mahjae05’s Blog

In both chapter 4 and 5, the chapter begins with how both of the men had stopped speaking in rhymes to Janie:

“Before the year was up, Janie noticed that her husband had stopped talking in rhymes to her.” pg 26                                                                                                                                         “On the train the next day, Joe didn’t make many speeches with rhymes to her…”                     pg 34

This process of “sweet talking” Janie shows very much about the American character.  Logan Killicks had been begging Nanny to marry Janie, but once he finally got the chance to, he realized that there wasn’t much else to do with her.  Joe Starks, on the other hand, quickly picked up Janie with his big ego and nice words and then quickly set her on his mantle as a prize for all to see.  The American character is constantly striving to gain power.  They set out goals, and when they achieve them, they move onto new goals.  In Logan’s case, once he obtained Janie, he had reached the highest spot he had ever expected.  With the prize in hand, Logan did not know what to do with his life and thus started to treat Janie as if she was nothing.  Starks, on the other hand, saw Jaine as just a minor goal along his way to all-powerful.  Starks’ ambition is similar to many people trying to live out the American Dream.  He feels like he can conquer anything, and will not let anything hinder his rise to the top.  In the end though, Starks became consumed with his power and his pursuit for the top was cut short just like many other American characters.

I cannot understand why people would be offended by this book at all; even though the characters speak in an uneducated manner, the things that they say is far from uneducated.  In chapter 2, Nanny makes some very intelligent and valid points:

“Ah don’t want yo’ feathers always crumpled by folks throwin’ up things in yo’ face.  And Ah can’t die easy thinkin’ maybe de menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit cup outa you”  pg 20

Nanny has been trying her entire life to keep Janie in line for a successful life.  Since Nanny and her daughter had grown up with many hardships, both of them being raped, Nanny does not want Janie to end up in a similar situation.  When Janie kissed Johnny Taylor, Nanny sees Janie subduing herself to a male and gets worried.  Though it is not as extreme as getting raped by a male, the submission to any man is not what Nanny wants for Janie.  Pertaining to the cult of true womanhood, which we heard about the first day, this action by Nanny seems very interesting.  It seems like under Nanny’s ideology, Janie is going to become a very difficult women to deal with.  We already know she left Tea Cakes for some reason and that Nanny is marrying her to Logan Killicks, we can already see that something is obvoiusly not going right between Janie and her men.

“We slowed down. Taking a white card from his wallet, he waved it before the man’s eyes. ‘Right you are,’ agreed the policeman, tipping his cap. ‘Know you next time, Mr. Gatsby. Excuse me!’” pg 68

The white “get out of jail free” card that Gatsby shows the police officer seemed very interesting to me in a few senses. First, and most obvious, is that the card is white, a very prominent color throughout the story.  This white shows Gatsby’s power in this very powerful society.  What got him all this power though?  The reader knows very little about Gatsby’s past and his rise to West Egg power.  As people said at his party, he could possibly be a bootlegger, and our encounter with the ominous Meyer Wolfsheim seems to back that idea up pretty well.  This seems ironic by the end of the chapter though when the reader learns about his love and plan to “recapture” Daisy.  Gatsby believes that the thing of purity and beauty will somehow become attracted to a life created by insincere practices. The song at the end of the chapter seemed quite like foreshadowing but regardless, it seems quite hard for Gatsby to come out of this situation unscathed.