Quotes
The following character stated this:
“…Naw, Jody, it wasn’t because Ah didn’t have no sympathy. Ah had uh lavish uh dat. Ah just didn’t never git no chance tuh use none of it. You wouldn’t let me.”
Who is Janie
What is the hurricane
What is true love
This person married young because of her grandmother and left her husband for another man. After her second lover passed away, she finally met her true love.
Who is Janie
What is the pear tree
The following character stated this:
“…Thank yuh for yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothing’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home.”
Who is Joe
What is rabies
What is the discovery of sexuality
This person is in love with an older woman, but people never really trusted that he loved her until he slapped her, making Janie seem as if she were his property.
Who is Tea Cake
What is Janie's head rag
The following character stated this:
"She pulled in her horizon like a great fish net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see."
Who is the narrator
What is stop eating Janie's cooking
Gradually, Janie finds this through the relationships she has with Nanny, Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake Woods. Janie does not realize it until the end of the novel and after Tea Cake's death.
What is independence or self-worth
This person likes/only talks to Janie because Janie is light skinned and looks less like an African American. She thinks she is better than every other African American because she has "white features" such as small lips and a flat bottom.
Who is Mrs. Turner
What is the mule
The following character stated this:
"Put dat two hundred back wid de rest, Janie. Mah dice. Ah no need no assistance tuh help me feed mah woman. From now on, you gointuh eat whutever mah money can buy uh and wear de same. When Ah ain’t got nothin’ you don’t git nothin’."
Who is Tea Cake
What is publicly insults him
The following quote speaks to this motif:
"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men."
What are gender roles
She forces Janie to get married because she feels that Janie cannot take care of herself after she passes away. She dies soon after Janie marries Logan.
Who is Nanny
What is the gun
The following character stated this:
“…Naw, Ah ain’t mad with Janie….Tea Cake had done gone crazy. You can’t blame her for protectin’ herself. She wuz crazy about him. …Ah ain’t got nothin’ in mah heart against her.”
Who is Sop-de-Bottom
Who is Phoeby
Janie's upbringing, as well as her experiences with Mrs. Turner, speak to the role of one's own this.
What is race
He first seems to love Janie a lot; however, he begins to control Janie and determine who he wants her to be, especially as a mayor's wife.
Who is Joe
What is the rabid dog