No. I attended New York University at night on the G.I. Bill and earned a B.A. in English. Then I taught French-language courses there, which is where I met Anne. I earned a master’s and agented on the side for six years.
Do you feel like your life previously influenced where you are today?
I remember the first time I had to wear the Jewish star. That I remember very vividly. We lived in this bourgeois quartier, and if we saw a black person, he was probably a very elegantly dressed ambassador. I remember the first time I walked to the lycée with this thing on. I was very nervous. There was a black man on the other side of the street, and he crossed over to me, and he shook my hand. I was thirteen or fourteen. I’ll never forget that gesture.
Did you feel like Jewish people and black people in Europe had some sort of connection and an understanding for what they have had to go through?
Because everything I liked as a child had disappeared—my stamp collection, my books. I mean, in those days, when you gave a book to a child, it was not an insult.
Do you still dislike owning things?
Janie tried that, but short of telling Mrs. Turner bluntly, there was nothing she could do to discourage her completely. She felt honored by Janie’s acquaintance and she quickly forgave and forgot snubs in order to keep it.
LEO KENNEDY ARTIST STATEMENT
My remix is a poem based on my thoughts and feelings about the main character (Janie) in the book “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The reason that I decided to write a poem instead of making a presentation or a painting or some other kind of creation is because I felt poetry was the clearest way for me to show how I felt about the book and Janie and also to convey a sense of who Janie is.
Specifically, I thought about Janie’s sense of independence and how she always seems better off on her own than she is with anyone else. Janie wants to find love and have a husband but in the world and time she lives in, she can’t be herself in a relationship. She lets other people talk her down and take control of her decisions. She is always sad when she can’t do what she wants, but she can't do what she wants because of her husbands. At the beginning of the book, Nanny catches Janie kissing a boy. Before Nanny starts talking to Janie, the narrator says “That was the end of her childhood” (Neale Hurston, Page 12). In my poem, I convey this scene by writing about Janie leaving behind her childhood and suddenly becoming an adult. (“She is grown up/Against her will.”) After Nanny catches the two, she starts talking to Janie about marriage, and says she wants to set Janie up with a man. Janie tries to deny that she is becoming a woman, because she realizes that she doesn't want to be married to anyone. In my creation, I try to show how Janie throughout the book keeps trying to not be dictated by her mother and Nanny and so many of the rest of the people in her life.. Janie has many experiences with love in her life and it seems to me that she always lets her lover dictate her actions. She has three husbands throughout the book and she is heavily influenced by all of them. She is rarely totally herself around her husbands but the novel helps us understand that this is not always completely Janie’s fault; at the time it was standard for women to act formal or “womanlike” around their husbands and to be submissive. At one point, she tells Nanny, “But Nanny, Ah wants to want him sometimes. Ah don’t want him to do all de wantin’” (Neale Hurston, Page 23). She tells Nanny this because she can't tell Logan Killicks (her first husband) herself. This trouble in being able to express herself starts to unveil a pattern of problems within her current marriage that will continue into her future marriages. This is one of the points of my poem/creation: In marriage, Janie always becomes less true to herself, but as you read the novel and get to know her, you begin to understand that she needs to stay true to herself in order to be happy. Janie also feels as if she is still alone even though she is married. At one point she talks to Jody about being married to Logan. Janie says, “ ‘It’s all right Ah reckon, but don’t yuh think it keeps us in uh kinda strain?’ ” (Neale Hurston, Page 46). Jody dismisses the comment and a feeling of coldness and loneliness overtakes Janie. This shows further how alone and sad Janie feels with her marital obligations, and how much she wants to be set free. At one point in the book, Tea Cake (her third husband) whips Janie. He is jealous because there are many new men in town who make “passes” at her. He wants to make her understand that he is always in control of her. Hurston describes it this way: “Before the week was over he had whipped Janie… Being able to whip her reassured him in possession.” (Neale Hurston, 147). What amazed me in reading that part of Janie’s story is how she is able to keep her head up despite this abuse. Before this happened, he and Janie have had a pretty good relationship and while you can see how his violence may have hurt her, she managed to remain emotionally strong even after this act of betrayal. In other words, while she didn't necessarily stand up to him, she refused to let it affect their relationship, which continues almost to the end of the book. Again, Janie’s sense of herself seems to define her character. I convey this in my poem by saying “After all of the hurting and all of the beating, she stays independent.” At the end of the book, it seems that Janie finally reaches a point of peace in her life, after all of the countless struggles that she has gone through. Somehow, after her husband dies, she finds a place of relaxation and happiness. In a way, she accepts the fact that life can be extremely horrible and hurt you greatly. I convey this at the end of my poem in a passage that says: “Janie Lived a hard life/But keeps going/Because that's life.” By the end of the book my feeling was that Janie didn't stay fully true to herself. If she had had her way, she wouldn't have married Logan Killicks and she wouldn't have let him and all her husbands abuse her. She would’ve stood up for herself. She would have done what she had wanted to do. Even though, throughout her marriages, Janie couldn't be exactly who she wanted to be, she still tried to be as much herself as she could. In my poem I try to communicate my feelings about Janie independence. To represent her three marriages, I repeat her name every three sentences. I compare her to a lone tree in a field, which I feel represents her well; a cover of the book also shows a lone tree in a field. I try to connect the poem to my feelings about the book and about Janie in as many ways possible, using incidents from all parts of the story. I try to show Janie’s development in my poem, for example by referring to how Nanny tells her to get married, and Janie’s realization that life can be awful and you may have to live with it. I feel as if this book is mostly about the idea of independence. It is about the life of a young black woman growing up in the early 20th century, who has to find a way through all of the discrimination and the rules that keep women down to try to find happiness. Somehow, through all of her struggles, she stays true to herself. Overall, it is very inspiring to read about how a person, even a made-up person, could push through all of that sexism and segregation. Janie stood out to me because I honestly didn't expect her to be able to stand strong in this way. I thought she might end up crumbling or failing or end up dying or killing herself. But she did the opposite. She was incredibly brave.
He gave his powerless laugh again and Tea Cake and the boy joined in with him. Then Tea Cake walked on off and went home to Janie.
Janie. She is young. A woman. A minority. Janie. She is not a child. She is grown up. Against her will. Janie Is she happy? Is she sad? When will she be content? Janie. She is independent. She is her own. Like a lone tree In a field. Janie. Is her own person. With her own experiences. She is Janie. Janie. Lives in her own time. Not her family’s time. She is her own. Janie She is isolated. She is alone, but not lonely. Like a lone tree In a field. Janie After all of the hurting. And all of the beating. She stays independent Janie Lived a hard life But keeps going Because that's life And she accepted it.
So he didn’t blurt out the insults he had intended. But he couldn’t hold in everything.
Tea Cake is showing more signs of empathy and respectfulness. Throughout the book you can see him develop as a person and you can identify the places where he is growing. He has slowly become more and more mature throughout the book. He had many reasons to insult Turner in his head but he decided to mostly take the high road.
The sounds lulled Janie to soft slumber and she woke up with Tea Cake combing her hair and scratching the dandruff from her scalp. It made her more comfortable and drowsy.
Janie and Tea Cake seem to have an extremely strong connection. Janie seems to feel extremely comfortable around him. He also seems to know what makes her comfortable and how to please her. He plays her piano, combs her hair, and makes her feel good when he's around her. They seem to have fallen deeply in love with each other.