Family Bond

"'We heard you once, talkin' 'bout the army and places we wouldnt be. are you wantin' to leave us?' 'Naw, I'd get lost wihtout the wright of you two on my back'" (193).

Weather

“The day agreed upon was pouring rain… After half an hour, the sun shone again...  There was a change in Gatsby… He literally glowed; without a word or gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room” (83-89).

“Ree raised the window…, and was quickly gone again. She was tucked into a blackness… When her eyes rolled open she was part of a cloud of some sort, a thick weary cloud that had settled to ground. Windows frosted and glazed, fog low outside the windows” (167).

Although written in two different centuries and rooted in opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, in both The Great Gatsby and Winter’s Bone, Fitzgerald and Woodrell continually reference weather.  In both novels, how does the motif of weather further reveal the thoughts and feelings of the characters? 

Water

“the world flushed upside down…and she was draining somehow… The pain…traveled her body in pounding waves” (129-131).

“hands as strong as stormwater rushing, his eyes went inside you to the depths without asking and helped themselves to anything they wanted” (133).

“The world rippled in her view” (142).

“stuff had leaked to the heart of the earth and maybe soured even the deepest deep springs” (158).

“She held her breath underwater…and heard the murmur of a living spring in her ears, the mumbles and plops of water from forever rushing past” (160).

Throughout the Milton beating and its aftermath, Woodrell’s recurring use of water as a descriptive mechanism ties together Ree’s physically pain and emotional struggles.  At the onset of the novel, Woodrell introduces the idea of water as an escape for Ree: “she sat…, pulled the headphones from a pocket and clamped them ver her ears, then turned on The Sounds of Tranquil Shores” (9-10).  While water is fluid and free and represents an environment with no limitations, it is also uncontrollable and relentless.  Physically, Ree experiences pain in “pounding waves” during and after being beaten by the Milton women.  Not only is she relentlessly physically abused, but also her emotional state constantly encounters “pounding waves” that test her emotional stamina.  Her fear of Thump Milton prompts her to equate his strength to “stormwater rushing.”  These continual references to water tie together Ree’s battered physical being and her emotional state as two aspects of her character that are continually fighting against “pounding waves” of pain, struggle, fear, etc. 

Loneliness

This is kicker rock off of San Cristo Bal.  While the Galapagos Islands are fuming with the life of its unique inhabitants, the rock symbolizes the loneliness and hopelessness of Ree's endeavor in finding her father.  The rock is physically isolated from the island and its life; Jessup is physically not at home and absent from his role as father.  The rock is visible, but aloof and disconnected; Jessup is still very much interconnected with the Dolly relatives, but remains out of Ree's grasp regardless of whom she consults. Also, the contrast of the fluid expanse of the Atlantic with the rigid rock reflects Ree's escape into her headphones: "Once the pile of splits became big enough...she sat..., pulled headphones from a pocket and clamped them over her ears, then turned on The Sounds of Tranquil Shores"(9-10). 

Reality and Escape

Ree's Naivety

“Ree reached for the steaming cup, smiling, and said, ‘I’m not really—‘ And the world flushed upside down in her eyes while her ears rang and she staggered, then the world flushed again and again and she stumbled” (129). 

Ree’s second interaction with women at Thump Milton’s house depicts her naivety and suggests the countless additional struggles she faces in her search for her father because of her youth.  The boundaries her youth sets upon her is detectable in her interactions with everyone she seeks answers from. With Little Arthur, instead of taking no as his answer, she continues to pester him with questions: “You ain’t seen him nowhere since then?” (54).  Her persistence with Little Arthur exemplifies her inability to pick up on the subtleties of her relatives’ warnings.  At Thump Milton’s, Ree does not take his refusal to see her as the subtle explanation of the rules of the Dollys and, rather, returns again.  Now the question posed to the reader is whether or not the violence of her encounter with Thump Milton’s women will prompt Ree to realize their warning and recognize the rules.  Or will her naivety prevail an inhibit her from recognizing the rules and warnings they are implying.  

Ree and the Morning Squirrel: Resilience

“They were alarmed by every sound but not long alarmed by any. The dawn air held the cold of night but there was no breeze and squirrels soon lost their fear of the new day and moved out along the branches” (102). 

