The Relationship Between Jody And Janie

Jody’s power in the town meant many responsibilities for both Jody and Janie. He received all this power from the residents. Jody’s ownership of the store meant that he had duties. If Jody had duties as mayor, Janie had duties as the mayor’s wife. In that town, “Every morning the world flung itself over and exposed the town to the sun. So Janie had another day. And every day had a store in it….The store itself was a pleasant place if only she didn’t have to sell things” (Hurston 51). When Jody first became mayor he began to make so many improvements that Janie was not aware of until they were already in motion. Why does Janie dislike the store? I think it began when Jody started to disengage in the work at the store, then all the work he was
She knew her boundaries like when she could or could not talk. Jody seemed to run how Janie talked and acted. Janie tried to stay out of the way but, “She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it as kept beaten down by the wheels” (Hurston 76). The metaphor that Janie “was a rut in the road” (Hurston 76) compared Janie to a bump that troubles people while driving. I assume that Janie was being described as a pain to Jody since he was always correcting her or telling her what she could do. Jody was always trying to fix what Janie did wrong or what people did not approve of. I consider Jody the wheels that kept beating her down. Jody was beating Janie down by constantly telling her what to do or not allowing her to do things a free woman should be able to do without permission from a man whether it is her husband or not. I think that Janie felt the beatings from Jody because she had to know when to talk and when to not stay or do anything at all. In my opinion, no one should feel they have to know when to keep quiet, especially a married
It was the first major thing they saw now that they were officially run by black people. Now, with her husband gone, “Most of the day she was at the store, but at night she was there in the big house and sometimes it creaked and cried all night under the weight of loneliness. Then she’d lie awake in bed asking lonesome some questions” (Hurston 89). Now that she entered widowhood, Janie was mostly sad, which I found strange since Jody and Janie grew apart. The house was filled with lonesomeness and was personified when it was said to have cried from being lonely. I think the house was really describing how Janie felt. Even though Janie and Jody grew apart, they still loved each other and Janie was not prepared to see him go. When Janie was “asking lonesome some questions” (Hurston 89) she was probably asking what she was going to do with herself without her husband. I wonder if Janie is going to return home and look for a new true love. If she did end up back home will she see Logan? What would he say? I think if Janie were to see Logan he would probably pester her with questions about why she left and somehow relate her grandmother to make it a sensitive topic. Being a widow and all is probably weird for Janie but also probably sparked some major questions about what she was going to do with the rest of her