-
On the Train Eatonville
"On the train the next day, Joe didn't make many speeches with rhymes to her, but he bought her the best things the butcher had, like apples and a glass lantern full of candies. Mostly he talked about plans for the town when he got there" (34). This quote shows that all Joe really cares about after he has Janie is power and what he wants to do as opposed to what Janie wants to do. -
In the Store
"Jody told her to dress up and stand in the store all that evening. Everybody was coming sort of fixed up, and he didn't mean for nobody else's wife to rank with her. She must look on herself as the bell-cow, the other women were the gang" (41). Joe is portrayed as a person of selfishness when he only shows Janie of as an item rather than a human being. -
Watching dem Men Talk Bout Janie
"Thank yuh fuh yo' compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin' 'bout no speech-makin'. Ah never married her for nothin' lak dat. She's uh woman and her place is in de home." Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn't too easy. She had never thought of making a speech, and didn't know if she cared to make one at all" (43). Janie is shown to finally have a feeling of Joe treating her this way,after Joe says that she has a place in the home. -
The Mule
"Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge" (53). In this quote, Janie has a desire to have a say in her life, and in this case, she wanted to have a opinion on the mule's death. She wanted to have a voice, since she was "second in command" in the town. -
Janie and Her Dreams
"She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. 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 up to drape her dreams over" (72). This quote shows that hate than Janie shows towards Joe, to imagine that something falling of a shelf could be him and hopes that it is him. -
The Thought In Janie
"The years took all the fight out of Janie's face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did, she said nothing... She got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she don't value" (76). -
Joe's Death
"A sound of strife in Jody’s throat, but his eyes stared
unwillingly into a corner of the room so Janie knew the futile
fight was not with her. The icy sword of the square-toed one
had cut off his breath and left his hands in a pose of agonizing
protest. Janie gave them peace on his breast, then she
studied his dead face for a long time" ().