The squirrel and the setting of dawn break is a metaphor for Ree and the way she carries herself through her perpetual privation.  Just as the squirrel is “alarmed by every sound” Ree continuously faces recurring hardships; however, like the squirrel, Ree is “not long alarmed by any.” Ree’s ability to move on to the next task, while letting the past dissipate, exemplifies her resilience in the face of so many obstacles.  Although Ree still holds with her what she has learned about being a Dolly from searching from her father, just like the “ dawn air [holds] the cold of night,” she has to forget about her search and her discoveries the next day when parenting her brothers. Instead of carrying with her into parenting her brothers the hardships she faced searching for her dad, Ree suppresses that anger and teaches her brothers how to shoot rifles and skin squirrels.  Ree, like the squirrels, just continues to move “out along the branches.” Ree’s strength is prevalent in this metaphor as she is able to segregate the worries of her life so that she can be strong for her brothers while continuing the search for her father. 

Ree's Facade Dissipates in the Face of Utter Hopelessness

“She was strangely still and starting… on the bridge until she understood that her eyes searched for a body beneath that ice, and she crouched to her knees and cried, cried until treats ran down her chest” (70).

Until this bleak scene, Ree has maintained a stiff façade that inhibits her expression of the sadness fostered her strangled life.  It is not until she realizes obstacles of her search that she completely breaks down.  After visiting both Little Arthur and Thump Milton, Ree’s notion that the Dolly family tie will encourage those kin to assist her in the search for Jessup is shattered.  In searching for her father, or a dead body under a frozen river, prompts Ree’s realization that she knows little that will help her in locating her father; she has no idea where Jessup and she does not surely know whether he is dead or alive. The crumbling of this cornerstone belief in the strength of kin accompanied with Ree’s realization of the lack of knowledge she has to help her with her search dissipates her façade and she breaks down in the cold frozen environment.  The setting’s coldness parallels the Dollys’ lack of warmth; the weather serves as a metaphor that further underscores Ree’s hopelessness. 

Stolen Childhoods

“Ree’s grand hope was that theses boys would not be dead to wonder by age twelve, dulled to life, empty of kindness, boiling with mean” (8).

Ree Dolly is a young girl shouldering the responsibilities of both her ill mother and absent father.  Not only does Ree act as both parental units to her two younger brothers, but also she constantly worries that their family’s legacy will rob her siblings of their youth; certainly she has had to relinquish hers as a rammification of her family.  Ree hopes her brothers can retain “wonder” and “kindness” instead of being “ruined… [to] abide by the remorseless blood-soaked commandments that governed lives led outside square law” (8).  It will be interesting to see which role Sonny and Harold adopt as their father trial nears; will they remain aloof, join Ree in the hunt for their father, or succumb to the “remorseless blood-soaked commandments that” govern the lives of their kin (8). 

TEWWG Quotations

Chapter 1:

“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” (1).

Chapter 2:

“Oh to be a… tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen… and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her” (11).

Chapter 3:

“Yes, she would love Logan after they were married. She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so. Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant” (21).

“She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25).

22 (top) – waiting for love

22 (bottom)- logan would never hit Janie

25 – waiting for change

Chapter 4:

“She wasn’t even angry. Logan was accusing her of her mamma, her grandmamma and her feelings, and she couldn’t do a thing about any of it… A feeling of sudden newness and change came over her” (32).

“He…helped her to the seat beside him. With him on it, it sat like some high, ruling chair . From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything. A bee for her bloom” (32).

Chapter 5:

“It must have been the way Joe spoke out without giving her a change to say anything one way or another that took the bloom off of things. But anyway, she went down the road behind him that night feeling cold. He strode along invested with his new dignity, thought and planned out loud, unconscious of her thoughts” (43).

“‘Ah aimed tuh be uh big voice. You oughta be glad, ‘cause dat makes a big woman outa you.’ A feeling of coldness and fear took hold of her. She felt far away from things and lonely (46).

See page 50 for themes

Chapter 6:

“She went through many silent rebellions over things like that. Such a waste of life and time. But Joe kept saying that she could do it if she wanted to and he wanted her to use her privileges. That was the rock she was battered against” (54).

“’They oughta be shamed uh themselves! Teasin’ dat poor brute beast lak they is! Done been worked tuh death; done had his disposition ruint wid mistreatment, and now they got tuh finish devilin’ ‘im tuh death” (56)

“Janie want to hear the rest of the play-acting and how it ended, but she got up sullenly and went inside. She came back to the porch with her bristles sticking out all over her and with dissatisfaction written all over her face. Joe saw it and lifted his own hackles a bit” (70).

“Somebody got to think for women and chillun and cows. I god, they sho don’t think non theirselves” (71).

“She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her… 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 to drape her dreams over” (72).

“Janie… thrust herself into conversation” (75).

