love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman (24).Janie remains relatively demure in her relationship with Killicks until Jody Starks appears. A wealthy, well-dressed man on his way to a small black town he heard about, a little of Janie’s previous navet emerges again because of him. She mistakes his spending and kindness for the love she had been seeking, but eventually realizes that he loves her as a reflection of his wealth. Of Janie’s three husbands, he is the one with the most negative effect on her. He defines all the boundaries of her life and expects her to submit to everything he commands. When she defies him and insults him in public, he reacts by shunning her and attempting to hurt her, and because of this she was not free of his “rules” even after his death. “She lived between her hat and her heels, with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods-- come and gone with the sun. She got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she didn’t value”(72).At this time, Janie begins to see her personal voice and talents as hindrances rather than gifts. She becomes a model of what society feels the grieving widow should be and cannot express outwardly her true feelings for months after his death.If Janie’s second marriage is her most negative, then her third is the most positive. The mutual love between her and Tea Cake, a poor southern boy much younger than herself, was the cause of the worst social condemnation she ever experienced, and the reason she discovered her true self. She truly adored him, as is evident here:...Mrs. Turner said, ‘Yo’ husband musta had plenty money when y’all got married.’...[Janie said,] ‘Naw, mah husband didn’t had nothin’ but hisself... He kin take most any lil thing and make summertime out of it when times is dull. Then we lives offa dat happiness ...
