How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #21
Janie stood still while they all comments. When it was all done she stood in front of Joe and said, "Jody, dat wuz uh might fine thing fuh you tuh do. ‘Tain’t everybody would have thought of it, ‘cause it ain’t no everyday thought. Freein’ dat mule makes uh mighty big man outa you. Something like George Washington and Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln, he had de whole United States tuh rule so he freed de Negroes. You got uh town so you freed uh mule. You have tuh have power tuh free things and dat makes you lak uh king uh something."
Hambo said, "Yo’ wife is uh born orator, Starks. Us never knowed dat befo’. She put jus’ de right words tuh our thoughts."(6.60-61)
Like Hambo says, Janie has a gift for words. This directly contradicts what Joe said earlier about Janie not knowing how to make speeches. Janie has just proven that she can indeed speak publicly. This means she could potentially pose a threat to Joe’s power or increase his influence, but he doesn’t notice because he is too busy basking in everyone’s praises and inflating his ego.
Quote #22
Anyhow a free mule in town was something new to talk about. The town talked it for three days and said that’s just what they would have done if they had been rich men like Joe Starks. Starks piled fodder under the big tree near the porch and the mule was usually around the store like the other citizens. Nearly everybody took the habit of fetching along a handful of fodder to throw on the pile. He almost got fat and they took a great pride in him. New lies sprung up about his free-mule doings. How he pushed open Lindsay’s kitchen door and slept in the place one night and fought until they made coffee for his breakfast; how he stuck his head in the Pearsons’ window for Rev. Pearson and handed him a plate; he ran Mrs. Tully off of the croquet ground for having such an ugly shape; he ran and caught up with Becky Anderson on the way to Maitland so as to keep his head out of the sun under her umbrella; he got tired of listening to Redmond’s long-winded prayer, and went inside the Baptist church and broke up the meeting. He did everything but let himself be bridled and visit Matt Bonner. (6.62)
Eatonville’s imaginations – fired up by the thought of a liberated mule being similar to a black freedman – make up all kinds of stories and rumors to entertain themselves. They find enjoyment and distraction in stories and conjure up a little fantasy world for themselves.
Quote #23
[Joe]: "But it’s awful tuh see so many people don’t want nothin’ but uh full belly and uh place tuh lay down and sleep afterwards. It makes me sad sometimes and then agin it makes me mad. They say things sometimes that tickles me nearly tuh death, but Ah won’t laugh jus tuh dis-incourage ‘em." Janie took the easy way away from a fuss. She didn’t change her mind but she agreed with her mouth. Her heart said, "Even so, but you don’t have to cry about it." (6.94)
Communication clearly isn’t always honest. Joe claims not to laugh when the locals say stupid things, but he sure laughed at a lot of the mule stories, so he’s just plain lying. Similarly, what Janie communicates with her "mouth" is different from what she feels in her heart. Neither of them are truthful with each other, which really doesn’t help their marriage.
Quote #24
But sometimes Sam Watson and Lige Moss forced a belly laugh out of Joe himself with their eternal arguments. It never ended because there was no end to reach. It was a contest in hyperbole and carried on for no other reason. (6.95)
Here, Hurston comes straight out and admits that Sam and Lige argue pointlessly for no other reason than to show off. Their arguments are "a contest in hyperbole," each man aiming to outdo the other in this contest of exaggerated words. It seems like in many cases in the novel, language is used as a form of harmless entertainment.
Quote #25
"All you got tuh do is mind me. How come you can’t do lak Ah tell yuh?"
"You sho loves to tell me whut to do, but Ah can’t tell you nothin’ Ah see!"
"Dat’s ‘cause you need tellin’," he rejoined hotly. "It would be pitiful if Ah didn’t. Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves." (6.174-176)
Joe has no qualms telling Janie what to do all the time. When Janie points out that he won’t listen to her, Joe brushes it off and tells her directly what he thinks of women’s intelligence. To him, women are stupid and cannot think for themselves. That’s why men must always speak in the imperative to them, directing their every action. It’s interesting that eventually Joe has an untimely death because he didn’t listen to Janie about how much he needed to see a doctor.
Quote #26
So gradually, she pressed her teeth together and learned to hush. (6.184)
Janie cannot win against Joe’s big voice so she "learn[s] to hush," silencing herself so that Joe doesn’t have to be humiliated by Joe telling her to shut up.
Quote #27
Janie did what she had never done before, that is, thrust herself into the conversation. (6.215)
When Joe and his friends insult women’s intelligence, Janie is finally enraged enough to break her habitual silence and speak up. She crosses gender boundaries by doing this, taking on a masculine force as shown through the word "thrust."
Quote #28
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 had learned how to talk some and leave some. She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels. (7.1)
Janie’s inability to communicate isolates her to such an extend that she sees herself as a "rut in the road." She is eventually rejuvenated when she finds her voice again, which she uses to accuse Jody of his crimes against her.
Quote #29
[Janie]: "You big-bellies round here and put out a lot of brag, but ‘tain’t nothin’ to it but yo’ big voice. Humph! Talkin’ ‘bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change uh life." (7.22)
Janie recognizes Joe (and men in general) as nothing but a "big voice"; in other words, Joe’s words have no substance behind them. It’s almost like Janie’s showing that words aren’t good enough on their own, they only have power when there is truth behind them. Then, she goes on to castrate Joe with her incisive words – since her words are true, they’re very potent.