55 hair rag –subservient, women=property

69-joe suppressing happiness

71- Jody slaps her

Chapter 7:

“She didn’t read books so she didn’t know that she was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop. Man attempting to climb to painless heights from his dung hill” (76).

“Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish, which was terrible… she had cast down his empty armor before men and they had laughed” (79).

Chapter 8:

“Ah’m stone dead from standin’ still and tryin’ tuh smile” (83).

“You done lived wid me for twenty years and you don’t half know me atall. And you could have but you was so busy worshippin’ de works of yo’ own hands” (86)

“Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see” (87).

Chapter 9:

“She had found a jewel inside herself and she had wanted to walk where people could see her and gleam it around… [angels] beat [man] down to nothing but sparks…the lonesomeness in the sparks make them hung for one another, but the mud is deaf and dub like all other tumbling mud balls, Janie had tried to show her shine” (90).

Chapter 10:

“‘Ah just ain’t never learnt how.’ He set it up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play. That was even nice” (95-96).

Chapter 11:

“He is just saying anything for the time being, feeling he’s got me so ill b’lieve him…But oh what I wouldn’t give to be twelve years younger so I could b’lieve him” (105).

“He looked like the love thoughts of women, He could be a bee to a blossom---a pear tree blossom in the spring” (106).

“After a long time of passive happiness, she got up and opened the window and let Tea Cake leap forth and mount to the sky on a wind. That was the beginning of things” (107).

“All the feats that circumstance could provide and the heart fell, attacked her on ever side. This was a new sensation for her, but no less excruciating. If only Tea Cake would make her certain” (108).

“Nobody else on earth kin hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom” (109).

Chapter 12:

marriage: “it always changes folks, and sometimes it brings out dirt and meanness dat even de person didn’t know they had in ‘em theyselves” (113).

“Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine” (114).

“Sittin’ on proches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her. Dat’s whut she wanted for me---don’t keer what it cost. Git up on uh high chair and sit dere…Ah got up on de high stool lak she told me, but… Ah done nearly languished tuh death up dere” (114)

Chapter 13:

“God, please suh, don’t let him love nobody else but me…. Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin’” (120).

“Tea Cake wasn’t doing an bit more harm trying to win hisself a little money than they was always doing with their lying tongues. Tea Cake had more good nature under his toe nails than they had in their so called Christian hearts. She better not hear none of them…talking about her husband!” (126)

“Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out form its hiding place” (128).

Chapter 14:

“Sometimes Janie would think of the old days in the big white house… What if Eatonville could see her now in her blue denim overalls and heavy shoes?...She was sorry for her friends back there and scornful of the others. The men held big arguments here like they used to do on the store porch. Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to” (134).

Chapter 15:

“They wrestled on until they were doped with their own fumes and emanations; till their clothes had been torn away; till he hurled her to the floor and held her there melting her resistance with the heat of his body, doing things with their bodies to express the inexpressible” (137)

Chapter 16:

“All gods who receive homage are cruel, all gods dispense suffering without reason Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood” (145).

Chapter 17:

“He had whipped Janie… it revealed that awful fear inside him. Being able to whip her reassured him in possession. No brutal beating at all. He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss” (147).

“Janie is wherever Ah wants tuh be. Dat’s de kind uh wife she is and Ah love her for it” (148).

Chapter 18:

“It was so easy to be hopeful in the day time when you can see the things you wish on. But it was night, it stayed night. Night was striding across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands” (158).

“The monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred mile an hour wind had loosed his chains. He seized hold of his dikes and ran forward until he met the quarters; uprooted them like grass and rushed on after his supposed-to-be-conquerors, rolling the dikes, rolling the houses, rolling the people” (162).

“Havoc was there with her mouth wide open… Janie stood on the edge of things and looked over the desolation” (167).

“You don’t have tuh say, if it wuzn’t for me, baby, cause Ah’m heah, and then Ah wnt yuh tuh know its uh man heah” (167).

Chapter 19:

“That big old dawg with the hatred in his eyes had killed her after all. She wished she had slipped off the cow-tail and drowned then and there and been done. But to kill her through Tea Cake was too much to bear” (178).

“God snatched me out de fire through you. And Ah loves yuh” (180).

“It was the meanest moment of eternity… She had wanted him to live so much and he was dead…She had to hug him tight for soon he would be gone, and she had to tell him for the last time” (184).

“It was not death she feared. It was misunderstanding. If they made a verdict that she didn’t ant Teac Cake and wanted him dead, then that was a real shin and a shame. It was worse than murder” (188).

