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Chapter 6 Summary
The store becomes the center of town, where the men sit on the porch, rib each other and vie for the women's attention. For Janie, it is like watching a play, and it takes the monotony out of the six days a week tending the store. The physical work is not always hard, but the complex calculations are, and she tends to get distracted, which irritates Jody. He also does not like her taking part in the trashy scenes on the porch, though he is not above joining them himself. For instance, one of the favorite jokes revolves around Matt Bonner's yellow mule, an ornery, half-starved creature that runs off as often as he can. Janie starts to feel sorry for the poor thing, and stalks off one day, muttering that they ought to be ashamed of themselves, with how the thing's been worked to death and mistreated, and now they have to finish him off with their "devilin'." Jody overhears her and buys the mule for five dollars so he can rest, making a speech to the same effect. Janie voices what the others are thinking: "'Tain't everybody would have thought of it, 'cause it ain't no everyday thought. Freein' dat mule makes uh mighty big man outa you. Something like George Washington and Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln, he had de whole United States tuh rule so he freed de Negoes. You got uh town so you freed uh mule. You have tuh have power tuh free things and dat makes you lak uh king uh something."
The others comment that Janie is a born orator, but Jody never says a word. In fact, he is jealous of Janie and jealous over her. He sees the way the other men look at her and fantasizes about killing them. Instead, he makes her tie up her hair, telling her she is just for him to look at. As much as Janie hates it, she keeps her feelings to herself in an effort to keep the peace.
The mule becomes a kind of town mascot, and when it finally dies, the town decides to drag it out to the swamp for a ceremony. Jody refuses to let Janie go; telling her such a scene is beneath the Mayor's wife. He says the ceremony is to humor the others, who are mainly trashy and lazy, wanting nothing more than a full belly and a place to sleep.
Therefore, it goes on this way, with Jody alternately building up Janie's pedestal and knocking her off it. When he cannot find a bill of lading in the store, he accuses her of not putting it where he told her to, with Janie responding that he sure loves to tell her what to do, but she cannot tell him anything. Jody says she needs telling—all women need telling, just like children and chickens and cows. After seven years, the spirit of the marriage has begun to die, and when the breakfast Janie cooks is accidentally scorched, Jody slaps her face.
It is just after this slap when Mrs. Tony Robbins comes to the store to beg Jody for food. Her husband buys food three times a week, but she claims she and her children never see it. As usual, Mayor Starks cuts her a small piece of meat, despite her carrying on that it is too small, and sends her on her way after adding the meat to Tony's account. Convinced she is just trying to humiliate her husband, the men on the porch claim they would kill a wife for carrying on the way she does. However, Joe Lindsay says Tony will not beat her, since beating women is like stepping on baby chickens. Hearing this, Janie cannot stop herself from stepping in: "Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business. He told me how surprised He was 'bout y'all turning out so smart after Him makin' yuh different; and how surprised y'all is goin' tuh be if you ever find out you don't know half as much 'bout us as you think you do. It's so easy to make yo'self out God Almighty when you ain't got nothin' tuh strain against but women and chickens."
Chapter 6 Analysis
On the surface, Janie's role as "Mrs. Mayor Starks" contrasts sharply with her role as Logan Killicks' wife; once a "mule," she's now an "adornment"—a pretty object to be admired and whose appearance serves no purpose other than to reflect the success of her husband. However, dictating her appearance and forbidding her from taking part in the fun and frivolity around her, Joe Starks exerts as much control over Janie's life as Logan Killicks had, if not more. The only difference is that now Janie has an entire town's expectations to meet. We now understand why the people of Eatonville seemed to hold Janie to a high standard when she returned—her appearance in muddy overalls contradicted the expectations her husband had established for her.
As the wife of Eatonville's mayor-the man who virtually built the town- Janie has both money and power, just as her grandmother would have wanted. However, this chapter makes it clear that Janie's power is an illusion. Although she reveals herself a "born orator," her words do not amount to much, as she will comment at the end of the book. Rather, Joe uses every opportunity to belittle her, perhaps afraid of the inner strength she possesses. "Time came when she fought back with her tongue as best she could, but it didn't do her any good. It just made Joe do more. He wanted her submission and he'd keep on fighting until he felt he had it." As a result, Janie learns to keep quiet, squashing her own inner voice.
However, she is too independent to squash it entirely, and her words, when she chooses to use them, demonstrate a subtle power. She shames Joe into buying Matt Bonner's poor mule, after which he promptly takes the credit for her compassion. However, Janie, in a speech that on the surface seems to strengthen Jody's power, points out that it is only power Jody is interested in. Through this and her later speech to the men about their abuse of women, whom they liken to chickens, Janie reveals herself as a moral force against the town. The reader's realization of this at the end of the chapter offsets the bleakness of Janie's own realization that she is again trapped in an empty marriage that demands she accept the material dreams of her husband in the place of her own emotional fulfillment.
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