Character life map

Character Life Map

Setting• This story takes place right after the freedom of

slaves has occurred in the United States and African-Americans are starting new lives and communities across the nation.

• Black people were still considered inferior to white people, but have the right to live as they please.

Janie Mae Crawford • Janie is an independent, black woman with high

hopes for her life and what it has in store for her.• She begins her life with a background of her

mother and grandmother being raped. Her grandmother wants Janie to settle down and find a husband before the same misfortune occurs to Janie.

• One thing that makes her stand out more than any other woman is her hair. Her hair is black, soft, and appealing to any man that looks at it.

Joe Starks• Joe enters the story as a young man on a mission.

He had been working for white folks all his life and saved up $300 to start a life of his own.

• His mission was to be a big voice in a community, and when he saw Janie and her beautiful hair, he figured he would take her along with him to start a community.

Janie portrays her view of marriage in the

beginning of the story as one of constant honeymoons. Filled with afternoons spent in the shade of a tree.

She imagines that her husband will always be there for her caring for her at all times.

Janie’s views before marriage

Joe is the kind of man who sees what he

wants, and devotes his entire life to attain that object or goal no matter what the cost.

Joe’s goal is to play a major role in starting communities and towns for black people.

Joe wants to be Mayor of a town and have a wife there to support him in what he does.

Joe’s Views before marriage

JANIE’S VIEWS DURING MARRIAGE

When Janie marries her second husband, Joe Starks, she realizes that this is the man that could give her what she truly desires in marriage. Love, care, and happiness.

Unfortunately as time goes on, Joe changes from what he was at the beginning of the marriage, to what he ends up being at the end.

This in turn changes what Janie believed to be the perfect marriage, into a marriage of loneliness and seclusion.

JOE’S VIEWS DURING MARRIAGE

Joe starts off his marriage by treating Janie the way that she has always dreamed, but pretty soon he begins to make her into a mayor’s wife instead of a husband’s wife.

He doesn’t think that Janie should act like all the other women because she is in a position much higher than them. He won’t let her play checkers with anyone because he believes a mayor’s wife needs to be more proper.

Janie’s views after marriageAfter the death of her husband, Joe, she

doesn’t feel very much grief because of the quality of her last few years with him.

She feels that her dreams of marriage will never come true and that fantasies are always destroyed by reality.

She stays away from the thought of marriage again because her heart has been hurt and broken by her first two marriages.

Joe’s views after marriageUnfortunately the marriage ends

with Joe’s death. However, he holds on to his views

even on his death bed. He blames Jodie for not being the kind of wife that she should have been.

He always built himself up to be the person that did all the good and care, when in fact, it was his fault for many of the marital problems.

Aftermath of Janie and Joe’s Marriage• After the passing of Joe Starks, Janie finds herself

being approached by many different men in the hopes that they can marry the rich girl with the beautiful hair.

• Janie no longer desires to have a marriage anymore however so she turns each and every one of them away.

• However, about 6 months after the death of Joe she finds herself being won over by a man named Tea cake. She does not want to be hurt again but somehow trusts that this marriage will be different. And in fact, as the story goes on we see that this marriage will in fact be different for the better.

Better or Worse?• Marriage to Joe changed Janie’s views on

marriage. She no longer thought it was supposed to be about a lifetime of vacation.

• It momentarily changed her view of marriage for the worse because she believed that it was a miserable experience. However, once Tea Cake comes along, she changes her view for the better on how it is.

Better or Worse• Marriage to Janie in itself was not a bad thing. Joe

always was a man that would do anything to be in charge.

• His stubbornness was increased while being married to Janie because she would stand up to him at times. Due to this stubbornness he would not let a doctor examine him when he got sick, which eventually led to his death. I think that his encounter with Janie turned out for the worse.