Chapter 20:

“They had begged Janie to stay… But the much meant Tea Cake and Tea Cake wasn’t there. So it was just a great expanse of black mud” (191).

“love ain’t something lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore” (191).

“Of course he wasn’t dead. He cold never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped in over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called her soul to come and see” (193).

FEMALE/MALE

Mud (covering glow/gleam)

Horizon/sea

Animalistic/hurricane---control

Soul (personified)

Janie's Idyllic Horizon

“Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped in over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes!” (193).

 

Hurston displays her belief that women, rather than men, are in control of their destiny by framing her novel with metaphors about the horizon.   Hurston claims Janie is capable of pulling “in her horizon like a great fish-net” full “of life in its meshes!” Looking back an Hurston’s introduction, the “horizon” contains man’s unattainable dreams: “ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board… they sail forever on the horizon” (1).  For both men and women, the horizon symbolizes the idyllic.  The fact that Janie is able to pull the horizon “from around the waist of the world” implies that she is in utter control of her “horizon,” her destiny.  Janie’s implied controlled in the end of the novel is explicitly stated in the introduction as a characteristic of all women: “women forget all…things they don’t want to remember and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth” (1).  This framing of the novel that implies women control their destiny contrasts each of Janie’s relationships with men; all three in which she adopts a passive, submissive wife role in which she bends to the will of her husband. This contradiction suggests Janie is only able to grasp “her horizon” without men, but after she has experienced them; thereafter, she is able to establish an idyllic vision that she then attempts to achieve in her dreams, which “is the truth” (1). 

Personification of the Hurricane Foreshadows a Change in Janie

“The monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred mile an hour wind had loosed his chains. He seized hold of his dikes and ran forward until he met the quarters; uprooted them like grass and rushed on after his supposed-to-be-conquerors, rolling the dikes, rolling the houses, rolling the people” (162).

            Hurston’s personification of the hurricane foreshadows the insurgence of power within Janie’s character.   Throughout the novel, Janie has been molded by each of her husband’s into a subservient wife.  In each marriage she becomes more passive.  With Logan, she felt diminished, but she finally objected and ran away.  With Jody, she suppressed her unhappiness and waited for an escape, which presented itself in Joe’s death.  Now, with Tea Cake, she is suppressed and mistreated; however, she does not seem unhappy.  Although he beats her to impress his power upon Janie and Mrs. Turner, Janie remains attached to Tea Cake.  During the storm she is glad to be in the storm because “Ah’m wid mah husband in uh storm” (159).  Hurston’s personification of the hurricane and how it is uprooting his “supposed-to-be conquerors” suggests that Janie will eventually revolt against the submissive mold she has be designed to fit; she will rediscover her independent drive and separate herself from Tea Cake and all men, her “supposed-to-be-conquerors.”

Gradient of Whiteness Justifies Cruelty

“[Mrs. Turner] felt honored by Janie’s acquaintance and she quickly forgave and forgot snubs in order to keep it. Anyone who looked more white folkish than herself was better than she was in her criteria, therefore it was right they than should be cruel to her at times, just as she was cruel to those more negroid than herself in direct ratio to their negroness” (144).

            In an attempt to distance herself from Mrs. Turner and her racism, Janie exhibits a cold attitude “whenever she come around” (144).  However, instead of recognizing Janie’s standoffish attitude as a signal to terminate or lessen their friendship, Mrs. Turner appreciates her cold demeanor.  Mrs. Turner accepts Janie’s coldness as Janie’s recognition that there is a social class difference between her and Mrs. Turner based on “her criteria” of “negroness.”  Another reason for enduring Janie’s unfriendly demeanor is because Mrs. Turner believes a “transmutation” occurs when she is around Janie that makes her “become whiter.”

Disapproval of Tea Cake Draws Janie In

Pheoby: “Tea Cake is draggin’ you round tuh places you ain’t used tuh… He don’t know you’se useter uh more high time crowd than dat”

Janie: “Tea Cake ain’t dragging me off nowhere Ah don’t want tuh go. Ah always did want tuh git round uh whole heap, but Jody wouldn’t ‘low me tuh” (112).

While Tea Cake fills the role of a companion for Janie, he also provides Janie with a platform for rebellion against Jody, Nanny, and Eatonville.  Eatonville’s disapproval of Tea Cake makes him even more attractive to Janie. By having a relationship with Tea Cake she is able to tap into her otherwise suppressed resentment towards Jody and his town.  Tea Cake and Janie’s scandalous relationship with him also enables Janie to publically renounce Nanny’s notion that with marriage came love and happiness.  Although Tea Cake is attractive because he is younger and adventurous, it is not his character that draws Janie in; rather, it is his ability to foster disproval from Eatonville, and from Jody and Nanny if they were still alive. 

