Summary and Analysis

Chapter 1

A woman returns to her native town in a southern American settlement at sunset; the townsfolk observe her with curiosity and wonderment. The woman’s old neighbors gather on Pheoby Watson’s porch. Since the woman had left town with a young lover, her neighbors wonder why she has returned alone. They remember the woman’s preference for extravagant, fashionable clothes and wonder why she is now wearing ordinary clothes. They surmise that the man must have stolen from her and abandoned her and seem happy that the woman might have endured misery.

The other women are jealous of her beauty even in ordinary clothes, and the men are still in awe of the woman’s physique and style. At this point, Pheoby interrupts the gossip mongers and declares that the woman is Janie, her best friend. Pheoby is surprised that even she does not know why Janie has returned home without her lover, Tea Cake. When Pearl Stone expresses her scorn for the way Janie had left town, Pheoby defends her friend.

Pheoby takes a plate of dinner to Janie and rebukes the townsfolk for speaking ill of Janie. She still marvels at Janie’s beauty and is unable to contain her curiosity about Tea Cake. She asks Janie if Tea Cake had stolen her money and abandoned her. In response, Janie laughs at the rumors and comments that she has been “..to the horizon and back.” She shares that Tea Cake is gone and that she wanted to return from Everglades. Pheoby is confused and asks Janie to explain her situation more clearly. The novel then takes the form of Janie’s recollection of her own life to Phoeby.

Chapter 2

Nanny, Janie’s grandmother, raises Janie, who has never met her parents. They live in an outhouse of the Washburn’s, a white couple. Due to their proximity to the Washburn’s, Janie mistakenly thinks that she too is white until she sees a photograph of herself. She is bullied in her all-black school for being lighter skinned and not having her parents around. Nanny then buys a plot of land with a gate to make Janie feel secure.

Janie and Johnny Taylor kiss over the very same gate when she is sixteen, and in excitement she spends her time under a pear tree in the yard. In parallel to her own sexual awakening, she finds the changes in the tree from winter to spring exciting and enriching. She experiences the tree in all its fertile splendor, and Hurston describes this experience with sexual metaphors such as “ecstatic shiver” and “creaming..frothing.” Nanny happens to see the kiss between Janie and Johnny and is worried and quickly arranges Janie’s marriage with Logan Killicks, a middle-aged, wealthy farmer in the neighborhood. Nanny explains to Janie that the decision is to ensure social mobility and financial security for Janie. She explains that black women are easily exploited in the world and that she merely wants a better future for Janie.

Janie protests Nanny’s decision, but Nanny convinces her by sharing her own experience in the world as a black woman. Nanny shares that she used to be a slave who was raped by her master. She gave birth to a fair skinned, grey-eyed baby girl named Leafy, who was Janie’s mother. Her master’s wife wanted to whip Nanny and sell Leafy in her anger, but Nanny was able to escape through the marshes and hide away as the Civil War raged on. Nanny also shares that she wished for a better life for Leafy, but Leafy became an alcoholic after being raped by her schoolteacher. Janie, Nanny adds, was the child Leafy gave birth to after being raped. Devastated by these events, Leafy had turned to alcohol and ran away abandoning both her newly born daughter and mother. Nanny says that she wishes for a better future for Janie.

Chapter 3

In the days preceding her wedding, Janie is worried about whether she will come to love Logan eventually. The older women around her assure her that she will indeed grow to love him. The wedding takes place at Nanny’s house along with a celebratory feast. Then the married couple set out to Logan’s home and his large field spanning many acres. Two months pass after her marriage, and Janie returns to meet Nanny and complains that she longs for something sweet in her marriage, a simple pleasure like sitting under the pear tree. Nanny is furious and reminds her that Logan owns sixty acres of land and calls Janie ungrateful. She urges Janie to be patient.

Nanny dies one month after this meeting. Janie continues to yearn for love in their marriage, but that does not happen. She wonders if becoming a woman is about coming to terms with a loveless marriage.

Chapter 4

Even as Janie makes her peace with Logan, he gets more controlling and judgmental of her. He constantly complains that Janie is spoiled and that she doesn’t contribute enough domestically. He makes no secret of the fact that he expects her to be more grateful and tries to make this point quite aggressively. Logan leaves town to buy two mules so that both Janie and he can plow the fields together. In his absence, Janie catches the eye of a younger, good looking man named Joe Starks. He tells her that he is aiming for greatness in an all-black town near Florida. Janie finds herself attracted to his ambition and the possibilities he dreams of, even though he is not a romantic either.

They meet each other in secret even as Joe extends his stay. Joe asks Janie to call him by his endearing nickname, “Jody,” and Janie agrees. Jody flatters Janie by saying that Logan does not appreciate Janie for her beauty and that he sees her only as an extra pair of helping hands at the farm. He suggests that somebody as beautiful as Janie should adorn the front porch looking beautiful. Jody asks Janie to run away with and marry him.

