Nanny & Early Life
Nanny’s term for the high-class husband she wanted Janie to have.
What is "a higher bush and a sweeter berry"?
The false sense of power the porch sitters gain by judging Janie.
What is passing judgment?
The trait emphasized by Tea Cake’s house being a "magnet" for the "job".
What is his charm?
What Joe’s requirement for Janie to wear a head-rag symbolized.
What is oppression?
Janie’s view of love being like this ever-changing natural body.
What is the sea?
The only condition under which Nanny believes romantic love can last.
What is "between equals"?
Janie’s revelation after being asked how she likes being "Mrs. Mayor".
What is that they will always be "classed off" from the townspeople?
Two ways Tea Cake "shows" Janie his feelings, like the Apostle Paul.
What are professing his feelings and bringing her strawberries?
What Janie's blue denim overalls symbolize compared to her Eatonville clothes.
What is her desire to be part of the community?
What Janie’s move from silence to "thrusting herself" into talk indicates.
What is finding her voice?
What Janie hopes for from Pheoby before she starts telling her story.
What is acceptance?
The reason Janie’s public "insult" to Joe’s manliness was so offensive.
What is it reduced his manliness in the eyes of other men?
The primary difference for Janie between her life with Joe and with Tea Cake.
What is that she can listen, laugh, and talk for herself?
The literary device used to describe the lake "trampling" its walls.
What is personification?
The societal purpose of telling the cautionary tale of Annie Tyler.
What is to dissuade women from acting outside societal norms?
What Nanny’s "pinched in" version of the horizon symbolizes.
What is a narrow view of life?
The town's general feeling toward Joe’s "cityfied" habits and gold vase.
What is discomfort with his ambition?
Janie’s internal state when she is "lit up like a transfiguration".
What is overwhelmed with happiness?
What the allusion to Isaac and Rebecca reveals about Joe and Janie.
What is that they married for superficial reasons/didn't know each other?
Janie’s shift in attitude toward the "Saws" and Bahaman dancers.
What is she is no longer influenced by society's ideas of "dignified" behavior?
Why Janie refused to "chop de first chip" of wood for Logan Killicks.
What is her belief in equality in work division?
The irony of Pearl Stone and Lulu Moss’s comments about Janie on page 3.
What is that they were talking about her while saying she wasn't worth talking about?
What Tea Cake’s conversation with Sop-de-Bottom reveals about his control.
What is his desire to control Janie?
What "the sleep of swords" implies about Janie and Joe’s marriage.
What is that they could begin a new conflict at any time?
The overall message about one's life supported by the final paragraph.
What is the importance of building a life of one's own choosing?