Examples Of Janie's Identity

Janie Discovers Her Identity The development of identity is not just about physical attributes of a person but also mentally and how one expresses themselves in society. Throughout the book, Janie is looking for true love and finding freedom to help her discover her true identity as a woman. At the beginning of the book, Janie is a very shy person and does not express herself very much and often relies on others. But towards the end of the book, Janie has grown up and has found her own identity and her own independence to be able to live on her own. Many people help her discover her identity throughout the story.The most significant people in Janie's life who contribute the most are Joe, Tea Cake, and Logan. They all helped contribute to the

Joe has impacted the growth and development of Janie’s identity by helping her realize that a lot of men use women for their looks and appearance rather than their personality or their love. Janie realizes Joe was one of these men when she finally retaliates towards Joe about bragging to his friends about her looks and not her personality. “Stop mixin’ up mah doings wid mah looks,Jody” (Hurston 50). This quote shows that Janie realizes that her own husband only sees her for her looks and not for her love towards him or her personality and her looks determine her intelligence. During this scene, Janie finally stood up to Joe for herself and about how he only married her for her looks. Another example of how Joe impacted Janie’s identity development was when Joe forced Janie to keep her hair up in the store. But when he did, Janie learned of her independence and her personal power. After Joe dies, Janie took control and let her hair down in public again. “Before she slept that night she burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist.” (Hurston

Tea Cake helped Janie learn how to play checkers and she was very good at it. “Everyone was surprised at Janie playing checkers, but they liked it. Three or four stood behind her and coached her moves and generally made merry with her in a restrained way” (Hurston 95). This quote explains the discovery of Janie's self worth and identity because she learns stuff about herself that no one ever helped her realize, such as how intelligent and talented she is. Also how she is a very quick learner and can pick up new things very quickly. But teaching her new things quickly backfires on him later in the novel because she later shoots him with a gun he taught her to use and ends up killing Tea Cake. “Oh, you need to learn now. ‘Tain’t no need uh you not knowin’ how tuh handle shootin’ tools” (Hurston 130). This quote shows the moment when Tea Cake realized he needed to teach Janie to use guns. This helped her develop more motor skills that no one ever taught her growing up. But by the end of the novel, Janie ends up shooting Tea Cake when he has rabies to protect herself from