Chapter 4

Quote 1

You behind a plow! You ain’t got ... no mo’ business wid uh plow than uh hog is got wid uh holiday! You ain’t got no business cuttin’ up no seed p’taters neither. A pretty doll-baby lak you is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan yo’self and eatp’taters dat other folks plant just special for you."

Joe has a different conception of a woman’s proper role than Logan. What Janie does not realize is that Joe doesn’t think that pampering a woman is necessary because she’s a valuable human being, but because she’s a valuable object. This is not so different from Logan after all, who also considers Janie an object. For Joe, women are objects to look at, for Logan they’re objects to be utilized.

Quote 2

"S’posin’ Ah wuz to run off and leave yuh ... sometime."
The thought put a terrible ache in Logan’s body, but he thought it best to put on scorn
"Ah’m sleepy. Ah don’t aim to worry mah gut into a fiddlestring wid no s’posin’." He flopped over resentful in his agony and pretended sleep. He hoped thathe had hurt her as she had hurt him.

Even though Logan has trouble showing it in any way that Janie can understand, he does indeed love Janie and deeply fears losing her. That she would voice his deepest fear to him so casually hurts Logan so much that he wants to hurt her back out of spite. This harkens back to the idea of love as painful.