JANIE
what is the age difference between Janie and Tea Cake?
fifteen years
What is Tea Cake's real name?
Vergible Woods
Janie's best friend and the person she tells her story to decades later in the opening chapter is named
Pheoby
where is there a huge contrast in the language of the novel?
narration vs dialogue
Janie's hair represents her:
individuality/strength/power/uniqueness/independence
(something of that nature)
When does Janie realize she's Black?
When she sees a photograph of herself with other white schoolmates
*NOT a mirror!!
Janie's marriage to Logan is particularly miserable for her because
all the manual labor she has to do
Why does Nanny push/arrange for Janie to marry Logan Killicks?
because it would give her the security/land that Nanny never had, regardless of whether love was involved
How do the porch sitters acts as antagonists toward Janie?
They judge her from afar - acting as another form of control
the horizon symbolizes:
hope for the future/change/being away from where you are
Why does Janie burn her headrags after Joe dies?
They symbolize the stifling of her independence
Janie's checker match with Tea Cake excites her because
it makes her feel like his equal
The family Nanny works for:
The Washburns
What did Richard Wright compare this novel to?
a minstrel show
"Miss Hurston seems to have no desire whatsoever to move in the direction of serious fiction… [She] can write; but her prose is cloaked in that facile sensuality that has dogged Negro expression since the days of Phyllis Wheatley... Her characters eat and laugh and cry and work and kill; they swing like a pendulum eternally in that safe and narrow orbit in which America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears."
Why does Janie become so upset of the treatment toward Matt Bonner's mule to the point where she gets Joe to buy it?
she identifies with the mistreatment and abuse it faces
What happens to Janie's mother?
She runs off shortly after giving birth to Janie
what false rumor circulates about Janie after the end of her marriage to Jody?
she poisoned him
What object does Nanny compare herself to?
cracked plates
TEWWG's setting is primarily in:
(town or area accepted, state NOT ACCEPTED)
Everglades/Eatonville
The blossoming pear tree Janie sits under represents her:
becoming a woman
What is Janie's maiden name?
Crawford
DAILY DOUBLE
What attracts Jane to Joe in the first place,
and when does Janie realize he is not The One?
his alpha male quality - his power and independence, his promise to not put her to work, his capability as a father, he represents her dreams at the time
...when he becomes physically abusive to her when she asserts herself (or burns his breakfast)
How do Nanny and Janie differ in their ideas of marriage?
Nanny believes marriage is for security, Janie wants marriage for love
What tense is TEWWG written and why?
3rd person - it was written from a frame structure - a third person narration leads into a first person one (Janie's)
what is the difference between the dreams of men and the dreams of women?
women have more idealistic dreams (often for love and emotional connection) but must "go with the flow" and adapt to what comes
men have more practical, material dreams, where they "fight the tide" and seek to dominate and control (like Joe and Logan)