I think we can all agree that Janie hasn't had the best of luck when it comes to husbands. First she is forced into her marriage with Logan Killucks, and then she runs away with Joe, who seems to be a Prince Charming but really just wants to use her. As a reader, I started out pretty optimistic about Janie's life, but by the time she meets Tea Cake I was feeling more cynical. She's had two failed relationships that started out somewhat positively: what's to say this one won't end like the others?
Janie's first failed marriage can be blamed primarily on Grandma, as she is the one who forced Janie into the relationship in the first place. Janie was too young and immature to marry, and didn't even like Logan to begin with. That is not a good foundation for a long and happy marriage. Though Logan is painted as villainous in their relationship, he doesn't really do anything wrong. He expects out of Janie what a man would generally expect out of a wife in that time period, and is shocked and frustrated when Janie is not what he thought she was. His frustration eventually transforms into aggression and anger, at which point their relationship becomes extremely toxic.
At the lowest point in Janie's marriage with Logan, Joe shows up and offers to whisk her away. His ambition and pride, which initially charm her, wind up being his downfall and the reason why their marriage crumbles. Unlike Janie's first marriage, the problems in this one are entirely the fault of her husband. Joe seemingly enjoys controlling Janie, and tears her down in order to build himself up.
When Janie meets Tea Cake and is charmed by him similarly to how she is charmed by Joe, I was immediately wary. However, a key difference between Joe and Tea Cake that becomes immediately clear is that, while Joe saw Janie as a prized possession or a collectible, Tea Cake sees her as a human who he can establish an emotional connection with. This different attitude rekindled my optimism in Janie's future, and hopefully things will work out generally positively.
Janie's first failed marriage can be blamed primarily on Grandma, as she is the one who forced Janie into the relationship in the first place. Janie was too young and immature to marry, and didn't even like Logan to begin with. That is not a good foundation for a long and happy marriage. Though Logan is painted as villainous in their relationship, he doesn't really do anything wrong. He expects out of Janie what a man would generally expect out of a wife in that time period, and is shocked and frustrated when Janie is not what he thought she was. His frustration eventually transforms into aggression and anger, at which point their relationship becomes extremely toxic.
At the lowest point in Janie's marriage with Logan, Joe shows up and offers to whisk her away. His ambition and pride, which initially charm her, wind up being his downfall and the reason why their marriage crumbles. Unlike Janie's first marriage, the problems in this one are entirely the fault of her husband. Joe seemingly enjoys controlling Janie, and tears her down in order to build himself up.
When Janie meets Tea Cake and is charmed by him similarly to how she is charmed by Joe, I was immediately wary. However, a key difference between Joe and Tea Cake that becomes immediately clear is that, while Joe saw Janie as a prized possession or a collectible, Tea Cake sees her as a human who he can establish an emotional connection with. This different attitude rekindled my optimism in Janie's future, and hopefully things will work out generally positively.
Obviously marriage with Janie is something on the mind of most men in the town at the time, but it seemed to me like Tea Cake was more interested in developing a real relationship with Janie as herself rather than marrying her for something other than an emotional connection. Both of Janie's other relationships started off with talks of marriage, so she was never able to get the chance to evaluate her emotional ties with them before she was tied legally. This to me makes Tea Cake more trustworthy as he is giving Janie time to sort out her feelings, and giving himself time to actually understand her and take her seriously.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the first two tastes Janie had of a relationship didn't go very well, and as you said, Janie meeting Tea Cake made me scared of something similar going down. I mean, this was like Invisible man where the narrators repeated attempts of trust go down the drain. Yet, the amount of effort that Tea Cake puts into this relationship really surprised me. As we noted in class and so do you, it is like Tea Cake actually wants to get to know Janie and it comes as a pleasant surprise. I hope things end well for both of them.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you in the sense that because of Janie's past two relationships, I've become pretty cynical about any other love prospects of hers. On the other hand, I think that the way Tea Cake treats her and seems to like her for who she is is absolutely adorable and we see this immense difference in attitude between Tea Cake and her past husbands from the get-go. Even though Tea Cake has much less money and possessions than Jody and Logan, he still manages to treat her so much better and provides her with more than just food, clothes, and a roof over her head. I think he's so beneficial to her because he gives her a spark again (he makes her feel youthful and takes her on adventures) and although he doesn't really provide her with anything material wise, he helps her mentally and builds her confidence, which is what Janie needs the most as she literally has the money to provide for herself. As much as I want this relationship to work out, regardless, I still find myself having doubts and not totally trusting Tea Cake.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely is off to a better start. I feel like with the other two marriages, she was rushed into them. With Logan, her grandmother just decided that Janie was getting married. Then with Joe, she had to make a split second decision. Does she stay where she is, unhappy, probably for the rest of her life, or does she go with Joe with many more possibilities of becoming happy? If she had more time with Joe, she might have decided differently, but we don't know. Even with the time she had, it felt more to me that she left to leave Logan and not because she fell in love with Joe. With Tea Cake, I feel like Janie has the time to really build a relationship and assess who he is as a person.
ReplyDeleteTea Cake's level of respect for Janie is really refreshing, since we have just seen her struggle through two miserable marriages with men who didn't care about her needs. Not only does Tea Cake take things slow with her and not pressure her to marry, he puts at least an equal, if not greater, effort into the relationship. Logan was nice to Janie briefly before revealing his true colors, and the same with Jody, but I'm hoping Tea Cake defies this pattern and stays respectful to Janie. I think it's better for her this time around since the power dynamic has shifted, and she doesn't have to rely on any man for financial stability. Janie's increased level of control enables her to make informed, non-hasty choices about who she wants to be with.
ReplyDeleteI think another of the key differences between Joe and Tea Cake is how long Janie has had to get to know them. Joe is almost a spur of the moment decision, taken when Janie seems like she is at her absolute lowest. However, with Tea Cake Janie is in no rush to do anything and is basically fine as she is. She has time to get to know Tea Cake and to see how he treats her. If she ends up not liking him, there’s no pressure for her to continue seeing him or get married. She also has all of these other past experiences under her belt to make her extra cautious, so hopefully this one will actually end up turning out better than the previous two.
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