Throughout
African American literature many authors have illustrated the position of black
women within the community. Within the
Harlem Renaissance this theme has been explored most extensively by two of its
most celebrated texts, Zora Neale Hurston's Their
Eyes Were Watching God and Jean Toomer's Cane. These texts illustrate
a need for expression within their characters with a particular focus on the
needs of women. Toomer and Hurston
present the needs of these women alongside examples of men who misunderstand
them. These men place an emphasis on
their belief that they their skills of expression are greater. This misunderstanding and perceived
superiority becomes a logic that allows them to ignore and stifle women. The constant disregard for the needs of women
serve to show that black women have a lower social standing which results in a
masculine exertion of control and violence that is accepted within the
community. Male desire for control is
manifested in the ways in which women are put down and thought of within the
community. Through their depiction of
expression and understanding in male-female relationships, Toomer and Hurston
present a portrait of black women as misunderstood, misguided, and mistreated
by the communities they live in.
Hurston's
protagonist, Janie, and a number of Toomer's women, find themselves in
positions of difficulty in terms of self expression and relation with the
opposite sex. Janie is oppressed by two
husbands who stifle her expression until she finds Tea Cake. Although she is allowed more freedom with Tea
Cake than with her other two husbands, there is still evidence that he acts to
suppress Janie in several situations. A
great number of Toomer's characters also experience this in various forms, such
as Avey, who is consistently misunderstood by the narrator. Finding expression can be difficult. The many characters of Cane seem to want to find a catharsis in expression, in the way
that Janie does, but as Mary Battenfeld claims "in the end, words do not
liberate the people of Cane (87). Even
Janie's grandmother, Nanny, has searched for her own form of expression: "Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about
colored women sittin' on high, but they wasn't no pulpit for me" (16). These women have found it difficult to find a
“pulpit” to express themselves from.
The
position of difficulty faced by these women stems from an inability for men to
understand and interpret their needs and desires. The various narrators of Cane consistently respond inappropriately to women: "The
narrator responds inadequately to Avey's humming of the lullaby, just as he
fails to respond to Becky's moan from beneath the mound, or to Fern's
convulsive cries at the edge of the canebrake" (Grant 57). The narrators’ ideas and responses often do
not fit properly into the dialogue shared with females of the text, especially
in the case of "Avey." There
is a wedge between Avey and the narrator thoughout the text. The narrator erroneously believes that Avey will
respond positively to his advances and stories, thinking that he now
understands her as he previously did not.
Toomer's women offer different things to men, but most receive
misunderstanding in return: "Each in her own way is an elusive beauty, who
charitably or indifferently or inquisitively offers her body to men who will
never understand her soul” (Turner 16).
The
capacity for female understanding of the unknowing narrators of Cane bears many similarities to the
personality of Joe Starks. His beliefs
about Janie and women in general show his lack of understanding: "Somebody
got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don't think none
theirselves" (71). He believes that
women are incapable of speaking in a relevant way. This belief is cemented for the reader as
Janie is urged to make a speech: "The burst of applause was cut short by
Joe taking the floor himself" (43).
By claiming "mah wife don't know nothin' 'bout no speech-makin'.
Ah never married her for nothin' lak dat. She's uh woman and her
place is in de home" (43), he shows that he does not see a capable person
in Janie. He also fails to understand
why his marriage with Janie is not a loving one: "Here he was just pouring
honor all over her; building a high chair for her to sit in and overlook the
world and she here pouting over it!" (62). Joe misreads Janie's
frustration and is bewildered by the fact that she is not showering him with
gratitude.
Not
only do these men greatly misunderstand women, but they also greatly
overestimate their own abilities of expression.
As a mostly impotent character, Ralph Kabnis greatly overestimates his
ability to speak by asserting "I was born an bred in a family of orators,
thats what I was" (151). The male
cast of Cane, especially Kabnis "yield
a consciousness about self and language that is manifest at each male subject's
limited awareness of the ethos of the machine" (Grant 49). The narrator of Avey overestimates his
abilities to speak through his attempts to out-talk Avey: "I talked.
