Janie’s rebirth

Filed under: Archetypes and Archetypal Patterns, Group D, Uncategorized — hurston at 2:36 am on Sunday, November 20, 2005

         “Death, that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the West” (Hurston 79). “He stands in his high house that overlooks the world” (Hurston 80).  Death is something that Janie encounters in chapters 8-11. However, it is not the death of her husband that she faces but the death of her old life. Through this death the old Janie is reborn. Death is an archetype that remakes Janie the person that she once was.

          Through the death of Joe (Jody) Janie becomes whole again. When they got married he forced Janie to live like the mayor’s wife. He opresses he spirtually, mentally, and physically. For example he isolates her from the society and people in the town and he makes her put he hair up in a scarf, and as it was discussed in early blogs Janie’s hair is an important part of her. It is the part that will forever keep her young and therefore keep her alive. He gets ride of all that is Janie, which is a free, strong-minded, independent woman. When Jody dies Janie is allowed to become herself once again and therefore she is reborn as a whole new woman. “The young girls was gone, but a handsome woman has taken her place….She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair” (Hurston 83).Also, because of Janie’s rebirth as a “new” woman Janie begins a new journey. She faces the challenge of being a new person in an old world, but she is determined and ready to face it, “she had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of people; it was important to all the world that she find them and they find her” (Hurston 85). She indeed does find someone. She goes on to meets Tea Cake.

        I saw Tea Cake as a symbol of her new life. He is everything that Jody wasn’t, poor, loving, young, and he had an optimism for life in general. He is the person that is going to make Janie’s life complete because he promises to give her the world. My question to you guys is in what ways does Tea Cake symbolize Janie’s new life? Do you see Tea Cake as a new beginning to a better life in the journey that Janie’s is about to undergo or is he the beginning to Janie’s end?

Posted by:

Leena John



3 Comments

52

   hurston

November 22, 2005 @ 11:31 pm

I think that Tea Cake is a change for the better. Unlike Logan, who treats Janie like a slave or a farm animal, Tea Cake lets Janie express herself and doesn’t try to hold her down. Also, he contrasts with Jody because he shows love and affection towards Janie. While Jody only married Janie because she was young and pretty and functioned as a status symbol; Tea Cake cared about her and treated her like a person. It is also significant that Jody married Janie when she was young and he could control her. Now that Janie is older than Tea Cake she is gaining some more control. Tea Cake seems to be showing her undying affection, for instance, he says, “Nobody else on earth kin hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom” (Hurston 104). He recognizes how special Janie is and is happy to let her branch out and expolre her new life. To answer your question, I think that Tea Cake symbolizes new life because he is so different from Janie’s previous lovers. While I think that Janie doesn’t get close enough to any man to depend on them, I do think that Tea Cake played a role (if not an indespensible role) in Janie’s development and new life after Jody’s death.
-Ariel

53

   hurston

November 23, 2005 @ 10:49 pm

I agree with Ariel; Tea Cake brings Janie back to life. When Janie was married to Jody, she made a concious decision to continue with the relationship even though she was ready to leave him. In doing this, however, Janie had to seperate her true feelings from the image she presented to the townsfolk: “She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them” (Hurston 68). I feel this caused part of Janie’s heart to die a little bit as she had to pretend she was still in love with this man whom she was loving less and less each day.
Then Jody dies and Janie “sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world” (Hurston 84-85). Janie is beginning to be set free, as she doesn’t have to pretend to love Jody anymore. She is told by Phoeby, however, that she does have to pretend to grieve him for a while, even though she is done grieving, to please the town.
Tea Cake’s coming sets her free completely, as she is done with grieving since she has found a new man. Janie all of the sudden feels like a child again, as her heart has been revived with this new love that is blossoming in it. Janie feels like she can do anything, and indeed has “‘de keys to de kingdom’” (Hurston 104).
~Sarah-Claire

103

   hurston

November 29, 2005 @ 1:32 am

Tea Cake is definitely the best thing that has happened to Janie. He gives her comfort, warmth, encouragement, and all the love that she could ever ask for. From what I have been reading about Tea Cake’s influence on Janie, I am only reading good things about his influence on her spirit and vocalization in the book. Janie really speaks her mind with him and I am absolutely stunned that she actually confronted Tea Cake about Nunkie. If a girl like Nunkie were chasing around Jody, he would set Janie in her place in the kitchen and allow Nunkie to be his sweetheart while Janie would be just a housemaid. I don’t think Janie would have said anything to either Logan or Jody if this were going on with them while she was with either of them. I think she would just be disgusted, just as she is with Tea Cake, but her confrontation eases her worries and helps her to calm down in the face of no real danger.
–Nicole Gollmer–

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