amanda1035’s Blog

We finally get a chance to just examine the whole Tea Cake and Janie relationship in an unchanging environment. They really seem to fit well together and watching how they deal with different situations is interesting. They are both extremely protective of each other and refuse to even allow the littlest threat to their relationship exist. Also, when I started seeing Tea Cake flirting with Nunkie, I was very interested in whether or not that would turn into the reason Tea Cake ended up leaving, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. Well Janie and Tea Cake seem to be pretty happy with their current situation and decided to stay another year. I like the laid back sense we get from their life style, its very comfortable and I feel like i get to see who the characters really are.

There was a lot of suspense in these chapters. The reader was constantly on edge with Janie as we tried to discover Tea Cake’s true intentions. As he constantly is disappearing and reappearing we are never sure how long he is going to stay, if he will at all. However, he always returns and has a way with words. He promises Janie she won’t have to touch any of her money and returns everything he took from her. If he is so good at gambling though, why doesn’t he do this more often. He seems to have a handle ont he game and win when he needs to. I do feel a little weird about him taking Janie’s money without her permission. It was pretty well hidden so I don’t know how he was able to find it. Was he looking through her stuff? I think we still have a lot to learn about Tea Cake, but I also trust Janie’s judgement at this point and she seems to like him for the right reasons. I think this will end up turning out to be a great thing for Janie, he’s an adventurous guy and that’s what Janie needs at this point.

In these chapters we see how perceptive Janie is. Not only is she able to really see how much Jody has been holding her back over the years and explain it in a way that even Jody, with his considerable pride, would be able to understand, but she is able to examine the ties between her and her Grandmother. When Janie starts to realize that wealth and status are not what will make her happy, she starts to look at what her Grandmother was really teaching her. Janie is finally becoming independent and making her decisions for herself. We see this also when she is talking to Pheoby and tells her she doesn’t care that the rest of the town thinks shes happy after Jody dies. She’s not going to fake it if she isn’t. I also think that his death left her in the ideal position, she is now competlely independent, economically, mentally, and now single. She has the opportunity to start over and really do what she wants to with her life. This is the cue for Tea Cake. The new charming gentlemen who comes in and respects her as a person, asking to her to play checkers and talking to her like an equal, not the way Jody did. He is interesting and charming, making her laugh often. I’m a fan.

Janie is a great character. She is a good person that can recognize when people are acting out, like whent he men are hurting the mule. Jody tries to almost buy her the mule as a gift, however he ruins the gift when he doesn’t allow her to go to the mules funeral. He is constantly trying to put Janie in her place saying that a woman of her status shouldn’t do this, or shouldn’t do that. It is wrong and Janie starts to realize that. We also learn why Jody makes her put her hair up, he is jealous and protective. He really starts to be too domineering with Janie when the fights start, climaxing when he hits her. Janie handles it calmly, however it comes to a head in the next chapter.

When Jody starts getting all self conscious about how he looks, that’s when things get bad. He starts taking out his insecurity on Janie trying to bring her down and bring himself up. This is a typical human response but Janie is too good and too smart for that and doesn’t let it get to her. I’ve lost all respect for Jody though. He publicly insulted her and really physically hurt her as well, and I think that is so wrong regardless of what she said to him.

Logan is gross and though nice, I’m glad Janie got out of there. It is odd that the Grandmother berates Janie for not appreciating money and valuing love too much though. It is normally the opposite in today’s society. It shows a lot about their culture and what they value in a family. Jody is an interesing character and it is interesting to see how Janie reacts to him. He seems to have it all going for him, good ideas, very ambitious, very wealthy, he gains the respect of Eatonville quickly. He makes a lot of changes and makes his status in the town very fast. Janie is along for the ride. Though Janie likes Jody, he seems to be focusing too much on his job and not appreciating her. When he didn’t let her give a speech Janie took a lot of offense at that as she should, Jody doesn’t seem to respect her intelligence. Also he makes her wear her unnaturally beautiful hair under a rag, he is unappreciative of her beauty.

Though the dialogue is a little hard to follow, the introduction gives us a pretty good glimpse of the characters in this book. Pheoby has the guts to stand up for her friend in front of the other women and is considerate enough to bring over a dish and listen to Janie’s story without trying to judge her. Janie on the other hand seems to be a really down to earth girl who doesn’t let the town gossip get to her.

As Janie starts her story we really see the amount of racism on both sides of the population. Nanny does the right thing to protect Janie and takes her into her own house to avoid some of the names she is being called. I feel bad for Janie though, she is unable to voice her opinion really because of all her Grandmother has been through so much. The poor little girl gets married off to this old unattractive guy.

I also wonder if we will be seeing more of Leafy.

We really learn a lot about the characters when this book ends and Gatsby dies. When Tom and Daisy both refuse to come and Tom tells Nick that he believes Gatsby should have died, we see a lot about them. Even though Daisy cared about Gatsby she is able to be so uncaring about the sitution. Nick says that they are able to do whatever they want and forget about it because their money will protect them from any consequences. I think this idea is so relevant. People in the upper class are able to get away with more because of their status, connections, and wealth. It is not right and shows how corrupt society is. Also, no one ends up coming to Gatsby’s funeral which is ironic because of all the people he would have over everyday. People took advantage of him for years but when he died, no one had the respect to go to his funeral. Nick ended up being a really good friend to Gatsby though, taking care of all his affiars and trying to get people to come. He even erased graffitti by Gatsby’s house.

Gatsby is not the man we pictured him, and like I thought, him and Tom have seemed to have switched places. Tom now seems to value Daisy and his life with her over money, over Myrtle. Once it starts to fall apart he fights for her and is able to keep her with him. Gatsby on the other hand describes how he was attracted to Daisy not because of the person she was but what she represented. She was charming yes, but she was rich and pretty and that was what made him so fascinated by her. He assumed wealth would buy her love back and made his life, and his passion for her, all about obtaining as much money as he could by whatever means possible. He became the epitome of the corrupted upper class of the 20’s.

Also, the green light is brought up again in relation to Gatsby’s dream of Daisy as that will be her sign that she wants him to come. As Daisy is related to money in Gatsby’s eyes, it relates to the American dream of wealth and perfection which Gatsby associates with a life with Daisy. However Daisy does not return to him and his dream is crushed, however he is in denial of this and argues when Nick tells him otherwise. Poor Gatsby =[

Well, this was an interesting chapter. There wasn’t much pertaining to the “American Dream” but after you Was. told us to look for how good Fitzgerald is at knowing how people react, I noticed how realistic it was. He really understood jealousy and how people act and try and wait for the opportune moment to confront the situation. He also knows how they push the situation a little to hint that they know. When Tom tells Daisy to ride back with Gatsby after the argument in the room, it is a very common reaction and I could easily picture that and relate to it. Fitzgerald captures the human mind and jealousy fantastically.

Myrtle’s death was completely unexpected, and Daisy of all people being the driver was a very interesting twist. Fitzgerald tied together all the characters fantastically in this chapter making all the stories meet. I feel so bad for Wilson, he just had his heart broken and his wife killed, his memory of their marriage was tarnished a few days too soon.