Both duCille and Kaplan
investigate the subtext behind Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship in their
readings of the text. duCille writes that “Their
Eyes Were Watching God is severely and profoundly critical not necessarily
of heterosexual relationships in and of themselves but of the power imbalances”
that are created in a patriarchal society (duCille 120). She writes that
although it appears surprising, given that Tea Cake is the one Janie loves, Tea
Cake’s death is a narrative necessity because Hurston aims to liberate Janie
from “an overarching system of patriarchal domination” (duCille 120), which
sees her end the novel without any of her three husbands. duCille argues that
love of self can liberate black women from the bonds of love, but at the end,
although the male oppressors are eliminated, “but female subjectivity does not
win out over patriarchal ideology” (duCille 121). duCille does not necessarily
agree with Willis’ focus on sisterhood as the unifying element of the novel,
but instead focuses on the fact that women’s self realization is stifled.
Kaplan also focuses on Tea Cake and
Janie’s relationship. Kaplan notes that marriage doesn’t quite work out for
Janie’s first two husbands, but instead of focusing on Hurston attacking a
patriarchal system, as does duCille, Kaplan writes that “Janie’s first two
husbands are punished for being bad listeners” (Kaplan 153). Kaplan also notes
the novel’s “revenge on Tea Cake,” but instead of the death serving as a way to
finally liberate Janie from a system of patriarchy, for Kaplan the death is a
form of punishment for attempting to speak for Janie, and an inability or
refusal to listen (Kaplan 154). According to Kaplan, Tea Cake’s death is
liberating for Janie, not because it frees her to be her own subject, instead
of an object, but because it liberates her “to continue her quest, and
ultimately, to satisfy her ‘oldest human longing – self revelation’ with
someone who can listen" (Kaplan 154).
The difference between the duCille
and Kaplan interpretation of the relationship seems to center around the
importance of self-realization for duCille, and self-revelation for Kaplan. duCille
highlights Janie’s struggles for self-realization and being the subject of her
own story in a patriarchal society. Kaplan’s reading of the novel is focused on
Janie’s quest for the perfect listener, and being able to tell her story to
someone who can understand it. The ways these two readings of the text
intertwine is especially interesting. Both the search for self-realization and
self-revelation end at the same juncture, Phoebe and the town she had started
in, with a community that neither gives her power, nor listens to her. Regardless
of whether Hurston would have agreed more with duCille or Kaplan’s
interpretation of her work, it is interesting that she chooses to have Janie
return, after leaving behind three husbands, to a town in which she was
powerless and silenced. This itself could be read as commentary on both
self-realization and self-revelation. Does the fact that Janie returns to a
community she does not like or necessarily trust imply something about the
impossibility of women to truly escape the binds of the patriarchal society
they grow up in, or the difficulty in finding people who can listen, outside of
the society you have grown up in? Is Janie’s return inevitable?
Sierra Romero
ReplyDeleteThroughout the reading Janie was perceived as this woman who did not obey the usual the social norms of society. She was supposed to be obedient and be the perfect house wife. She had been through three husbands which wasn't good for her image. The women were supposed to have a family take care of them and put aside anything they wanted to do because it was all about the children and husband. Society has created this image of the ideal woman the world should expect to see. Women had little to no power which limited them to what they could and couldn't do. I believe Janie going back to a society where women had little to no meaning just goes to show the importance of women and how much they were respected. It so sad to realize the little respect women are given in our world. They have to try ten times harder to do so much more just to be seen, heard, and respected. Its the ongoing struggle for women but they continue to push forward in hope of being heard and respected. I don't believe the society she is in will change her. It may affect her confidence or maybe it'll make her even more stubborn and she will continue to break the everyday social norms. Change is good, and there needs to be change for women to be seen as equal. They need a voice.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading these articles and these twos stories I could not help but make comparisons to Harriet's Jacobs's story. I don't know if Janie's return was inevitable. I would say that her return to a town does have a lot of implications.I think that her return to town could be interpreted as difficulty in escaping the binds of a patriarchal society, and difficulty finding someone who can listen, but also difficulty in her ability to speak for herself. Her difficultly in speaking and expressing herself in a patriarchal society is shown through out the story, wherever she went. She reminds me of Jacobs in the way she speaks through her silences, and how her ability to express herself is limited. She also reminds me of Jacobs in the way she uses noble characters in order to build a connection to the readers. I found it extremely interesting how even though these two writers were writing at different times you could still see similar themes when it came to black female sexuality, and their ability to talk.
Dear Mahima,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this insightful post. You succinctly parallel both Kaplan and duCille’s arguments in order to explore a deeper meaning in Janie’s relationships, especially with Tea Cake. This post gets at a lot of questions I had while reading Their Eyes and how I could use a feminist perspective to understand the “undertell”. There are many points in the book where I get confused by the tone, and whether it is ironic or exploring the readers’ assumptions. This takes me back to our first conversation in class about this novel during which we discussed the reactions to Hurston’s work as “irrelevant”. It is easy to forget that Hurston intentionally created a character, Janie, that has these life adventures for a particular reason, and that is for the readers to learn about the lived experience of some black women, the assumptions they hold as well as others, and their day to day realities. What was particularly thought provoking about your post was how you tied it into the ending of the story, asking what it means for Janie to return to where she grew up. This is a question that I hadn’t thought about much, especially in relation to duCille and Kaplan’s argument. I think there is a lot to be said about the two questions you pose, from Janie returning to a patriarchal society signifying that black women and all women cannot escape a system of oppression, to Janie not being able to find listeners for her story at the intersection of her identities anywhere else. I think that it is a powerful social for Hurston to finish her novel on, not only in its inevitability, but also in Janie’s acceptance.