Hurston and Hughes
... can truly love you if they make you do all that work and not offer any help. You can infer she is on the verge of change when she states, “But I’ll be dogged if I love you!” (p.202). Janie and Madam both must break away from the roles that people in their lives have established upon them in order to find themselves. They not only have to break away from these roles but also the people that are holding them back from being who they really are. The people that are holding Janie back from her true self are her husbands Logan and Joe. Logan clearly is both puzzled and intimidated by Janie, who is strikingly attractive and has started to show signs she has a mind of her own. For example, He refuses to communicate emotionally and honestly with her. The night before she runs away with Jody, she asks Logan what he would do if she ran away with someone else. Rather than responding honestly and saying he’d be hurt, he hides his feelings and insults her b replying that and she should feel lucky to have him, given her spotty family history. She realizes that she needs an emotional connection to the one she loves and ends up leaving with Jody. Joe, like Logan, is threatened by Janie’s strength; he insults her constantly and belittles her abilities. Finally one day, she talks back to Joe in the store and stands up for herself for the first time; she points out he is also aging and describes what he looks like with his pants down. Joe refuses to speak to her after that. One day, when she feels she can take it no longer, Janie burst into his sick room and tells him what has been wrong with their marriage. Janie finally feels free and self-sufficient after Joe’s death. She begins to live her life with her own thoughts. In Hughes poems, Madam and Her Might-Have Been and Madam and the Rent Man, relates to the central character Janie’s realization that the men in her life are not suitable for her and not to put up with their mess. In Madam and Her Might-Have Been, Madam discusses how sometimes things are “too good to be true” (215). Just like Janie with Joe, Madam’s husband “worked all the time, spent his money on me-first time in my life I had anything free” (p. 215). But there was something underneath the exterior self that was not noticeable at first glance. For Janie, that was the way both of her husbands belittled her; and for Madam, it was her insecurity that lead her to believe he was cheating on her. In the poem, Madam and the Rent Man, Madam talks about how this man wants something from her but does not want to do anything for her. She like Janie now has the self-confidence to say no and to get rid of these men. “If it’s money you want you’re out of luck” (p.204). Both women protagonists have started making their own decisions and dared to really live life. Through their determination they have started to find peace within themselves. Janie meets a man named Tea Cake, who generally makes her feel like a regular person with a playful heart. Although Janie is very cautious because of past relationships, she gets married, and started a very different sort of life. Tea Cake wants her to live life beside him, not as a possession like the other husbands. Janie realizes that she is totally loved by a man who is devoted to her. It is what she has been seeking her whole life. Her husband becomes ill and she is faced with another challenge of protecting herself from her husband. Janie ends up shooting him but is found innocent of murder; she is given another chance to reorder her life and come to grips with who she really is. In telling her story, it is obvious that she feels like a fulfilled woman who has known love and has precious memories to surround her. She is content in knowing that her pear tree has blossomed. Madam, like Janie, i...