SallyAnn Ferguson,
"Folkloric Men and Female Growth"
Homework Questions:
- What is Ferguson's thesis?
Where can it be found?
186:
- What three ideas, according to
Ferguson, distinguish the May-December
marriage "folkloric type"? How does Hurston adapt it to her story?
187:
- According to Ferguson, where do
the problems in Janie's first marriage arise?
188:
- According to Ferguson, how does Joe Starks compare with the
"Jody the Grinder" character?
189:
- According the bell hooks, how do
women who think like Nanny "uphold
patriarchal values" (189)?
191:
- According to Ferguson, what
radical solution does Hurston propose "for women who aspire to discover
and then keep their voices" (191)?
- Descibe the black folk hero
Stackolee (Stagolee, Stagger Lee).
- Explain: "Embued with a heroic
nature resistant to societal conventions, Tea Cake exhibits a freedom
of spirit so assured of its own self-worth that he consequently cannot
deny similar feeling to the woman he loves" (192-93).
193:
- According to Ferguson, how do
economics fit in to the relationship between Janie and Tea Cake?
- According to Ferguson, what have
several critics overlooked in their discussion of Tea Cake?
Other
Discussion Questions:
187:
- According to Ferguson, what
does Janie's escape from Logan foreshadow?
190:
- According to Ferguson, how does
Janie undercut Joe's "link to the
'Grinder' element of the folktale" (190)?
- According to Ferguson, what is
the significance of Joe's hitting Janie?
194:
- According to Ferguson, what does
Mrs. Turner represent in the novel?
- According to Ferguson, why does
Tea Cake strike Janie?