Quote #30
[after Janie insults Joe’s manhood]: They didn’t talk too much around the store either. Anybody that didn’t know would have thought that things had blown over, it looked so quiet and peaceful around. But the stillness was the sleep of swords. So new thoughts had to be thought and new words said. She didn’t want to live like that. Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time? (8.1)
Joe’s embarrassment and rage at Janie for publicly insulting his manhood leads to the silent treatment. For once, Joe is at a loss for words and tries to get back at Janie by refusing to speak to her. Janie sees this and realizes that their marriage is totally destroyed. In order to renew their relationship, they need to change the way they communicate with each other and use "new words."
Quote #31
"Janie! Janie! don’t tell me Ah got tuh die, and Ah ain’t used tuh thinkin’ ‘bout it." (8.36)
To Joe, the thought of death is unthinkable and, thus, unspeakable. To him, saying such a thing means giving truth to it.
Quote #32
[Janie to Joe]: You ain’t tried tuh pacify nobody but yo’self. Too busy listenin tuh yo’ own big voice." (8.41)
Joe’s obsession with becoming a "big voice" means that he is deafened by his own words; he cannot and will not hear any one else’s words, no matter how legitimate they may be.
Quote #33
"All dis tearin’ down talk!" Jody whispered with sweat globules forming all over his face and arms. "Git outa heah!"
"All dis bowin’ down, all dis obedience under yo’ voice – dat ain’t whut Ah rushed off down de road tuh find out about you." (8.42-43)
Now that Janie speaks up, strongly and confidently, Joe has lost his big voice, he can only whisper. Janie appropriately points out that being forced to follow all of Joe’s orders was the equivalent of bowing before him. He was trying to use his voice to completely dominate her.
Quote #34
She thought back and forth about what had happened in the making of a voice out of a man. (8.45)
In the "making of a voice out of a man," that man (Joe) loses his substantiality and humanity. In becoming just a "big voice," Joe puts all his life force into speaking and loses everything else, including his heart.
Quote #35
"Evenin’, Mis’ Starks. Could yuh lemme have uh pound uh knuckle puddin’ till Saturday? Ah’m sho uh pay tuh then."
"You needs ten pounds, Mr. Tea Cake. Ah’ll let yuh have all Ah got and you needn’t bother ‘bout payin’ it back." (10.54-55)
Tea Cake and Janie jest in words, playing on the idea of "knuckle puddin’" being both a foodstuff and a beating with the fists. Tea Cake, realizing he is in the doghouse for being a little too flirtatious with Janie, requests that Janie beat him with her fists as punishment. Janie, recognizing the pun, returns it, saying that she’ll give him more than he asked for and that he need to pay it back (beat her in return). Joe would never have engaged in this type of wordplay with Janie, because the verbal sparring implies that the speakers are equal. Joe wouldn’t even play checkers with her, let alone talk to her as an equal.
Quote #36
"Who ever heard of uh teacake bein’ called Mister! If you wanta be real hightoned and call me Mr. Woods, dat’s de way you feel about it. If yuh wants tuh be uh lil friendly and call me Tea Cake, dat would be real nice." (10.58)
The dropping of formal titles in discourse marks the breaking down of certain social barriers – like the coldness of addresses between two people who do not know each other very well. Tea Cake wants to close that social distance between himself and Janie linguistically by getting rid of the formal "Mister" title. He hopes that will allow him to get more intimate with Janie.
Quote #37
"Naw, you ain’t sleepy, Mis’ Janie. You jus’ want me tuh go. You figger Ah’m uh rounder and uh pimp and you done wasted too much time talkin’ wid me." (11.48)
Tea Cake does not hedge around the truth when Janie shows reluctance to speak to him; instead, he accurately reads her emotions and puts them into words. His frankness and blunt way of speaking the truth contrasts sharply with the other two men Janie has been with and this makes her more attracted to Tea Cake.
Quote #38
"Me scramble ‘round tuh git de money tuh take yuh – been workin’ lak uh dawg for two whole weeks – and she come astin’ me if Ah want her tuh go! Puttin’ mahself tuh uh whole heap uh trouble tuh git dis car so you kin go over tuh Winter Park or Orlandah tuh buy de things you might need and dis woman set dere and ast me if Ah want her tuh go!"
"Don’t git mad, Tea Cake, Ah just didn’t want you doin’ nothin’ outa politeness. If dere’s somebody else you’d ruther take, it’s all right wid me." (11.91-92)
Tea Cake lays bare the absurdity of Janie’s attempt to be polite. By doing this, he closes the distance between himself and Janie.
Quote #39
"Oh, Ah know you don’t talk. We ain’t shame faced. We jus’ ain’t ready tuh make no big kerflommouck as yet." (12.38)
Janie defends her decision to keep quiet about her relationship with Tea Cake because she doesn’t want to announce it to the whole town yet. Here, you get the sense that no matter how little credit Janie gives to the porch gossips, she is influenced by their talk and doesn’t want their gossip to interfere with her happy relationship.