Reigniting Janie's Glow

“‘Ah just ain’t never learnt how.’ He set it up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play. That was even nice” (95-96).

The fact that the “thought” of including Janie is a board game ignites such a happiness that she is “glowing inside” demonstrates how suppressed and excluded Joe had made her feel.  Although Janie let her hair down, all other aspects of her life after Joe’s death remained the same.  Her desire to be free is prevalent as she “burnt up every one of her head rags” (89); however, Janie does not know how to abandon the mundane lifestyle she had been forced to live through for twenty years with Joe.  Although Janie has many admirers that frequently come to the store, it is not until It is Tea Cake’s minor act of teaching her checkers, something Joe claimed “wuz too heavy fuh [Janie’s] brains” (96), that reignites the glow of life, desire and happiness inside Janie. 

Janie Diminished to an Animalistic State

“Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves” (71).            

While Janie’s anger towards how the Eatonville men treat Matt’s mule draws parallels between the treatment of Janie by Joe and the treatment of the mule by the men, it is not until Joe explicitly equates Janie to a thoughtless animal that it is clear to Janie has come into the role of a submissive, mistreated spouse. Although Janie has married, she has still not escaped the role Nanny promised marriage would exempt her from: “de mule uh de world” (14).  Janie, in her marriage to Logan, learns that marriage does not guarantee love; therefore, she runs away in hopes of finding love with Joe Starks.  However, in her second marriage instead of finding love her character is further diminished to an animalistic state. 

Defiant, then Submissive

“’Tain’t too many mens would trust yuh… ‘Tain’t no mo’ fools lak me… He hoped that he had hurt” (30-31).

“De way he rears and pitches in de store sometimes when she make uh mistake is sort of ungodly, but she don’t seem to mind at all” (50).

            The quick dwindling of Logan’s kindness and his demands for her to perform manual labor ignited anger and defiance in Janie.  His lack of love fueled his defiance so much that she ran off with Joe Starks, a wealthy man who had instilled a “feeling of sudden newness and change” in Janie.  While I inferred that this change would result in a more independent and continually defiant Janie, she does not continue to express these freedoms in her relationship with Joe.  Instead, she seems to become passive and submissive to his dominant character.  This surprised me as she fought bought with Logan and continued to hope for love; however, now, she relinquishes to Joe with little protest. 

Invoking Sympathy in Janie

“Janie, maybe it wasn’t much, but Ah done the best Ah kin by you… Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie” (19-20).

 Nanny’s witness of Janie and Johnny Taylor’s kiss prompts her to recount her life’s hardships to Janie.  While on the surface she is explaining her life story, she is also attempting to invoke sympathy from Janie.  She depicts how she escaped from slavery and attempted to put Leafy through school so that she would have a better life than her mom.  By explaining that Leafy got raped, fell into a habit of drinking and ran away Nanny hopes to instill “sympathy from Janie.” Nanny implies that the purpose of her life has shifted from creating a better life for her daughter to creating a better life for Janie.  By recounting her life story and explaining that she has “done the best [she] kin by” Janie, Nanny hopes to invoke sympathy in Janie that will persuade her to marry Logan Killicks. Nanny implies that by doing so, Janie would “put [her] down easy;” meaning, she would die unworried because Nanny would know Janie was safe and protected from being “de mule uh de world” (14).  

A Return to Stanley's Old Life at the Expense of Blanche

“The ‘Varsouviana’ is filtered into a weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle. Blanche seizes the back of a chair as if to defend herself” (174)

Stanley’s rape of Blanche not only provides a platform for Blanche to seem crazy in front of Stella, but also for her to display her supposed lunacy in front of the doctor and nurse.  Her seizing of the chair as she is followed into the bedroom is a reaction fostered by her fear of being attacked again.  While this fear is realistic as Stanley’s aggression was only a few weeks prior, it portrays Blanche in an even more insane light as everyone else, the doctor, nurse, Stella, Mitch and the other men, believes she is lying.  Stanley’s cruelty is prominent as not only committed adultery with his wife’s sister, but he raped her; and now he is witnessing Blanche being dragged away because of the reputation of a lunatic that he has cast on her.  Not only were his actions horrific, but Stanley’s selfishness is prevalent as he does not seem to care that his wife is distraught at having to see her sister go on these terms; he simply cares that he has gotten rid of Blanche by any means possible.