Sunday, December 2, 2007
End of book
The ending of the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston took me by surprise. I was shocked to find out that Tea Cake has beaten Janie. I do not know the reasons behind him beating her other than to possibly show control over her as any man does to a woman they beat. I really can't say as though I was shocked to see that Janie just took it instead of standing up for herself. I feel this came from her past and how Joe use to control her by not allowing her to speak in public or even really be seen for that matter. I feel as though she just took this as a fact of life. She has been controlled before so it is nothing new now. I feel she like many other woman have fallen into this trap with abuse. Whether it is emotional, mental, or physical people do not leave. They feel that their love can change the man and that they will see the error of their ways and yes that is nice to think but more than likely will never happen. Granted Jody never gave her the freedom to do what she wants and with Tea Cake she can have a say she can use her voice so in a way she found herself and her strength. I feel that since she was able find her inner strength and find her voice that even though he beats her it is better than what she had before where she had no voice. I can speak from experiece that if a man beat me I could never stay with him. My boyfriend of over two years decided he was going to hit me one day and quickly after that I left him. There was no way I was going to stay around any longer to find out what else he would have done and that is why I cannot see how Janie would stay with this man. It doesn't matter how much you love someone if they can raise their hand or hurt you in any way one time they can do it again and more than likely will.
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3 comments:
What struck me most about the section where Tea Cake explains why he beat Janie was when he told a friend he did not hit her because she did something wrong, only to show the Turner’s that Janie was his girl. It seems that Janie goes along with the treatment because she recognizes it is part of Tea Cake’s masculinity? Perhaps becomes she remembers how much her comments hurt Jody. Or, maybe it symbolizes the convention role for women at the time. It is if Janie and everyone else accepts such obviously backward thinking because it is simply what must be done, and that in some odd way it shows how much Tea Cake loves Janie. I think we’d hear something like that today on Oprah or Dr. Phil when they do a program on abused women.
Janie dissiapointed me by not leaving as well, but it really does stick with her character. She always as been submissive and even though she had strength (to shoot someone she loved) she didnt have it in a way we wouldve wanted her to.
I think this section was surprising - it seems to be a pattern in Janie's life that she is with men who treat her terribly. I guess it makes sense why she doesn't stand up for herself after the way Joe treated her, but it is probably something she is used to. I just think she should expect to be treated better at some point by someone.
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