Chapter 7 Summary

The years take away Janie's fight, and no matter what Jody does, she does not say anything. She thinks about running away but has nowhere to go. At thirty-five, she feels like "a rut in the road" with "plenty of life beneath the surface but…kept beaten down by the wheels." She sees the changes of age come over Jody, whose energy has left him. His eyes are now absent; his once-prosperous belly sags. Desperate to ignore his own aging, Jody focuses on hers, as if by insulting her and calling her an old woman, he will not look so bad next to her. Janie ignores it until one day in the store, when he crosses the line. Upbraiding her for not cutting a plug of tobacco on the mark, he tells her in front of all the others not to stand there...