describe the mood at beginning of chapter one. how do the people's reactions to the woman contribution to the mood?

Janie has been gone from Eatonville for a very long time, and it is dusk when she returns. As she walks through the center of town to her old home, all the people of the village stare at her and judge her. The townspeople are cruel and envious. They wonder why she is returning in improper overalls instead of a proper dress and where her husband is.

The women are envious of her; they hope she might fall to their level some day. The mood gives us everything we expect from a small town. There is a sense of envy, otherness and jealousy from the women as they watch Janie. There is also a mood of intrigue charged with a sort of sexuality not common in the town. Janie is an anomaly, almost an enigma.