Chapter 12
Janie's journey to happiness has been Janie's main life goal throughout the whole book. In order for Janie to be happy, she needs to truly accept herself and her life. Janie's self-discovery is a very important theme in Chapter 11. The different way of life Janie gets to experience with the help of Tea Cake helps Janie tremendously with accomplishing this theme. Tea Cake is a very important factor in her self discovery. Janie says on page 115, "He [Tea Cake] done taught me de maiden language all over". What does she mean by this and how was Tea Cake able to help Janie so much in such a short period of time, when Jody and Logan really did not help her at all? How did this new "language" Janie says Tea Cake taught her, help in the maturation of her thoughts? Explain two examples of some of Janie's views on life changing after meeting Tea Cake. (HINT-one is her thoughts about her grandmother's intentions for forcing her to marry Logan).
Janie is trying to say that Tea Cake has made her a whole new person, the person that she strived to be, but did not know was there underneath. Tea Cake helps Janie "discover" herself by letting her make her own decisions, encouraging her, and supporting her ideas/dreams. For example, in Chapter 10, Tea Cake says to Janie, " But you got good meat on 'yo head. You'll learn." This is really the first time ever in Janie's life that someone has called her smart and it shows how much Tea Cake actually cares for Janie. I think Tea Cake's encouragement of Janie and her ideals helps to the maturation of her thoughts because now Janie has someone to confide with and to listen to her. Also, she is not afraid to take another step forward and challenge herself. One example is Janie's friend Phoebe and she thinks that Tea Cake is just going for Janie's money and does not really love her. Janie does not care because for the first time in her life, she is actually happy. A second example is when Janie is talking about the difference between the way her Nanny wanted her to live and the way she wants to live. Her Nanny wanted Janie to be in a financially stable marriage, so that Janie could be well off. Especially since Nanny did not have this opportunity growing up as a slave. Janie on the other hand, wants to be in an exciting marriage and be happy with the man she is going to marry, and she feels this way with Tea Cake.
ReplyDeleteWhen Janie says, "He [Tea Cake] done taught me de maiden language all over", I think she is referring to Tea Cake helping her bring love back into her life again. And not just "love" that she thought she had with Jody, but real love. She felt attracted to Jody because he was more attractive compared to Logan, but it didn't last because she found out about his ambitious and sexist nature. However, with Tea Cake, she gets the "maiden love" or her idea of what marriage ought to be like because Tea Cake RESPECTS her, something she has always wanted. Tea Cake helps her regain this love in such a short time because the time they spent together was very effective. Tea Cake would always throw out compliments, keeping the spotlight on her and not on himself. This made Janie immediately feel loved, especially since she had lacked love for the past couple of years with Jody. This applies as well for Logan. She never felt physically attracted to Logan ever, so it didn't matter how every much amount of time passed. This helps mature Janie's thoughts because now she's grown through two husbands and knows what to expect. She tells Tea Cake not to cheat her, jokingly, but she knows to do so because she has matured and eve knows of stories of failed marriages that Phoebe tells her. Another example is with Nanny. When Nanny married her off to Logan Killicks, she didn't feel sexually attracted to him, so she told him it wouldn't work out. When she DID feel sexually attracted to someone, Jody, it didn't work out either because his personality got in the way. After meeting Tea Cake, she has matured in her thoughts of what the perfect man should be: not only attractive, but also someone who respects her.
ReplyDeleteLike Amber, I think when Janie says this she's talking about love coming back into her life. Tea Cake can help Janie in such little time compared to Logan and Jody because Tea Cake gives her the freedom to find herself again. He respects her enough to do this. This new "language" helps her because she can finally think for herself. Also, she now has someone that she can talk to about things. In ch. 6… "She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her…" This is when her view on what she wants out of marriage shifts completely. Also, when Janie talks about her grandmother she realizes she wants something different than what her grandmother wanted.
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