Janie as Social Deviant

In Benedict's definition, although the deviant is a constant in society their respective treatment differs from one culture to the next. Using the American rural South as a backdrop for the alternating spaces and social customs contained in the novel, Hurston, by focusing on the varieties of black experience within these contexts (as well as Janie's failed assimilation therein), seems to dispell any myths of essentialized racial categorization along cultural lines.

Sure, Janie is unwittingly part of various cultures within the novel-whether they be along historical, familial, or civic lines. What remains consistent in the novel, however, is Janie's continued resistance to each respective set of cultural norms. The type of culture Janie seems to favor is one that fosters choice and a tolerance of individuality rather than strict compliance to social norms.

Janie, through her willingness to alter her physical space, to recognize her unconscious self and its awakening of desire at the expense of duty (both to Nanny and Joe), and her willful resistance to cultural impositions fits her into the category of deviant as defined by Benedict.