Janie's Free?

In this passage Jody has just died and Janie looks at herself in the mirror and she realizes that she is not as sad as she should be but she decides to tie her hair backup and let the world think she was sad. “Set thought back and forth about what had happened in the making of a voice out of a man”(87). This sentence from the text shows that the tone of this passage is confused. It is confused because Janie doesn’t know if she should be sad or happy, but then she decides that she should act sad in front of the public. In this passage Janie’s hair is imagery for power. When her hair is up it shows how she is controlled or sad and when it is down she is free or happy. “She tore of the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there. She took careful stock of herself, then combed her hair and tied it back up again.”(87) This proves that she feels more free but if the public found out that she was happy she would be hated.