Jude+Greene


 * Jude Greene** is denied work at the Tunnel. He moves to Bottom. He marries Nel.
 * Yearns for hard, physical labor to produce tangible results but is unable to his racial disposition.
 * Marries Nel because he feels emasculated from being denied work in the Tunnel.
 * His real work makes him feel like a woman, so marrying Nel gives reasurance of his adulthood.

//"Jude himself longed more than anybody else to be tkane. Not just for the good money, more for the work itself. He wanted to swing the pick or kneel down with the string or shovel the gravel. His arms ached for something heavier than trays, for something dirtier than peelings; his feet wanted the heavy work shoes, not the thin-soled black shoes that the hotel required. More than anything h eawnte dhe camaradeire of the road men: the lunch buckets, the// //hollering, the body movement that in the end produced something real, something he could point to. (81-82)"//

//"Without that someone, he was a waiter hanging around a kitchen like a woman. With her he was head of a household pinned to an unsatisfactory job out of necessity. The two of them together would make one Jude. (83)"

"So it was rage, rage and a determination to tkae on a amns' role anyhow that made his appetites filled, some posture of adutlhood recognized, but mostly he wanted someone to care about his hurt, to care very deeply. (82)"//



Part II

Jude is Nel's husband in Part II and works as a waiter in Medallion, representing his and black subservient nature. He not only represents black men, but men in general, as he sleeps with Sula Peace in Part II on her return. This adultery signifies the comfort that all men find in Sula and the Peace women in general, also representing their drive for these specific sexual comforts.

- Works in Medallion, under Bottom physically, and under whites socially. - Represents men as dependant figures who seek comforts regardless of consequences. - Finds comfort specifically in Sula as she appears to differ from Nel and other black women. - Feels emasculated due to his societal position.

-"You puttin it on, Nel. Jude must be wore out." (97) -"He was still a very good-looking man, and the only difference Sula could see was the thin pencil mustache udner hsi nose, and a part in his hair." (102) -"White man running it--nothing good." (102) -"He ended it with the observation that a Negro man had a hard row to hoe in this world. He expected his story to dovetail into milkwarm commiseration, but before Nel could excrete it, Sula said she didnt know about it..." (103) -"A funny woman, he thought...but he could see why she wasn't married; she stirred a man's mind maybe, but not his body." (104)