Personally, chapter 19 of “Their Eyes Were Watching
God” was so hard for my brain to handle. The two main reasons for this was 1)
the scene that ends with Janie shooting Tea Cake and 2) that all white-male
jury that sides with Janie (?!!!). Janie loved Tea Cake so much that she had
willing sacrificed much of her life to be with him (as opposed to being sort of
forced to change, like with her first two husbands.) However, when she is
confronted with her beloved trying to murder her, Janie is forced to choose
between herself and Tea Cake. This is one of the few times in the book where
Janie is having to make a decision without a man or a Grandma. Because of her
love for her soon-to-be-dead-anyways rabies-infested husband, she chooses
herself. The scene baffles me because Janie exercises her independence but at
the same time, is still doing it for the love of her husband.
Then there is the all white, all male jury. I kept
trying to think about why in the world Hurston would do that. To me, Hurston is
trying to highlight race/gender, but it is not clear at all what she is trying
to get at. Maybe Hurston did that because she wanted Janie to open up her
thoughts and the story to an uninvolved audience (assuming none of the white
men knew Tea Cake.) I am honestly so confused by the whole idea so if anybody
would like to try to explain that, it would be great.
Thoughts?
Like you, I am totally bamboozled by the jury scene. My only thought is that maybe the jury siding with her was necessary for her development as a character, so that we would get to see her being independent of men at the end of the book. Then the race of the jury could have just been a product of her role as an anthropologist-- maybe they were the only juries that she saw when she was studying these Southern communities?
ReplyDeleteGood post! I was also very confused with the all-white jury. Also the way that it is a rushed scene. My theory (totally open to rebuttals!) was that Hurston wanted you to feel even more sad for Janie. Here her husband died, whites side with her, consequently blacks are upset at her. Janie has no one and that adds to the amount of pain she is going through. Just my theory...
ReplyDeleteI also thought that the jury scene was extremely strange. For one, I totally did not expect them to side with her. While reading it I got to that part and was worried they were going to have her executed or something. And for two, it should be a jury of peers and I don't think a bunch of white men are peers of a black woman.
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