I knew damned well that I could beat her at that" (59). Although he produces no results, his
insistent statements show the zeal and confidence with which he utilizes his
language. Much like Joe Starks, who
Janie says is "Too busy listening tuh yo' own big voice" (87), these
men believe their voices are more potent and impressive. In her confrontation with Joe, Janie mounts
an attack on this brand of thinking by claiming there is no substance behind
such beliefs: "'tain't nothin' to it but yo' big voice" (79).
Misunderstanding
and inflated confidence creates an environment that allows Toomer and Hurston to
illustrate the ways in which men use their assumptions and over-confidence to
keep women from expressing themselves and ignore their wishes. In "Kabnis" Halsey makes mention to
Lewis how they are "Wasting time on common low-down women"
(149). The women of Kabnis are shown as
being in an oppressive environment by being led down by the men into "the
Hole" where "the walls are of stone" and there are "no
openings save a small iron-barred window" (143), as if they had brought
them down into a prison. In "Blood
Burning Moon," Tom tells Louisa he'll do what he usually does to a challenger
for her affection—cut them. When Louisa
says "No, Tom—" he immediately dismisses her request: "I said I
would an there aint no mo to it" (43).
The
men in Janie's life take this to greater lengths, especially with Starks'
treatment of Janie, forcing her to keep her hair tied up and silencing her at every
chance she has to speak. Because of his
selfish inward focus throughout their marriage, he has no sympathy for Janie's
want of expression. With Joe on his
death-bed, Janie castigates him for his actions: "now you got tuh die
tuh find out dat you got tuh pacify somebody besides yo'self if you wants
any love and any sympathy in dis world. You ain't tried tuh pacify nobody but
yo'self" (86-87). Her oppression
doesn't end with Joe, however, as "Increasingly, Tea Cake attempts to
speak for Janie, to tell her what her own desires are. But Janie's tongue isn't
in Tea Cake's mouth" (Kaplan 132).
After finding a semi-safe place from the storm, Tea Cake makes a case to
Janie that they must keep going, ignoring her wish to stay and discarding her
judgment.
The
men who ignore the expressive needs of women do so for the sake of garnering
their submission. The male female
paradigm within Cane and Their Eyes Were Watching God facilitates
other kinds of mistreatment against women that manifests through controlling
behavior that continues to put women in a place where they are unable to
express themselves. Influenced by role
figures such as Nanny, who place economic value over all other considerations,
these women are taught to seek security and forsake happiness while men provide
economic security and over-zealous control.
By being referred to as "Tea Cake's Janie" by the community
(186), she is interpreted as an object to be owned. Joe Starks seeks to control and possess Janie
through a variety of ways, from concealing her hair to stifling her speech. As Janie claims, "When Ah wasn't in de
store he wanted me tuh jes sit wid folded hands and sit dere. And Ah'd
sit dere wid de walls creepin' up on me and squeezin' all de life outa me"
(113), Starks had a completely overpowering idea of the wife that Janie was
supposed to be. As Joe sinks deeper into
sickness he becomes fixated on besting Janie: "Jody's ego has been
assaulted by Janie's ever-expanding voice" (Grant 135). This assault is something he feels the need
to put down: "He wanted her submission and he'd keep on fighting until he
felt he had it" (71).
The
men of Cane have similar ideals and
practices for women. In "Blood
Burning Moon" two men fight to the death over possession of a woman while
in "Karintha" "the words of promise from black men that Karintha
hears are words actually denoting pride and possession" (Grant 49). Toomer's most powerful example of a male
seeking control, however, is in "Avey." The constant disconnect between Avey and the
narrator causes hostility on the part of the narrator: "The narrator,
having failed to 'succeed' at the university, leaves it for 'good' without
accomplishing anything. He returns to Washington hoping, for his own
peace of mind, that the city has 'forgotten' Avey. To his discomfiture,
Ned, 'between curses' of outrage at his failure to 'have' her, declares 'she
was no better than a whore'" (McKay 136). His desires become obvious as he claims "I
had the notion that if I really wanted to, I could do with her just what I
pleased" (60).
Another
form of control exercised by the male characters is violence. Toomer's men express a subtle violence that
is often based in the desires they express: "Bane accused her. She
denied. He couldn't see that she was becoming hysterical. He would
have liked to take his fists and beat her. Who was strong as a man.
Stronger" (15). Violence also
happens in the form of sexual abuse, as Halsey almost forces himself onto Cora:
"Halsey grabs her arm and pulls her to him. She struggles.
