|
Chapter 20 Summary + Analysis |
|
|
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Thursday, 12 January 2006 |
Chapter 20 Summary
Janie stays in the Everglades for a little while to make the others feel better, but the muck all around reminds her of Tea Cake, and after a few weeks, she leaves. All she takes with her are the seeds Tea Cake had meant to plant, and which she decides to plant at home for remembrance.
As she finishes her story, Phoeby declares that she has grown ten feet taller just listening and is no longer satisfied with her own life. She tells Janie that she means to make Sam take her fishing, and that nobody had better criticize Janie in her hearing. However, Janie tells her not to feel too mean with the others, because they just do not know anything: "Dem meatskins is got tuh rattle tuh make out they's alive. Let 'em consulate theyselves wid talk. 'Course, talkin' don't amount tuh uh hill uh beans when yuh can't do nothin' else. And listenin' tuh dat kind uh talk is jus' lak openin' yo' mouth and lettin' de moon shine down yo' throat. It's uh known fact, Phoeby, you got tuh go there tuh know there. Yo' papa and yo' mama and nobody else can't tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves."
After Phoeby leaves, Janie thinks of Tea Cake, knowing that as long as she loves him he will never really be dead. Having finally reached that distant horizon she spent her life pursuing, she pulls it around her shoulders and calls her soul to come and see.
Chapter 20 Analysis
Janie's story of finally finding true love through the courage to defy others' expectations profoundly affects Phoeby, who declares that she is going to change her own life. It is clear now that if Janie had simply told Phoeby and the others that Tea Cake had died, the meaning of the events would have been lost. However, Janie believes that even telling the story is not enough—you have to make the decision to live life for yourself before you can ever really change. While this may be true, Janie's assertion that words do not mean anything may not be entirely true, for it is the passage of the story from one woman to the next—in the tradition of an oral tale—that is bound to effect a profound, if subtle change in all the people who hear it.
|
