Chapter Five

Pg. 43 Thank yuh fuh yo' compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin' 'bout no speech- makin'. She's uh women and her place is in de home."
When Joe made that statement about Janie she realized that he was in charge. Joe would not let her make a speech because he felt that was not her place to be doing. Janie did not make a big deal out of it because she had never made a speech anyway, so she really would not ave known what to say. Janie never decided if she wanted to be a women in the house or not, but it did not matter because he was in charge.

Pg. 47 No sooner was he set as the Mayor- post master- landlord- storekeeper, than he bought a desk like Mr. Hill or Mr. Galloway over in Maitland with one of those swing chairs to it. with him biting down on a cigars and saving his breath in talk and swinging round in that chair, it weakened people."
Because Joe had ran everything in town, townspeople felt intimidated by him. The townspeople treated him as if he was a king. Townspeople treated Janie with high respect also because of her being Joe's wife. Joe had done everything in his town that white people would have done in theirs.