You're Only a Woman

You’re only a wife, you’re only a woman, and you’re not worth more than animal. On Janie’s path of discovery she comes to the realization that she is a woman living in a man’s world. After the exchanges of “I do” Janie had once again lost her voice, she was pushed behind her husband and stood in his shadow. The prominent theme that reoccurs countless times is the novel is the loss of independence and the belittlement of women.

Janie had once viewed being a “wife” as a chance to share love between two separate hearts however she soon realized that it’s only an unfortunate predisposition. She had once wanted to find love, but not now after her words were shunned. Jody, the husband that didn’t get away, proved to be just as shallow as the rest. He refers to Janie as a piece of property, a prize he had hunted down, a reward for something that he had accomplished. The men displayed in this novel display the characteristics of a selfish, self-centered, arrogant being, referred to as husband. In one instance Janie had stormed off after being treated like an animal from her husband, Jody’s friends sitting around the table saw it as a joke, while others became furious. Walter Thomas a friend of Jody’s commented on Janie’s behavior noting that if this was his wife I’d “kill her cemetery dead” (Hurston 74). The men depicted in this novel view woman as a lesser people that of themselves, a bearer of children and a slave for the husband: “whut you waitin’ on” (Hurston 70). The husbands were the masters leading the way, setting an example while the women in the background held the map up. Jody as well as the rest of the men saw women as objects created to simplify and better the lives of men.

https://youtu.be/0C_oNMH0GTk

This song relates to Janie in the aspects that her husband as well as the other men don’t really know her or who she is, they hold her back and stop her from truly being herself due to the fact that she's a woman.