Their Eyes Were Watching God

What does Janie come to realize about Joe?

Chapter 6

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Janie realizes that Joe is abusive and not the man she hoped for.After the most shocking moment in the chapter, Hurston uses understatement to underline Joe's violence. When her husband beats Janie after she cooks a bad meal, she expresses no anger, hatred, or disgust. "Janie stood where he left her for [some] time and thought. She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her..." The fact that she feels so little rage makes the reader feel for Janie even more. The passage where Joe slaps Janie ends on an optimistic note: "She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen." This foreshadows the fact that Janie will meet another, better man.

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