Halsey pins her arms and kisses her. She settles, spurting like a
pine-knot afire" (152). By spurting like a "pine-knot
afire" she clearly seethes quietly, unable to protest to this action. Without a word Halsey silences her and wins
her submission through force.
Janie
also experiences violence primarily from the whipping she receives from Tea
Cake in response to Mrs. Turner's insistence that she meet her brother. While Janie has done nothing wrong, Tea Cake
sees this as a prime opportunity to exert his control upon her. What sets Janie's experience apart from those
in Cane is the way in which the
community is shown clearly reacting to it: "Forever suspended is the
community's understanding of the flaws in Tea Cake's earnest expression of
black manhood, and thus any possibility for its mediating them" (Grant
144). The community sees his actions as
worthy of applause. Tea Cake's friends
congratulate him and express their disappointment that they are unable to do
the same. Nanny's earlier response to
Janie's issues with Logan Killicks also shows that such treatment is normal and
expected: "dat grassgut, liver-lipted nigger ain't done took and beat mah
baby already! Ah'll take a stick and salivate 'im!" (Hurston 22). She immediately jumps to the conclusion that
Janie must be sad because Logan has already started abusing her.
The
community's opinion of violence against women is one of the ways in which
Toomer and Hurston show that the value of women in the black community is very
low. As Halsey claims, "Th nigger
hates th sight of a black woman worse than death. Sorry t mix y up this
way, Lewis. But y see how tis" (146). Women are made out to be despised creatures,
which Halsey assumes Lewis readily recognizes.
Toomer's depiction of black women as highly sexualized objects like Avey
also shows the value placed upon them is one of a possession or a sexual
object. As Stella claims, "Boars an
kids an fools—thats all I've known" (148), she illustrates the way in
which her life has been lived to raise children and probably stay in the
home. By claiming she has only known
“boars,” she alludes to the fact that the men in her life may have been abusive
and animal-like, as well as emotionally unfulfilling and boring.
The
communities of Their Eyes also have a
negative value of women that is expressed through the many voices within it. Phoebe's husband discounts her value as she
claims he told her "no first class booger would have me" (4). From the men who admire Tea Cake for beating
Janie to Nanny’s own opinion of black masculinity, everyone sees actions like
beatings and mistreatment of women as commonplace. The men who talk about Tony's wife on the
front porch unanimously declare that if she were their wife they would surely
"break her or kill her" (71). Nanny's words suggest a predatory
nature in black men: "'Whut Ah seen just now is plenty for me, honey, Ah
don't want no trashy nigger, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin'
yo' body to wipe his foots on" (13).
Whether predatory or not, women are expected to rely on men. While the community knows that men often treat
women badly, women aren’t shown as having a chance without a partner. Without a man Janie becomes an outcast in the
community. As the novel begins she is
the source of malicious gossip for returning alone, and after Tea Cake's death
the community stands against her at her trial.
As
two of the most successful pictures of black femininity of the Harlem
Renaissance, Cane and Their Eyes Were Watching God stand as a
snapshot of social conventions and mores revolving around women of the
time. Janie eventually finds herself in
complete control over her voice, especially through the narration, written in a
pseudo first person style that mimics her speech. Toomer's women are less fortunate, however,
as they do not acquire speech in the way that Janie is able to. Many of them meet a tragic end. Regardless of the outcome, the authors paint
a dismal picture for African American women as living in an environment where
they are constantly put down in a variety of ways. It is a portrayal of a system where women are
dependent upon men, but the men use this dependence to misuse and mistreat
them, providing an unfulfilling environment to women who are presented with few
options for the direction of their lives.
Works
Cited
Battenfeld, Mary. ""Been Shapin Words T
Fit M Soul": Cane, Language, and Social Change." Callaloo.
25.4 (2002): 1238-1249. Print.
Grant, Nathan. Masculinist Impulses .
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2004. Print.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were
Watching God. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006. Print.
Kaplan, Carla. "The Erotics of Talk: "That
Oldest Human Longing" in their Eyes Were Watching God."American
Literature. 67.1 (1995): 115-142. Print.
McKay, Nellie. Jean Toomer, Artist. Chapel
Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984. Print.
Toomer, Jean. Cane. 2nd. New York:
Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2011. Print.
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