Janie Conversation Analysis

Joe and Janie engaged in many conversations throughout their time together. One day, they get into an argument. The argument resulted in the fact that Janie could not find any pig's feet for a customer. Janie has told Joe that she ordered a whole keg of pig's feet the day before but when the customer went to get some, there wasn't any left. Joe then asked Janie where the bill for the pig's feet was. Janie replied that it's either on the nail or on his desk. Joe said that it was in neither places and he accused Janie for being incompetent. Months later, after Joe dies, Janie meets a man by the name of Vergible Woods also known as Tea Cake. She becomes fond of him and they have a very pleasant conversation. There are many differences and similarities between Joe's conversation with Janie and Tea Cake's conversation with Janie and they both show Janie's evolving relationship with men in many ways. On page 71, in lines 11-13 Joe tells Janie exactly how he feels about her and all women in general. Janie tries to tell Joe that she knows several things too and that
women have a mind of their own. Joe however ignores her irrelevant comment and says the following: "Aw naw they don't. They just think they's thinkin'. When Ah see one thing Ah understand ten. You see ten things and don't understand one." According to that quote, Joe is putting Janie on a level way below his own. He is making Janie feel that she will never be equal to him and now that Janie has messed up, she knows that his anger towards her is inevitable. Tea Cake on the other hand makes Janie feel the exact opposite way of how Joe makes her feel. In the conversation between Janie and Tea Cake, lines 26-28 clearly show that. The following is said: "He set it up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it was natural for her to play". Those lines show that Tea Cake views Janie just as he views himself. He does not express any hierarchy like Joe does. He treats Janie in a way that makes her feel equal to men. Now that we have discussed some of the many differences and similarities between Joe's conversation with Janie and Tea Cake's conversation with Janie, we will discuss Janie's evolving relationship with men. Janie has always been struggling with her desire of reaching the horizon.
Now that Tea Cake has made his arrival into her life, Janie feels like he can be the answer to her desire. I believe that line 45 in Janie's conversation with Tea Cake shows the slow evolvement of Janie's desire. The following is said in line 45: "They scrambled and upset the board and laughed at that". The reason why this line shows the evolvement of Janie's desire is because for the first time in years, Janie has finally laughed. Janie hasn't felt the way she did when she was with Tea Cake in a long time. She was finally happy and liberated. She felt a sense of comfort with Tea Cake, something that she didn't feel with Joe after they moved to Eatonville. Due to this transition from being isolated with Joe to feeling a sense of comfort with Tea Cake, Janie begins to take a step towards her true desires with Tea Cake by her
side. As the preceding paragraphs have shown, those are the many differences and similarities between Joe's conversation with Janie and Tea Cake's conversation with Janie and that is how they both show Janie's evolving relationship with men. The key idea of my thesis is that with Joe, Janie feels secluded and isolated but with Tea Cake, she feels liberated and most importantly equal with Tea Cake and everyone else. As for Janie's evolving relationship with men, she was never evolving when she was with Joe. Time was passing by, she was aging, but nothing seemed to be getting better for Janie. When Janie was playing checkers and having a pleasant conversation with Tea Cake, she finally felt like there is hope for her desires to become reality and she could one day reach the horizon.