December
2008
ch. 8 & 9 & 100
This group of chapters represents a bitter yet sweet ending. I do not believe Janie ever loved Jody, not even when they ran off together from Logan’s house. She loved the idea of him, the life that she believed was possible if she was with him. However after 20 or so years of silence, hate, and anger, Jody died, leaving Janie with everything he owned, including the store. I also said this was a sweet ending. Janie for the first time in about 30 years was free of a man, and in the first time in her life, free from a guardian at all. The first thing she did when Jody died was take her hair down. It shows that she is no longer bound up and all tied up like her hair was, but she was able to go free, let loose a little, and live life the way she wants to. Some changes include wearing her hair down in a braid, and at night leaving the store to go on the porch and have fun with the rest of the town. Jody’s death will be good for her however with the entrance of Tea Cake, makes me wonder if she will be single for much longer.
“Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon-for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you-and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke her. Se hated the old women who had twisted her so in the name of love. Most humans didn’t love one another nohow, and this mislove was so strong that even common blood couldn’t overcome it all the time.” pg 89-90
When Janie talked about her dream being broken in the first few chapters was a bit confusing. However now with this quote i understand. Janie’s dream was love. However with all that has happened with her “parents”, her husbands, and now her grandmother, it is hard to believe in something you have never seen come true. Janie does not trust her grandmothers love as she questions the “old women’s” motives as she believes she has taken the greatest thing in the world and choked her with it. Janie feels dead inside as she cannot feel love, or see love anymore.
Janie says she has a jewel inside of her that wants to shine however it has been stifled by the store (a symbol of constraint and “mislove”). Her jewel is her love and thus when Tea Cake comes and sweeps Janie off her feet, she can feel the Jewel shinning as she begins to believe as she did when she was a little girl. She begins to believe in love.
