody's death. However, I don't feel she was saying good riddens, just that now she must find a way to be rue to herself in a way she hadn't before. In some ways I think she is sad, maybe regretful that they both spent so many years in unhappiness.
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