Logan returns to town, and he and Janie have a huge fight about him forcing Janie to work at the field. Janie threatens that she would run away and tells him that he is not the larger-than-life figure he believes he is. He calls Janie arrogant and spoiled. After informing Logan that he would never have her love, Janie meets Jody at a secret location and time and gets married to him before the next sundown. They run away to a new town together.

Chapter 5

Jody and Janie reach a town near Florida called Eatonville, which at the moment has only few inhabitants and some derelict buildings. Jody confidently introduces himself to Lee Coker and Amos Hicks, residents of the town, and wonders where he could meet the mayor. They let him know that there is no mayor for the town and that the entire town only spans fifty acres. He continues to talk confidently with all the townspeople. Jody buys an additional two hundred acres from Captain Eaton, who is the primary sponsor at Eatonville. Janie ignores a flirting Hicks while Coker makes fun of Hicks for trying futilely to seduce and lure Janie away from her rich and powerful husband.

Jody pretends to be an important figure in the town by calling for a town meeting to discuss the prospects of building a store and post office. He takes over the meeting chaired by the elected assembly leader, Tony Taylor. He assigns carpentry work to Hicks and Taylor while asking others to take over construction work so that new residents will be lured to move into the town. With his clever business acumen, Jody recovers the money he had spent to buy two hundred acres by selling the land to new residents and through his new store in the town. For his leadership and direction, the townspeople choose him as the mayor. Taylor invites Janie to speak on this occasion as the mayor’s wife, but Jody forbids her from speaking. He explains that wives should not be expected to do such things as address the public. Janie is disturbed by Jody’s controlling behavior, but lets it go.

Next, Jody calls for votes to decide whether or not to install a street lamp he has already purchased. When Jody organizes a program for the inauguration of the street lamp, Janie expresses her grievance with Jody’s recent unavailability. Jody does not seem to understand her concern; he merely reminds her that he is aiming to make it big in the new town.

Janie senses that townsfolk both admire and envy Jody. They especially envy their two-storied house with several porches. This luxurious house is in stark contrast to the smaller, more basic houses in the town, which resemble servants’ quarters compared to the grandness of Jody and Jaine’s home. Some people also see Jody as an extremely domineering person and wonder how Jody and Janie ended up together. They are aware that Jody controls Janie: everybody in town seems to know that he orders her to tie her beautiful black hair up in cloth when she is working at the store. However, neither the townspeople nor Janie call Jody out for his arrogant and controlling ways.

Analysis of Chapter 1-Chapter 5

The novel begins with an air of mystery surrounding the beautiful lady whose name is only gradually revealed. It is the woman’s best friend, Pheoby, who reveals her identity. Pheoby also defends her friend against the “spitting” tongues, her vicious and gossiping neighbors. The major gossip about the woman, about her being fooled and abandoned by her younger lover, points to the way women were regarded at the time—as being naive and susceptible to manipulation.

Janie’s decision to tell the story to another important woman character sets the tone for the narrative. It not only explores nuances of women’s relationships with men but also women’s relationships with other women. Hurston combines literary language with colloquial language creatively and effectively, and this also reflects the novel’s experimental spirit.

The situation surrounding Janie—being abandoned by her parents, the bullying at school, and a feeling of rootlessness due to her mixed appearance—explains her grandmother’s concern and hurry to arrange a financially secure marriage for Janie. Her grandmother’s decision is also based on her own past experiences and struggles. It also explains how familial trauma can be passed on from one generation to the next. She yearns to ensure that Janie does not experience the same terrible fate her mother had endured as a young woman.

The poetic images of the pear tree and blossoming reappear several times throughout the novel to shadow the sexual desire that Janie feels. She is not allowed to explore her desire due to her social positioning and the controlling nature of the men in her life.

Janie’s marriage with Logan makes her realize what she treasures in a relationship. She becomes aware that he is not romantically inclined toward her; he only sees her as another person with whom he can divide the labor required to work the field. Logan’s claims that Janie is arrogant and spoiled also shows the mindset of a certain kind of hardworking black class, which considered anything beyond hard work a mark of luxury and indulgence.

The encounter between Jody and Janie is marked by her resistance to Logan. This makes Janie even more attracted to Jody’s ambitions. The lure of freedom from a loveless marriage and a new adventure in a faraway town are more than what Janie can resist at that point in her story. It is only after she moves and witnesses the everyday reality of life with Jody that she begins to feel concerned. Jody’s initial flattery of Janie now comes across as a ploy to secure her. Jody even turns out to be a controlling and stifling presence in Janie’s life. Janie also becomes aware that the doting Jody from earlier is gone as he gets more and more interested in his own growth as a figure of influence in the town of Eatonville.