Callahan concedes, “[Janie] keeps on talking and her voice hastens his imminent death (104). Janie is coming to her self-realization that she has a voice and can be heard. She is learning to open her mouth and stand up for herself. Joe’s physical abuse of Janie causes her to figuratively leave the marriage. “[Jody] slapped Janie until she had a ringing sound in her ears…” (Hurston 67). “Janie stood until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside to see what it was. It was her image of Jody that tumbled down and shattered” (Hurston 67-68). At this moment Janie has read the system of signs sufficiently to experience inner change (376). The number of times that Janie is silenced by others testifies to the power, both potential and real of her inner voice (Kaplan 118). Janie again realizes that Jody Starks does not fulfill the image of the bee and the pear tree. Janie’s route to self-definition includes rejection of her grandmother’s definitions and those imposed on her by her two husbands (Jones 371). “With his big voice Joe Starks, in effect became Nanny’s successor, and so it’s appropriate that after his death Janie discovers her true feelings about Nanny” (Callahan 105).Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made-the horizon-for no matter how far a person can go, the horizon is still way beyond you- and pinched it in such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughters neck tight enough to choke her. She hated the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love. (Hurston 14)At last Janie thinks she has encountered love with a much younger man named Tea Cake. Bush states, “She finds happiness in [this] third marriage by rejecting the hierarchical, materialistic codes others have imposed on her” (1038). Janie and Tea Cake enjoy being themselves portraying their own identity. ̶...
