e with Joe Starks is more of a hardship on Janie than her marriage to Logan. Although she stays married to Joe until he dies, she soon begins to understand that she has exchanged the physical and emotional bondage of her marriage to Logan for intellectual and social bondage by Joe. The scene where Joe Starks is elected mayor illustrates this point, as the crowd wants to here from “Mrs. Mayor Starks” (she no longer has her own identity). “Mah wife don’t know nothin ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nuthin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home ” (69). It soon becomes apperant that Joe, is only interested in having a wife to use as a show piece. Janie wants to feel a part of the community, but Joe keeps her isolated so that she will continue to be his “prize” and not become just another woman in the town. “Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories . . . but Joe had forbidden her to indulge . . . ‘You’se Mrs. Mayor Starks, Janie . . .’” (85). Janie tries her best to fulfil her role as Joe’s wife, but the relationship between them deteriorates. The fight scene in the store is the breaking point in their relationship. Joe start to make comments about Janie’s age and looks. He yells at her for not cutting a plug of tobacco straight, saying “don’t stand dere rollin’ yo’ pop eyes at me wid yo’ rump hangin’ nearly to yo’ knees” (121). Janie pays him back however, saying “talkin’ ‘bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo’ britches, you look like the changeuh life” (123). As far as Joe is concerned, Janie has broken her role— she has humiliated him in front of his peers when it was supposed to be her place to make him look good. “You wasn’t satisfied wid me de way Ah was . . . Mah o...
