:Valerie’s Blog

Just when Janie seems to be about to leave Jody and move on from her husband, yet again, Jody pulls a stunt to show he that he can show compassion. First Jody is so focused on his goal of dominating the town and being a respectable mayor, which to Janie seems to be laughing along but never saying anything bad about anyone. Except Matt Bonner and his mule, because that’s all that Jody’s little town talks about. Janie is upset with how the mule is treated and how cruel all the men are being, so Jody buys the mule for $5. Matt acts as though that mule is all he has and can’t wait to lose it so it looks like Jody got played paying that much for it because it’s going to die soon, so it seems. This website says the average age that a mule dies at is about 25-30 years old, and it was at least 23 anyway. Jody actually takes the mule and sets it free to relax and not be worked to its end because Matt is too cheap.

It is this act that lets Janie believe that maybe she can stay with Jody, but then he gets mean again as he gets old. He continues to believe that Janie is his to be watched, and her hair should be hidden so that no one else, but him can enjoy it. Jody makes another strong statement in these chapters,

“Dat’s ’cause you need tellin’. It would be pitiful if Ah didn’t. Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves” (71).

Today we see that Janie shouldn’t be treated like that, but back then it was the norm. I wonder now if all women felt rebellious inside. Of course all of the books we read are about women with fire in their hearts, but maybe all women felt this way and we just have the tendancy to view them as weak and passive when they’re really not.

1 Comment