As tension grows between Joe and Janie (and also between Joe and the townspeople) in Ch. 6, Janie feels more and more distant from Joe and become increasingly unhappy of her second marriage. The quote below marks a definitive moment in the marriage:

“Dat’s ’cause you need tellin’,” [Joe] rejoined hotly. “It would be pitiful if Ah didn’t. Sombody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves…They just think they’s thinkin’. When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don’t understand one.” (71)

Again in this chapter, we see that the main issue of the story isn’t race (as we may have assumed at the beginning of the story), but it is gender and one’s perspective on what a woman or a man should do and be. What Janie wants in her life is so different from what society (imposed by Joe) expects of her, and this is the main reason for the tension between the two (as well as between Janie and Logan in her first marriage). I found it very interesting how in Eatonville, it is mostly the men who sit around, gossip, and don’t do anything of value. This made a great contrast to how the old women were gossiping about Janie in the very first chapter. This goes on to show that neither gender can be defined by absolute stereotypical characteristics, just as Janie’s personality isn’t entirely feminine.