From chapter 1, I see Janie as a beautiful confident women that does not care what other people think. She follows what she believes in, even if it doesn't fit the social norm. "The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grape fruits in her hip pockets; the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling int he wind like a plume" (2)This personality causes other women to be jealous of her. "Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up from other times" (2). Judging by the way Phoebe stands up for her, I perceive Janie as misunderstood and not what the other women say about her. "The worst thing Ah ever knowed her to do was taking a few ages offa her age and dat ain't never harmed nobody" (3). From the first chapter, it is evident Janie has gone through many experiences that has changed her outlook on life. When Janie begins to tell Phoebe her story she is "full of that oldest human long-self revelation" (7).
I perceive the narrator as an older person looking back on his mistakes and making sense of life with a somewhat pessimistic tone as if he realizes there is much more pain in life than happiness. "His dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men" (1). He also makes a point to differentiate men from women. "Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget" (1). This is made most likely due to Hurston's background, writing this story during the Harlan Renaissance. The narrator describes Janie's life, from an observer's view, often using metaphors and personification to describe the setting. For example instead of just saying 'the women began gossiping' she describes it as "They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgement" (1).
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