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In the beginning of chapter 4, we see that Janie and Logan's relationship starts deteriorating as Logan tries to make her do field work. Logan says he's going to buy a second mule for Janie to do work with and Janie doesn't like that. One day Janie sees a good looking, sharply dressed stranger, Joe Starks. With Janie's search for love going bad with Logan, she feels a spark of hope for love again when she sees Joe. Soon Janie and Joe start having secret meetings and Janie gives him a nickname, Jody. A theme that is very evident here is her search for love. I think that is one of the main and most important themes in the story. Soon after Janie and Jody have secret meetings, Janie and Logan's marriage crumbles. I don't think that Janie has very good luck when it comes to men and marriage and I think her marriage to Jody isn't going to work and I think she needs to stop getting married so much because it is annoying and confusing. So after all of that, Janie and Jody move to Eatonville Florida and Jody becomes the mayor of the small black town. Soon after, Janie and Jody's relationship starts deteriorating as Jody is too busy working on the town to pay any attention to his beautiful wife, who looks like Halle Berry. So Jody is doing all these things for the town and Janie is working in a store and she doesn't like it. Jody buys the towns first streetlight and the townsfolk have a big ceremony celebrating the lighting of the streetlamp. Jody doesn't let Janie do a lot of things, like he makes her wear her hair up while she is working at the shop. While Jody is making major advances for the town, his marriage is regressing.Though Janie doesn't like working at the store, she enjoys listening to the people talk in the porch of the store, although she can not join them. I think this represents that Janie is trapped, and she knows what she wants but can't reach it.
When Jody buys the mule from Matt Bonner, it becomes a symbol in the town for freedom and people compare Jody's action to that of Abraham Lincoln and the slaves. So the mule is free, but Janie isn't. As time passes, it seems as if Janie's soul is slowly being scooped out with a plastic spoon. Janie isn't happy with her life anymore, she becomes detached and even considers running away. Janie is empty and Jody is old. Janie to notices that Jody is aging and has trouble moving. I think that Janie is going to marry another guy when Jody dies in her hopeless search for love and freedom. Jody becomes more of an asshole as he gets older, as he insults Janie constantly. One day in the store Janie makes a little mistake and Jody gets very upset and insults her and hits her. Jody's health deteriorates and he dies. Once again, Janie is free, until she gets married to another guys and feels trapped and unhappy. At the moment when Jody dies, Janie takes off her head rag thing that Jody made her wear and I think that represents freedom again. Janie then realizes that she has to look like she is mourning Jody's death, though she is not, and puts the head rag thing back on.