"free" groups in America.
Hurston demonstrates through her portrayal of Mrs. Turner and her views on race and Janie's reaction to her that she is aware of the intricate nature of racism in America. However, she creates a character, Janie, who lives her whole life in a black community created out of and fostered by that racism but that seems to maintain a certain level of cultural and emotional autonomy. Janie marries her first husband based on the values laid out by that community as represented by her grandmother, yet her self-awareness forces her to abandon that relationship. She adopts her second husband without benefit of legal sanction for reasons of self, only to abandon him mentally when she realizes he is more tied to selfishness than self-awareness. Finally, she remains with Tea Cake because he is the only man who is truly desirous of living as himself, and of letting her live as herself, rather than as an example of the people they are supposed to be.
In Chapter Two of the novel, Janie has what appears to be an orgasmic experience as she lies under the pear tree: "So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid." She connects the feeling with the relationship between the sexes and the search for that connection with a man will drive her from there on. Hurston addresses the question of race by placing Janie in a black community that necessarily operates within the framework of a larger society dominated by whites. The members of the community are aware of the larger community outside, but Hurston does not portray them as necessarily unable to create and define themselves because of that dominant society. But Hurston also demonstrates that issues of race can be secondary, if considered at all. From the moment of her first orgasmic experience, which she experiences alone, Janie's life is driven by the need to repeat...