A caterpillar crawls along a desolate
branch. His many appendages grip the
gray bark as he undulates his body along the path in the shade. Creeping steadily forward he is looking for
the proper place suitable enough for him to change his identity. Upon finding a twig sprout where he can get
bilateral support, he builds his cocoon.
After his cocoon is finished the caterpillar crawls in for his
metamorphosis. If one is to see a cocoon
on a tree it does not resemble beauty, it is a bland piece of wound thread like
material with a hole in the top. When
one sees a butterfly they may look twice or stop what they are doing all
together
and chase it around following each of their sporadic movements as the
hot sun illuminates and watches from above.
Identity has changed. What once
was a little ugly caterpillar that kids would go around squishing and people
would flick from trees when given the chance, went on to be an ignored sack
secured to branch. Nobody pays attention
to the fact that beautiful butterflies are the results of these common
eyesores. As the caterpillar grew older
it matured and changed, from being stuck on land to airborne, from being ugly
to beautiful, from being young to old. All
living things mature, all things change, wherever time is a variable identities
are changing. Janie is no different from
these things, she too has a changing identity that can be traced throughout
four main parts in the book.
Janie is a young girl who at first docent
even know her own identity. Being rose
by her Nanny in a house full of white people, you could see how this could have
been the start of an identity crisis. Janie
was always treated like a white person during her youth, the people Nanny
worked for dressed Janie as if she was white, they sent Janie to school with
the other white children, and Janie's friends were all white. Janie knew no better than to think she was
white. That was her identity. One time when a picture was shown to her of
her and all of her friends, Janie was missing and in her place was a black girl
in her dress. She had no idea she was
different from the other children.
Black, black as night and different from her friends, this was a change
in Janies identity. Janie now thought different of herself knowing she was
black. Her identity had changed for the
first time.
Janie was sent off to marry, Janie had
envisionments of marrying for love and romance she says to Nanny after marrying
Logan "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage...." . Janie had thought to her self "Husbands and wives always loved each
other, and that was what marriage meant." (both exerts p.20-23) this is
what Janie wanted, this is what Janie did not get. Janie had a bad marriage with Logan because
her identity had changed. Janie went
from being told what to do, to her own woman.
Now Janie was ready for what she wanted, and now she knew who she is. Peoples perspective of Janie is a different
kind of identity, but is still part of ones identity. People saw Janie as Logans woman now, man saw
Janie as a good looker, and Logan saw Janie as his object. While outside pumping water, Janie noticed a
man walk by. That man noticed Janie
too. Jody Starks was his name and he was
traveling south to an all Negro town.
Jody noticed Janie as a beautiful woman who should be doing nothing but
sitting on the porch in the shade. Jody
offered to take Janie along with him to Eatonville to be his bride. Janie Accepts. Her identity has changed again, now she is
Jodys woman.
Upon arrival to Eatonville, Jody becomes
Mayor of the town, buys land, cleans up, builds a store, and builds a post
office. Now Janie is considered the
Mayor's wife and Store keeper. Except by
Pheoby her friend. Pheoby saw Janie as a
exemplary woman beautiful in her ways, and knowledge to back it up. Janie and Jody didn't get along for long,
soon Jody was pestering her about the store and how she should be working
harder. Jody also had a problem with the
way other men were looking at Janie when she wasn't looking. Jody made Janie wear her hair up in a hair
rag which Janie did not want to do, this takes away from Janies own choices
which makes her more Jodys Woman. Her
Identity changes more to Jodys Woman.
After Jody dies many suitors try to woo Janie into marriage with them,
but she does not wish to get married.
Janie's identity has changed now, she is a single woman living on her
own and doing just fine. Along comes Tea
Cake to flirt with Janie and she flirts back.
The whole town notices and thinks of Janie as a flirt messing with a no
good man.
Janie marries Tea Cake for love and they
live a simple life on the Muck harvesting beans. Janies identity has once again changed to Tea
Cakes woman. Janie and Tea Cake live a very
happy life on the simple land. At one
point Tea Cake beats Janie just to show everybody else who's boss. This reinforces Janies identity as Tea Cakes
woman. After Tea Cakes death Janie is
once again a single woman, though she dearly misses Tea Cake. Janie returns to Eatonville and moves back
into her old house. Janie lives a simple
life from then on with a fixed identity of her own woman.
All things mature and all things change,
identities change so one can learn and grow old. As you can see Janie has endured her
metamorphosis and turned out as a mature individual.
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