The Role Of Melinda In The Janitor's Closet

Mrs.Hilly Holbrook who is the president of the Junior league, is pushing for a bill that she calls the Home Help Sanitation Initiative. This bill is states that any member of the Help must have a separate restroom provided by their employer that is outside of the main house. The reasoning behind this is to prevent any diseases that are carried by the Help to transfer to their employer or their children and to stop any racial issues. The main problem with this is that Mrs.Holbrook has asked Ms.Phelan to publish it into the Jackson Journal, she has instead asked people to but their toilets into Mrs.Holbrook’s lawn,making her infuriated.

On page 37 she uses her closet to avoid getting after-school help from teachers “I agreed to stay after school”. I hang out in my refurbished closet”. She values this space and it is sacred to her because she feels constantly bothered and judged by her peers. The closet is the one space where no one will find her. She is so comfortable in her closet, that she even fell asleep on page 87.

It does not let her feels and looks so stupid. After Heather joins in the Marthas, she blows Melinda off and Melinda is outcast again. The students hit Melinda in the hall; the girls' bully her at the pep rally all shows Melinda is an outcast, she is unwelcome. Melinda is a coward. "The kids behind me laugh so loud I know they're laughing at me. I can't help myself '' (Anderson 4). Melinda is a timid person. She scareds to tell the truth of that night, thus her friends cannot understand her difficulties. About the event happen at the party, she chooses to escape her past and become silent. Melinda does not talk a lot, either at school or at home to her parents. She acts like she does not care and hid from everyone. When someone bullies her, she just ignores them and suppresses her true feelings. Melinda is also a negative person. '' It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie'' (Anderson 9). From this quotation, it is evident to see Melinda is negative. Her thinking is negative and

 It is Janie’s relationship with Nanny that first suppresses her self-growth.  Janie has an immense level of respect towards Nanny, who has raised Janie since her mother ran off.  The respect Janie has for her grandmother is deeper than the respect demanded by tradition, from a child toward his caretaker, probably because

Janie achieves her dreams to a certain extent, though never to the fullest, as her fulfillment is finite. Janie’s dream of achieving her goals in life relates to the notion that women in the early twentieth century were belittled and disregarded as people that are capable of achieving feats. Following, porches through Janie’s early adulthood symbolized restriction and belittlement, as she was prohibited from conversing on the porches, due to her husband Joe Starks. When trying to talk with other townspeople, Joe became opposed to the idea, believing she was too big for them. Janie,”...

All through the novel Janie travels through valuable life experiences allowing her to grow as a woman. Janie at first has a difficult time understanding her needs rather than wants, but as she continues to experience new situations she realizes she values respect. Janie’s first two marriages turned out to be tragic mistakes, but with each marriage Janie gained something valuable. When Janie is disrespected in her second marriage with Joe Starks, he publicly humiliates her, disrespecting her as a wife and woman. This experience forced Janie to come out of her comfort zone and stand up for herself.

Janie is a black woman who asserts herself beyond expectation.  She has a persistence that characterizes her search for the love that she dreamed of since she was a girl.  Janie understands the societal status that her life has handed her, yet she is determined to overcome this, and she is resentful toward anyone or anything that interferes with her quest for happiness. "So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see, "(Page 14)  laments Janie's grandmother as she tried to justify the marriage that she has arranged for her granddaughter with Logan Killicks. This paragraph establishes the existence of the inferior status of women in Janie's society, a status which Janie must somehow overcome in order to emerge a heroine in the end of the novel.

Janie learns a very important lesson from her grandmother. Not a lesson to emulate, but one to avoid. She does not want to be a cracked plate, she is tall and blossoming and can see what she wants in her life.

When Janie walks back into town after nearly two years her neighbors begin to grow curious as to why she is dressed like some lower social classmen and not in her

Have you ever noticed how some people just stand out from the crowd? Like the clouds in the sky and blades of grass, people are all different. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker has a good example of an interesting, unique character. Maggie is a young girl who is not only physically but also mentally scarred. The way the burning house, her stuck-up sister, and society affects Maggie makes her different from everyone else.

Lastly, Janie’s confidence to refute cultural norms also proves Their Eyes Were Watching God empowers women. After silencing herself through two marriages, Janie exhibits her freedom through speaking up for her beliefs. Secondly, after listening to Nanny, Janie realizes she can achieve any dream she was with perseverance. Lastly, Janie’s confidence allows her to break free from the traditional role of a woman and live a better

Janie is not afraid to defy the expectations that her grandmother has for her life, because she realizes that her grandmother's antiquated views of women as weaklings in need of male protection even at the expense of a loving relationship, constitute limitations to her personal potential. "She hated her grandmother . . . .Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon " (Their Eyes 85-86).

However, during these such obstacles she also finds herself and creates a voice of her own. Growing up Janie had a different lifestyle than most african Americans, she grew up believing that she was indeed white. Although she was raised by her grandmother, which she knew as nanny she lived with a family of whites and was treated as one of them.Janie was given a hard time at school because of this her nanny decided it was time to move out. The turning point in Janie 's life occurred when Nanny caught her kissing a boy; Nanny was disappointed because she wanted Janie to be better than what her mother and herself had become. Nanny knowing that she was going to die soon set up an arranged marriage with an older man who was interested in Janie. Janie only being 14 and in desperate search for love hated the thought of her soon to be husband, but she thought that when two people got married they automatically fell in love with each other. She soon discovers that is not what happens. Janie runs away to discover herself, in spite of her self awareness she also finds herself running off with a younger man abandoning her safe home and husband for something in which she does not know how it will play out.

To the girl’s left is a partially opened, large, wooden door, and a messy green filing cabinet is placed on floor near the front of the picture. The door has capital letters on it spelling out the word “Principal” and two people can be seen gazing out. The couple in the room are most likely to be the school’s principal and the young culprit’s mother. The man is wearing glasses and is seated behind the desk dressed in a grey suit with a tie. He is staring directly through the open door, and his feet, barely seen under the desk, are planted squarely on the tiled, green floor. His emotion is visible in his stern facial expression, the way his hands are placed upon one another on the desk and in the way he stiffly holds his posture. The red-haired woman in a bluish-green blouse is leaning forward on the desk of the principal as if unhappy about the news that she has learned. Her head is turned toward the opening of the door, and the look on her face clearly shows that she is displeased at the girl’s doings. Her lips are pursed shut, and she is glaring sideways out from under her intense brow. Disapproval is obvious in Rockwell’s depiction of the principal and the

Moreover, Mary evolves that story and explains to her grandmother, Mrs. Tilford, that she saw the two women kissing through the keyhole in the door. Mary knew the power that her grandmother had over the school. Mrs. Tilford is one of the main financial contributors to the school. She is also a wealthy, influential older woman who is well respected throughout the town. But, because of her adolescence, Mary did not know the underlying effects of telling the lie to such a powerful person within the community. Mary does not realize that her actions have given Mrs. Tilford the power to ruin the school, the women’s reputations, and most importantly their lives. Although Karen and Martha never committed the act they were accused of, the lie spreads all over the town and ultimately results in the closing of the school and ruining their lives.