Study Questions
1. What song does the Elks band play during Joe’s funeral?

2. Why is Janie content to keep things as they are for now?

3. What does Janie do during the evenings?

4. Why does Janie consider returning to where she came from?

5. How long has Joe been dead when Ike Green proposes to help Janie?

6. How does Janie get rid of Ike Green?

7. How long does Janie wear black?

8. How does Hezekiah become more like Joe?

9. How do the townspeople treat Janie after she starts to wear white?

10. Who is pressuring Pheoby to introduce him to Janie?

Answers
1. The band plays the song “Safe in the Arms of Jesus.”

2. Janie knows that she has the rest of her life to live as she wants, and there is no need to rush into her new life.

3. She lets Hezekiah tend the store during the evenings while she sits on the porch.

4. She thinks she might want to take care of Nanny’s grave and “look over the old stomping ground.”

5. Joe has been dead less than two months when Ike Green visits her.

6. Janie excuses herself, saying that she needs to help Hezekiah with a barrel of sugar. Once she gets inside the store, she tells Hezekiah that she is going home and that he should let her know when Ike Green is gone.

7. Janie wears black clothes for six months.

8. Hezekiah starts to smoke cigars and adopts some of Joe’s old sayings.

9. They visit Janie often but are very polite. She is treated with respect, though she is never able to talk on a personal level with anyone except Pheoby Watson.

10. An undertaker from Sanford was hoping Pheoby could introduce him to Janie.