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An exploration of Janie's servitude and emancipation, Janie finds and…

- - - - Their marriage is short lived, and Janie elopes with Joe Starks
      - Janie and Logan argue over their roles in the relationship. Janie has a preconceived expectation of servitude towards her husband, but believes it is in the kitchen rather than a field
        'You don't need mah help out dere, Logan. Youse in yo' place, and Ah'm in mine' (42)
  - - - '"Green Clove Springs," he told the driver. So they were married there before sundown' (44)
        
        Janie's first impressions of Joe are positive, and he buys her gifts to win her over
        However, Starks' earlier promise for Janie to sit on the porch fanning herself quickly appears a lie, as she is demanded of rather than asked to help out in his store
        Janie, as Starks' wife, feels isolated, and the only way she can interact socially with the town is through her servitude to his store
        
        'But he bought her the best things the butcher had, like apples and a glass lantern full of candies' (45)
        'You got tuh. Ah got too much else on mah hands as Mayor' (58)
        'A feeling of coldness and fear took hold of her. She felt far away from thngs and lonely' (62)
        
        There is more language of servitude as Joe puts the men to work under him
        'They had murmured hotly about slavery being over, but every man filled his assignment' (62)
        
        In a subversion of Joe's earlier promise, only others are allowed to sit on the store's porch
        Janie begins to hate working in the store, and her last vestige of autonomy is stripped away when Joe catches other men looking at her hair, and forces her to keep it tied up. This marks Janie as Joe's property, only for him to look at, an attitude similar to slave owners
        '...they sat on his store porch while he was busy inside and discussed him' (64)
        'She had come to hate the inside of that store anyway... The store itself kept her sick with a headache... Joe kept saying she could do it if she wanted to and he wanted her to use her privileges' (72-3)
        'But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store... she was there in the store for him to look at, not those others' (73)
        
        The mule acts as a symbol for emancipation, and there is more language of servitude, with a reference to Abraham Lincoln, who passed the Emancipation Proclamation
        'Freein' dat mule makes uh mighty big man outa you. Something like George Washington and Lincoln' (78)
        
        Janie and Joe's marriage begins to decline, and they argue more frequently. Joe has violent thoughts and repeatedly makes misogynistic statements about women, comparing them to animals (another common slave owner rhetoric)
        'Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows' (95)
        '...scenes like that put Janie to thinking about the inside state of her marriage... He wanted her submission and he'd keep on fighting until he felt he had it' (95)
        
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    - - Janie undergoes a period of financial and emotional independence
        In a symbolic gesture she burns her headscarfs and is finally able to sit on the porch as she pleases
        However, the constraints of servitude still linger as Janie maintains Joe's shop, even if she does so of her own volition
        As well as this, Janie notices that a single, rich widow gains an abundance of male attention
        'She saw no reason to rush at changing things around. She would have the rest of her life to do as she pleased' (119)
        '...her widowhood and property was a great challenge in South Florida' (121)
        'A woman by herself is uh pitiful thing... You been well taken keer of, you needs uh man' (121)
        
        Hezekiah becomes a symbolic replacement of Joe, showing that Janie cannot escape the reminders of her servitude. However, Hezekiah works for her, in a subversion of Janie and Joe's dynamic
        '...Hezekiah... was the best imitation of Joe that his seventeen years could make' (123)
        
        Janie meets Tea Cake, who treats her as if she is intelligent and equal, and they form a friendship
        In a subversion of the norm, Janie is autonomous in her relationship with a man, as Tea Cake gives her the opportunity to reject his advances
        'Tea Cake wasn't strange. Seemed as if she had known him all her life. Look how she had been able to talk with him right off!' (132)
        'So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise' (133)
        
        Janie's pear tree metaphor returns as her attraction to Tea Cake grows
        Their relationship develops as they go on dates together
        
        In a symbolic action of final emancipation from Joe, Janie sells the store and decides to move away from Eatonville and marry Tea Cake
        'Cause Tea Cake ain't no Jody Starks... us is goin' off somewhere to start all over in Tea Cake's way' (152)
        
        Husband #3, Tea Cake
        
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