The Price of Power

Throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God there is a constant struggle to climb the social ladder, but everyone has a different idea about what it means to get to the top. Janie experiences what it is like to be at the top, and comes to the conclusion that it is not what she wants out of life. As she talks to Phoeby about the experience, she says:

          She was borned to slavery time when folks, dat is black folks, didn't sit down anytime dey felt             lak it. So sittin' on porches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her. Dat's             what she wanted for me-don't keer whut it cost.

She knew that a great cost came with sitting on a high chair. It meant that she would have to sacrifice living life to be a part of that porch.

Joe Starks places Janie in the chair that he considers to be above the working class people: "He was very solemn and helped her to the seat beside him. With him on it, it sat like some high ruling chair" (32). The problem with this place is that it is his vision and not her own. He wants to have a "big voice" at the cost of her relinquishing all rights to her own voice.

Jody establishes the plans for the town while standing on the porch of the store. This platform is used to demonstrate his power over the people. The town may use the porch as a place to conduct their mule talk and gossip, but they only say certain things when Joe is not present. When they are talking around him, he still has the power to lead the conversation in the direction he wants it to go. His position forms a wedge between him and the townspeople.

Janie knows that even though this is her husband's dream, he still pays for this position in life: "Dis sittin' in de rulin' chair is been hard on Jody,"she muttered out loud." "She was full of pity for the first time in years. Jody had been hard on her and others, but life had mishandled him too" (87). Jody has a phenomenal dream, but he never anticipates the consequences of such a high position. Janie knows that that her husband is left with the same dilemma as her grandmother, she says: "She didn't have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on de stool uh do nothin'" (114). Joe has nothing left once he accomplishes his goal, not even his wife, so dying alone became his price for power.