“The court set and Janie saw the judge who had put on a great robe to listen about her and Tea Cake. And twelve more white men had stopped whatever they were doing to listen and pass on what happened between Janie and Tea Cake Woods, and as to whether things were done right or not. That was funny too. Twelve strange men who didn’t know a thing about people like Tea Cake and her were going to sit on the thing.” (p. 185)

Janie’s trial begins on the same day that Teacake dies. The judge and the jury – all white men – come to listen so that they may judge the rightness of Janie’s actions. She speaks “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” And, even though her words will decide her fate, it is “not death she fears,” but “misunderstanding.

Interestingly, in this moment, when what Janie says is of the utmost importance, we don’t hear the words she speaks. In fact, we don’t hear a single of her words for the rest of the novel. Why is this? Hurston has given us Janie’s words through all of the novel up until this point, why doesn’t she give them anymore?

Think about the power of silence. Think about how silence can foster understanding when juxtaposed with speech. Can you use sound and silence – whether it is physical, audio, or visual – to tell the “whole truth and nothing but the truth” about Janie’s experience? About your own experience?