Ok, so Janie learning how to shoot did come in handy but not in the way I expected. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. In chapter 17, Tea Cake "hits" Janie. As I read this I was like, "Did I miss something?" Nope. Tea Cake just couldn't control his jealousy so he beat his woman to shoe dominance. I don't think he needs to worry about Janie because she is getting older and has already been married twice. Not to mention she loves Tea Cake. She won't leave him. However, they still had a close relationship: they loved each other. Which made me extremely sad when Tea Cake went all crazy and Janie had to shoot him. Oh I knew something was coming when that dog bit Tea Cake and probably got rabies. Poor Janie: a widow once again.
But I shouldn't think the ending is all sad. I could see that while Janie was married to Tea Cake, she was happy. Sure there were downsides, but all marriages aren't perfect. They were both happy. And even after Tea Cake's death, Janie of course was sad but kept going. In the end, my respect and admiration for her grew.
Hughes: Finally poetry that I can understand! Well, I believe no poet or poem makes it easy for its readers to understand, however, Hughes' poems speak out to me a lot more. My first favorite poem of Hughes is "Mother to Son." If one were to describe the life of an African American during Hughes' time metaphorically, this is the poem. Yes life is hard. There are times when walking turns to climbing, when there is no darkness. But what do you do? Keep going. I love it!
My second favorite is "Theme for English B." "Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you." An African American is part of America just like a white man, and yet, everything they do seems out of place. They are like everybody else: they eat and drink and love. I see no difference, but Hughes makes it clear that there was.
Oh, I felt the exact same way when I read about Tea Cake hitting Janie. I realize this might have been part of their culture at the time to "show" that he "owns" her but it's still hard for my mind to wrap around that idea. I loved your first comment about how you understood the poetry because I am totally in the same boat as you! I loved these poems, especially the last one about African Americans being the same as white men--the fact that they enjoy the same things and they do the same things. I liked his straight forward thoughts and opinions!
ReplyDeleteMariana and Kerri, I'm surprised to see how similar your opinions of Hughes are to mine. I just wrote a blog post about how his poetry is the only poetry I've come across that strongly appeals to me, for pretty much the exact reason Kerri mentions. I wonder if it's a generational thing? I've yet to see anyone around our age say they dislike Hughes.
ReplyDeleteMariana, about the "did I miss something" part, I had a similar reaction. I think there was a very deliberate point to introducing it like that. By mentioning it so casually and sort of glossing over it, Hurston makes the outrageousness of it more apparent. Readers are bound to get upset, as much for the way it's glossed over as for the act itself. It's an effective method of social protest: you can't force your opinions on the audience, so you try to make them assume those opinions themselves. Just telling people that showing dominance by beating your wife is wrong isn't going to convince people that do that sort of thing as easily as showing them the wrongness and letting them realize it themselves.