Chapters 17-18
For my last blog, I want to focus on the events of Chapters 17 and 18 because these two chapters were just filled with action. To start with, I was very confused in Chapter 17 when Tea Cake beat Janie, but that Janie did not say anything or fight back in any way. I understand that Tea Cake felt threatened by Mrs. Turner’s brother, and although I would never expect for him to physically beat Janie, it was really Janie letting Tea Cake whip and beat her throughout the week and still clinging to him that made me question previous thoughts I had had. Of course it is out of her love for Tea Cake, but to me she does not seem as strong as she had in earlier chapters. For example, she did not hesitate in standing up for herself when she thought that Tea Cake was having an affair with Nunkie, but here he is trying to show his power over her and she does not seem to protest. Is she being submissive now that she is finally emotionally fulfilled — did she only used to try to over-exert her own strength because she felt that she was constantly in a struggle with something or other?
Chapter 18. Wow. So much happened and so much symbolism went on in this chapter that I need more time to really process its message. The hurricane and the quote from which the novel got its title help make it obvious that the storm is supposed to represent a force that Janie and the rest of the characters in the Muck cannot control, and Janie, Tea Cake, and Motorboat all staying in the house seems like some sort of defiance to it. I’m not so sure about the purpose of Motorboat in the house, because if my interpretation is correct then his presence only takes away from the potential oomph of their staying in the house, but it seems to me that the storm is outside society (all those who try to impart their opinions on values and life, and all of those who criticize Janie for leaving with tea Cake) and their staying in the house is a testament to them not caring what they all think and have to say. If this is correct, I am afraid to see why it was that the storm got to be too much to handle and drove them from their home…
