"Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone." (Chapter 2)
"There are years that ask questions and years that answer." (Chapter 3)
"Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly." (Chapter 1)
"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail on 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." (Chapter 1)
-Maddy
"There are years that ask questions and years that answer." (Chapter 3)
"Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly." (Chapter 1)
"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail on 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." (Chapter 1)
-Maddy
Chapters 5-6:
Noah:
"She's uh woman and her place is in de home." (Chapter 5)
"A feeling of coldness and fear took hold of her. She felt far away from things and lonely." (Chapter 5)
"It was bad enough for white people, but when one of you own color could be so different it put you on a wonder." (Chapter 5)
"He wanted her submission and he'd keep on fighting until he felt he had it." (Chapter 6)
"She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. The she went inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over." (Chapter 6)
"She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them." (Chapter 6)
Chapters 7-12:
"The years took all the fight out of Janie's face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul." (Chapter 7)
"But Janie had done worse, she had cast down his empty armor before men and they had laughed" (Chapter 7)
"The little Emperor of the cross-roads was leaving Orange County as he had come -- with the out-stretched hand of power." (Chapter 9)
"She hated her grandmother and had hidden it form herself all these years under a cloak of pity." (Chapter 9)
"It was so crazy digging worms by lamp light and setting out for Lake Sabelia after midnight that she felt like a child breaking rules. That's what made Janie like it." (Chapter 11)
"Dat's what she wanted for me -- ... Git up on uh high chair and sit dere. She didn't have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on de stool uh do nothing'." (Chapter 12)
Chapters 13-17:
"But, don't care how firm your determination is, you can't keep turning round in one place like a horse grinding sugar cane" (Chapter 13).
"'From now on you'se mah wife and mah woman and everything else in de world Ah needs'" - Tea Cake (Chapter 14).
"He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place." (Chapter 14)
"'You'se something tuh make uh man forgit how tuh git old and forgit tuh die'" - Tea Cake (Chapter 15)
"'Janie is wherever Ah wants tuh be. Dat's de kind of wife she is and Ah love her for it. Ah wouldn't be knockin' her around. Ah didn't wants whup her last night, but ol' Mis' Turner done sent for her brother tuh come tuh bait Janie in and take her way from me. Ah didn't whup Janie 'cause she done nothin'. Ah beat her tuh show dem Turners who is boss.'" - (Chapter 17)
-Maddy
Chapters 18-20:
"And then again Him-with-the-square-toes had gone back to his house. He stood one more and again in his high flat house without sides to it and without a roof with his soulless sword standing upright in his hand." (Chapter 19)
"The time of dying was over. It was time to bury the dead." (Chapter 19)
"Somewhere up there beyond blue ether's bosom sat He. Was He noticing what was going on around here? He must be because He knew everything. Did He mean to do this to Tea Cake and her?" (Chapter 19)
"The day of the gun, and the bloody body, and the courthouse came and commenced to sing a sobbing sigh out of every corner in the room; out of each and every chair and thing." (Chapter 20)
"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." (Chapter 20)
I feel like these quotes really convey the thoughts and opinions that Hurston has on the topic of gender, and shows that Hurston felt that women and men had completely different experiences at that time. I like the quote, "Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone," because it shows that although Janie is still young and inexperienced, she has experienced suffer and pain. It also shows that as a person she still has to grow her "leaves" of memories, and shows how impacting childhood can be.
ReplyDeleteWhen the great tree is in leaf, I think it symbolizes Janie's life well. The periodic death and blooming of a tree is like Janie's experience, with high and low points hitting her as she transitions into adulthood. The "years that answer" reveal some harsh truths to a growing Janie, while the "years that question" give some purpose to life while making it more ambiguous, like Janie's experience with love.
ReplyDeleteOpening the novel by discussing dreams of men and women is a bit confusing. Why do women supposedly forget all pain, while Janie clearly remembers it? Why do men not chase their dreams -- letting them land as boats, where as women seek them out actively? My opinion is that the oppression and pains women go through that men don't have to cause them to appreciate their success more and attempt to reach it.
There are a lot of quotes that reveal Jody's sexist mindset here; some are more blatant than others. Obviously, the first quote from each chapter here are pretty outright, but their effects are profound. Similar to the beginning, Janie's conception of marriage is changed from an adolescent fantasy to a harsh reality. Keeping her emotions and thoughts separate from her outward appearance and not tying her dreams to someone else are two lessons Janie has learned the hard way, and the last two quotes you found capture them well.
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