“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).
Mary-This is more like it. You speculate in original and very intelligent ways (the brain is fully engaged here!) about Janie's independence or empowerment. It makes me think of one of your other favorite characters from this semester--dear Portia. The ways in which she stands for a kind of female empowerment in her being the agent of justice and mercy would make for a worthwhile comparison with Janie's growth over time.
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