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"Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see" (Hurston 184).
Sadly, Janie is forced to shoot Tea Cake when he attacks her. She is found  not guilty and seeks to move on with her life. As the novel closes, she sits on the shoreline and watches the sunset. She marvels in the simple pleasure of fishing in the water and admiring the beauty of the sky. Now that she has found love and lost it, she finally is able to live freely and for herself which plays into the first theme. Because her free will is returned to her, she also sees a return of her childlike innocence. This scene parallels scenes early in the novel where Janie basks in the glory of the world around her, and serves as a masterful bridge between the start and end of her long journey to self-actualization.

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"Tea Cake began to cry and Janie hovered him in her arms like a child. She sat on the side of the bed and sort of rocked him back to peace" (Hurston 174).
In the midst of a hurricane, Janie nearly drowns only to be saved by Tea Cake. In order to reach her, though, Tea Cake is bitten by a dog and falls ill with rabies. As he is slowly dying, he tries to remain stoic as a man should, but in this moment he disregards that standard, expressing his devastation and displaying vulnerability with his wife. Because he finally does this, his marriage is strengthened and he feels free from the shame of being afraid to die. He no longer is concerned with maintaining a front of bravery and gives in to his emotions.

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1. A loss of innocence results from the repression of free will.
2. Rejecting gender roles as well as toxic masculinity is necessary for individual growth and liberation.
3. Language mirrors social structures that are present in society.

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"Before the week was over he had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him. Being able to whip her reassured him in possession. No brutal beating at all. He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss" (Hurston 140).
Despite his kindness and benevolence up until this point, Tea Cake still falls into a cycle of toxic masculinity. When another man came over so Janie could introduce him, Tea Cake beats his wife. What's perhaps more terrifying is that Janie justifies his behavior as being normal for a man who needs to show "he was boss." She claims that it wasn't brutal rather a means of relieving some irrational fear. Despite it's outward appearance, this ties to the second theme. Instead of rejecting his behavior and gender norms, Janie regresses emotionally and spiritually when she accepts his behavior. Rather than holding him accountable and developing her strength further, she takes steps backward in her fight for autonomy. Also, this contributes to the idea that a loss of childlike faith results from a lack of individual freedom. Because Janie is not free to even be near a man besides her husband, she loses the belief that love is good and should not harm either person.

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"They fought on. 'You done hurt mah heart, now you come wid uh lie tuh bruise mah ears! Turn go mah hands!' Janie seethed. But Tea Cake never let go" (Hurston 123).
This scene marks one of great importance for Janie. It demonstrates just how confident she has become in her voice and that she has found a kind, soft-spoken man. Tea Cake's genial nature compliments Janie's fiery one, and this love has allowed her to feel powerful. Despite her anger at tea cake in the moment, he is quiet and lets her be angry. He is not forceful and domineering like the other men in her life. This demonstrates the shift of power for Janie as she is now married to a man that does not try to stifle her emotions or thoughts.

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"He wouldn’t let her get him any breakfast at all. He wanted her to get her rest. He made her stay where she was. In her heart she wanted to get his breakfast for him. But she stayed in bed long after he was gone" (Hurston 107).
Janie finally meets a wonderful, kind, and just man, Tea Cake. He believes that women are just as intelligent and worthy as men are and constantly reassures Janie that she is loved. Unlike her pervious husbands, he does not want her to serve him or be silenced so that he can feel powerful. In fact, as shown by this quote, he wants her to feel special and relax. Not only does Tea Cake defy gender roles here, but so does Janie. She subdues the voice in her head that tells her to be a "proper woman" and revels in the joy of the night they shared.

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"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 ud de world so fur as Ah can see" (Hurston 14).
This quote displays the dialect of Janie's caretaker, her Nanny, but also conveys an essential idea behind the novel. It's not necessarily seeking to call out racist social hierarchies because even black men have power over her. Rather,  Nanny is affirming the universal idea that women, especially black women, are perpetually treated as inferior. They are forced to shoulder the burdens of society because of men, regardless of their color. The image of the mule further enforces Nanny's belief, symbolizing the subtle dehumanization of black women. Rather than being seen as people, they are treated with the dignity of an animal and forced into a sort of latent slavery. Furthermore, her dialect displays her lower position as a black woman in society. Unlike educated white men or even more privileged black men, she has a broken, Southern dialect because she has been subjugated to domestic roles.

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"Janie had never thought of making a speech, and didn’t know if she cared to make one at all. It must have been the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything one way or another that took the bloom off of things" (Hurston 41).
This excerpt encompasses two important themes in the novel. Primarily, this displays a crucial moment in Janie's realization of her own identity. When her new husband Joe Starks refuses to let her speak as the Mayor's wife, she feels stymied. Because of society, she had never thought to speak for herself, but she is hurt by Joe's refusal to let her even try. He claims that he did not marry her for those reasons, only to have a homemaker which upsets Janie. Similarly, language demonstrates the authority Joe, and all men for that matter, have over women. Without considering how she might unconsciously think or feel, Joe steps in front of her and silences her, asserting his dominance as a male in society. She cannot communicate with those around her which only further drives a wedge between her and her husband.

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"That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others." (Hurston 62)
Joe is a deeply insecure and jealous. He becomes enraged when others,  men and women alike, glance at his wife to admire her beauty or even just converse with her harmlessly. This passage even describes his desire to amputate the hands of every man that desires his wife. As a result, he forces Janie to cover her hair as a symbol of his power over her. He makes it known to his wife and every onlooker that she is his property, and that anyone who seeks to engage with her will be punished. His ingrained need to control "his woman" illustrates the damaging effects of hyper-masculinity within marriage as well as society.

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"Why must Joe be so mad at her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time" (Hurston 81).
This shows a somewhat significant contrast in her attitude towards her husband that she had in Chapter 5. When Joe showed the first signs of his controlling nature, she was upset but felt silenced and powerless. Now, she is less afraid to speak out against her husband when he is mistreating her. In her mind, she is defiant, questioning why he is so insecure. She has turned the tables on him, making him feel as awful as he makes her feel. She is realizing her independence and worth despite the abuse of her husband which demonstrates her growth as a result of subverting gender roles.

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"Janie's first dreams was dead, so she became a woman" (Hurston 36).
Here, Janie realizes that people do not marry one another for real love. They marry one another for social security and the need to be taken care of financially. As a child, Janie always had grand ideas of what love and marriage looked like, and she wants to find authenticity in her marriage, but this truth damages that drive in her. To be a woman, therefore, is to be broken by the reality of your life. One stays a girl until she has lost some sort of faith in her world. This is a key moment because it repeats herself in each of Janie's future relationships. Because she is forced to marry out of obligation, she is unable to find genuine intimacy and therefore experiences a loss of innocence.