“‘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.
Mary-You make a solid point here about Janie's state at the time that Tea Cake shows up, and about what her "glowing" inside suggests about her previous marriage. (A bit of attention to the revision process would raise the quality of this post to the level I've come to expect.)
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