Their Eyes Were Watching God: Comprehension and Analysis Blog

The key event that we can see in chapter 13 is the fact that Janie is getting married again.  She was not able to be herself in her first two marriages and hopefully the third time is the charm.  By this time, it is very evident that Janie would like to be treated as an equal in her relationships.  This is why she makes such a big deal out of the fact that Tea Cake doesn’t invite her to the party he has with the $200.  She states that from now on she wants to enjoy everything that Tea Cake does.  What differs in this marriage is the fact that Tea Cake genuinely cares for Janie.  He feels terrible about what happened and manages to reimburse Janie.  He manages to earn the money back gambling despite being injured.  Tea Cake has clearly demonstrated that he will do anything it takes to keep Janie happy.  In pas marriages, Janie’s husbands would not have gone out of their way like Tea Cake does.  For this act of respect, Janie begins to build up trust in Tea Cake.  To further what he has already done, Tea Cake promises that he will provide for Janie by getting a job when they move to the everglades.  In the past, Janie was the one forced to work, however this marriage can be seen as a reward for all her hard work and determination.

As is some of my prior blogs, I’d like to touch on the idea of the American Dream.  Even though it had appeared as if Janie had achieved the American Dream twice before, it was all too good to be true.  I feel as if the reader has sufficient evidence to feel that this time will be different.  Never before has Janie been treated with such care.  Janie had always been the caring one, but for once the feeling is mutual.

Chapter 12 opens up with the town gossiping about Janie and her new man, Tea Cake. “Tea Cake and Janie gone hunting. Tea Cake and Janie gone fishing. Tea Cake and Janie to Orlando to the movies” (Hurston 105). Phoeby confronts Janie about her capers with Tea Cake, why she isn’t mourning anymore, and that she should marry the undertaker with he huge house. Janie says that she and Tea Cake are “as good as married already” (Hurston 109) and that she’s leaving Eatonville to go off to Jacksonville and marry him. Then in the next chapter, Tea Cake goes off with some of Jane’s hidden money and throws a huge party for some of the locals. He doesn’t tell Janie about it until later, though, because he “‘wuz skeered you might git all mad and quit me for takin’ you ‘mongst ‘em’” (Hurston 119). Janie tells Tea Cake that she “‘aims to partake wid everything…don’t keer what it is’” (Hurston 119).
The next few chapters include Tea Cake gambling and winning big but getting stabbed, both of them moving down to the Everglades, Janie working alongside Tea Cake in the bean fields, and Janie fighting Tea Cake over his suspicious relations with Nunkie.
What I found most interesting about this whole section of the book was how even though Janie still holds the belief that Tea Cake has set her free, the relationship still limits Janie. The earliest example of this is the fact that Tea Cake starts picking out Janie’s outfits, simply because he likes her in blue. Janie doesn’t seem to mind at all, and in fact seems to like it, but all the same it seems like evidence of the control Tea Cake has over Janie. Tea Cake still puts Janie on a bit of a pedestal, too, like when he doesn’t invite her to the huge get-together he organized. “‘Dem wuzn’t no high muckty mucks’” (Hurston 118), Tea Cake tells Janie.
Also, Janie doesn’t work alongside Tea Cake until he asks her to. “She is so in love with him that her place is wherever he wants it to be, that she is able to let him slap ‘her around a bit to show he was boss’, that she waits for him at home or goes with him to work, as he wishes” (Reich, “Phoeby’s Hungry Listening”). There seems to be an air of dependency in the relationship, that of Pheoby’s dependance on Tea Cake, despite Janie’s presumption that the relationship is completely mutual with her and Tea Cake sharing everything. For instance, when Janie can’t seem to function while Tea Cake goes off for the first time. She just sits around all day and worries, revealing her dependence on him.
I know I wrote in a comment on one of Leena’s posts that I believed Tea Cake completely sets Janie free, but after reading chapters 12-15, I changed my mind. What do you guys think chapters 12-15 reveal about Tea Cake and Janie’s relationship?
~Sarah-Claire

Now that Jody has died, and has been dead for nine months, Janie has set her eyes on Tea Cake. At first all these two did was talk and laugh together, but then things seemed to become more involved. “Tea Cake and Janie gone hunting. Tea Cake and Janie gone fishing. Tea Cake and Janie gone to Orlando to the movies. Tea Cake and Janie…” (Hurston 105). By Tea Cake doing all of these activities with Janie, it shows her that she is not just a possession of his, which is the way she felt when she was with Logan and Jody. And by doing all of these activities, Janie starts to see that even though she is a women she doesn’t just have to sit on the porch of a house and do the chores, but she can do things that are fun and enjoyable. This is an area where is seems like Janie might have realized something about herself. She realizes that she does not want to live her life the way her grandma had wanted her to live it, but instead she wants to live her life the way she wants to live it. “Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine” (Hurston 108). With Janie’s new view of how she is going to live her life, it seems as though she is going to be willing to take more chances, and act differently then a women would be expected to act. By this I mean she is going to be taking on different activities then women of the time were doing, things other then tending to the house and kids.
So far throughout the novel it seems as if Janie has been on a journey to find the way she dreams of living and doing the things she wants to do. She was at first told who to marry, and then in her marriage told what chores to do. She escaped that marriage in hope to live a better life. Unfortunately, it did not turn out that way, and she was still stuck ordered to do things. Now it seems as if she might have caught a break with Tea Cake, because he his allowing her to do the things she wants. “Have de nerve tuh say whut you mean” (Hurston 104). So the question becomes do you think Tea Cake is going to turn out like the rest of the men Janie has married, or do you think he is going to be the man she has always been looking for?

- Hunter Woron