Ch. 3-5
I want to spend most of this blog talking about Janie’s relationship with men, as she goes through two marriages within just tonight’s reading. She first starts off with her marriage with Logan, an older, unattractive man that sparks no desire in Janie, who has big dreams of what love and marriage should mean. Eventually, Logan thinks that Janie is acting spoiled and tries to put her to work in the fields, which ultimately results in her meeting/falling in love with Jody, a wealthy man from Georgia with dreams as big as Janie’s. Janie’s desire is sparked and Jody brings her dreams of love back to life, and after two big fights, Janie leaves Logan and runs off to marry Jody. What is ironic to me after comparing chapter4 to chapter 5 is the representation of Jody’s character. At first, Jody was a big dreamer who inspired Janie and seemed to promise so much — both economically as well as emotionally and spiritually. As we kept reading, however, Jody seems just as unattractive as Logan was: he does not let her speak on his behalf when he becomes the mayor of the new town of Eatonville, he makes Janie tie up her hair in rags, etc. One of the people in town even remarked, “Nobody couldn’t git me tuh tie no rag on mah head if Ah had hair lak dat.” (Page 47) Jody does do a lot for the town, but the way he flaunts his wealth and power (both over the town and over Janie) makes it seem more like quantity-over-quality, and I personally always associate that with a more repressive nature than anything — not a dreamer like I first thought him to be. As Hurston concludes the chapter, “They [the people in town] seemed to bow down to him [Jody] rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down.” (Page 47) Per haps Janie will stand up for herself next chapter and see what happens when Jody’s control/power is threatened? Anyways, I’m curious to see how Hurston develops more of Janie’s relationship with men throughout the novel because none of the men so far with great influence on Janie’s life have really been good people. Janie’s grandmother was raped, Janie herself is a product of her mother’s getting raped, Logan puts Janie down and essentially dulls out the spark within her, Jody is repressive and not a dreamer like he had first appeared to be, etc.
