Janie Crawford is married three times to three different men, all before the age of 50. Her first
marriage is to a farmer named Logan Killicks. Logan expects Janie to work hard and help out on the
farm. Her second marriage is to a soon-to-be mayor named Joe Starks. Joe Starks expects Janie to
work in the store and act as an ornament to his career. After Joe dies, Janie marries her third husband
named Tea Cake. Tea Cake lets Janie be who she wants to be. From each of these marriages, Janie
learned an important lesson.
When Janie is only sixteen, her grandmother basically forces her to marry a much older man
named Logan Killicks. Janie believes that once she is married, love will come soon afterward. Janie
soon realizes that she cannot learn to love someone, and she will never love Logan. Janie believes
that once she realized marriage does not make love, she becomes a woman. Her marriage to Logan
forces Janie to grow up and forget her childhood dreams. From this marriage, Janie realizes she wants
to love her husband and she cannot expect love to come from marriage.
Janie runs away from Logan and marries Joe Starks, who soon becomes the mayor of Eatonville.
At first, Janie believes that she loves Joe and that this marriage is different than her first. As Joe gains
more popularity and power, he essentially forgets about Janie and her feelings. He begins to expect
Janie to work in the store for him and never do anything for herself. He begins to degrade Janie and
even hits her. Janie begins to hate Joe and cannot stand him. Janie eventually stands up to him,
realizing that she deserves more. From this marriage, Janie learns that a wife should be respected by
her husband. Love and disrespect do not go hand-in-hand.
After Joe Starks dies, Janie marries a much younger man named Tea Cake. Despite her friend's
warning, Janie leaves Eatonville with Tea Cake to begin their life together. Even though Janie has a
few moments of jealousy, she is very happy with Tea Cake. Tea Cake lets her do things that make her
happy and always cares about her feelings. Tea Cake looks at Janie as his true partner, not just
someone he married because he had to. From her short marriage to Tea Cake, Janie learns that true
love exists and this is what she deserves to have.
And yet it seems like Tea Cake doesn't fully see her. He also hits her, and does this solely to prove a point to others (Turner) so it's like he doesn't really in that moment see her as someone he respects enough to not hit. Even when he does hit her it's not because of her it's to convey something to people other than Janie. It just seems like none of the husbands treat Janie with the basic human decency modern society tells us to treat wives with. I will agree that Tea Cake most of the time sees her much more than the others.
ReplyDeleteJanie does learn a lot from each marriage. Her first two marriages were terrible, but at least she learned from them and ended up in a better place. I'm glad that Janie was able to have a good marriage with Tea Cake and was able to find love & respect. More importantly though, I think Janie learned to love herself.
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