Gossip plays an important part in human relationships. It reaffirms social ties and helps to define social boundaries, something that would help early humans form social groups to survive. That practice continues today, though it has a negative connotation, as by the very nature of gossip, someone has to be excluded.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, gossip is used to better give the world of the book more character, or as a way to describe in the words of the characters of the book. Gossip is used from the very beginning of the book to describe Janie's appearance, as well as inform the reader of how the townspeople view her,
"What she doin coming back here in dem overhalls? Can't she find no dress to put on?--Where all dat money her husband took and died and left her? Wat dat fourty year old woman doin wid her hair swingin lak some young gal?[...]"
We learn from just this snippet of gossip that Janie is coming back to town, she's lost money since she's not wearing overalls, and her age is forty.
Gossip also helps the book seem more vibrant, as with the case of Matt Bonner's mule. Matt Bonner's underfed mule is initially a one-off joke made by Sam Watson to get a rise out of him. The joke begins to take on a life of its own, as tall tales about the mule are made up and spread around the town. These tales get bigger and bigger once Jody buys the mule and sets it free, resulting in the town recounting the mule's high-jinx as if it were an actual person. The whole story of the mule helps to make the town feel interconnected , bonded by the meme of the mule. It also appears that memes like the mule aren't rare, as Janie says that "people sat around on the porch passing pictures of their thoughts around for the others to look at and see, [...]The fact that the thought pictures were crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen to."
The way that the characters react to the mule also helps to better show their personalities. For example, Jody laughs at the mule stories, but won't permit Janie to indulge in it. This is one of the many times we get to see Jody as selfish and hypocritical, something that eventually will come to a head later in the book.
So are you arguing that gossip helps making positive relationships between the townspeople? Because I would say that gossip never helped Janie.
ReplyDeleteThe gossip didn't help Janie because she was an outsider. Gossip connects people of the same background, and Janie always wanted to be a part of that, she just never gets the chance to.
ReplyDeleteOne instance of gossip that would be worth adding to this discussion is the "cautionary tale" of Annie Tyler, who runs away with a younger man (with the memorable name Who Flung) and is ruined by the experience. Janie is aware of her story, and Pheoby brings it up as if it needs no further elaboration. There's this sense that not only is Janie running a personal risk by going with Tea Cake, but she's also risking being the "next Annie Tyler"--the one everyone talks about as a good moral illustration of why a woman should never do what Janie is doing. We can sense this in the eagerness with which the "Mouth Almighty" on the porch talks about her when she returns--they seem to have their view of the world confirmed, by the assumption that she's been left poor and alone.
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