Quote Blog Thingy

This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn’t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was.” (pg. 55)

This quote really stuck out to me because it begins to establish Hurston’s theme of male dominance and aggression. Hurston goes through the stages of abuse so the reader can see how Jody’s personality “changes” throughout the story. When Janie first met Jody he was very sweet on her. He would tell her how he wanted to make a wife out of her. When Logan had her working the plow he said, “You behind a plow! You ain’t got no mo’ business wid uh plow than uh hog is got wid uh holiday!” (pg. 29) I don’t believe planned to do all the things he did to Janie, but that still doesn’t make what he did right. He let his jealously get the best of him after they were together and started to try to control her, making her put head-rags on to cover her hair when she was in the store. I could tell right then that this was only the beginning. Things would get worse and worse until he finally hit her, which is exactly what happened. I believe that in the beginning Jody really loved Janie, however towards the end he progressively got more and more jealous and in the end he just snapped. Jody was the type of man who had to be the in control and couldn’t stand it when he felt like someone was doing better than him or looked better than him. Hurston’s theme of male dominance and aggression is most clearly shown through Jody. Although, the other main male characters also show signs of male dominance and aggression, Jody is the most obvious. He obviously has issues with being outdone so he always has to go the extra mile to beat everyone else out. Jody’s need to be protective of Janie is understandable, but when he begins to try and completely control Janie things get out of hand. It starts off with him just telling her to keep a head-rag on her head while she is in the store because he doesn’t want other guys looking at her hair. Her hair is there for him to look at and no one else.
Jody then starts to put her down to boost himself up. He begins to call her old and saggy when in fact it was actually him who was getting old and saggy. He knew this was happening and he knew she knew that it was happening. So in order to feel better about himself he begins to suck all the life out of Janie to the point where she doesn’t even reveal how she’s truly feeling. She shuts all her emotions in and doesn’t release them for years and years. When Jody finally dies its like a giant weight has been lifted off of her shoulders and she can finally say and do what she wants. In some ways Jody was good for her, but mostly he wasn’t. In the beginning he showed her what it was like to have everything she could have ever dreamed of, but she soon found out that good things come to an end. However, if it hadn’t been for Jody, Janie would have never met Tea Cake and would have been stuck with Logan for the rest of her life. So in the end it was all worth it because now Janie has finally found true love and is happier than she’s ever been.