In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God?

These emotions are then paralleled in the objectification and victimization that Janie receives once returning to the neighborhood after having left with Tea Cake. The community attacked Janie and had it not been for her happiness, Janie would have listened to the mocking. Contrary to Joe and Logan, Tea Cake demonstrated to Janie that his relationship with her would not be the same and would not let her be treated badly either. “Somebody wanted her to play [checkers]. Somebody thought it natural for her to play.

He “[invites] Janie to be…herself” and he “does not limit her to a particular role” (Domina 315). As a result, there are no expectations for Janie to fulfill. She has no need to conform to a certain type of behavior or appearance, which allows her to finally reconcile the differences between internal and external versions of herself. Professor Deborah Clarke describes Janie’s time with Tea Cake as an opportunity for Janie to flourish and learn how to “formulate a self which is not predicated upon oppression” (Clarke 607). Because Tea Cake does not impose societal expectations upon Janie, she is able to navigate a relationship in which her innermost self that she has kept hidden can now rise to the surface.

Similarly, Janie makes another great sacrifice when she decides to leave her life of ease and luxury in Eatonville, so she can start a new life with Tea Cake. In Eatonville, she had authority as the store owner and as the former mayor’s wife, but she decides to follow her heart which ultimately leads to her fulfillment of self-actualization with the help of Tea Cake. Without Tea Cake, Janie could not have found herself, and his impact on her remains even after his death. Janie recounts her life lesson to Phoeby saying, “Love is lak da sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore...Two things everybody’s got tuh do for theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (191-92). Through Janie’s words, the effect of Tea Cake on her is eminent through how Janie learn about life and herself and leads her to becoming independent. Because Janie sacrifices her luxurious life in Eatonville, through Tea Cake, she fulfills her need of self-actualization, a recurring idea in the book. Janie’s values concerning her life and of Tea Cake are also illuminated in her conversation with Phoeby before she leaves Eatonville. She and Tea Cake “‘...[had] done made up [their] minds tuh

He thought the only thing she could do was work at home. Tea Cake has a very different idea about women. He thinks that Janie can do anything she wants to do, that she is just as smart as a man and has the capacity to learn and do many more things than what Joe would allow her to do. Throughout their marriage, Janie seems to have taken Joe’s ideas to heart and believes them herself. Tea Cake rejects these ideas and helps Janie begin to feel confident in herself and forget what Joe made her

     As two different people, Janie and Tea Cake are allowed to live their lives as equals. When living with Joe, Janie is never allowed to do things such as speaking her mind, playing games, or doing anything which is not completely ladylike. Tea Cake encourages her to do things which were previously not open to her, such as playing chess, speaking openly about her feelings, and hunting. He teaches Janie to shoot and hunt wild game.

Even before Joe’s death, Janie “was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew not how to mix them.”(75) Joe’s influences controlled Janie to the point where she lost her independence and hope. She no longer knew how to adapt to the change brought upon her. When she finally settles and begins to gain back that independence, the outward existence of society came back into play. “Uh woman by herself is uh pitiful thing. Dey needs aid and assistance.”(90) Except this time Janie acted upon her own judgment and fell for someone out of the ordinary. Tea Cake was a refreshing change for Janie, despite the society’s disapproval. “Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.”(128) This was what she had always dreamt of. When she was with Tea Cake, she no longer questioned inwardly, she simply rejected society’s opinions and acted upon her own desires.

The final stage in Janie’s development as a woman is her marriage with the twelve years younger Tea Cake. Both are totally in love with each other and Janie lives a live she has never lived before. She experienced a big change when she moves from her formal live as “Mrs. Major” (43) in Eatonville to the Everglades where Tea Cakes teaches her how to farm, fish and hunt and introduces a totally new rural life to her. Janie described her lifestyle in these days with "...we ain't got nothin' tuh do but do our work and come home and love" (127).

Tea Cake performs the old courtship rituals, indulges in shooting and razor fighting, and plays the dozens and the blues. Compared with Killicks and Starks, former husbands of Janie, Tea Cake prefers interaction and people to ‘things’: “So us goin’ off somewhere and start all in Tea Cake’s way. Dis ain’t no business proposition, and no race after property and titles. Dis is uh love game” (134). In this pastoral setting, Janie regains her voice to tell narratives. Janie feels free to join the notorious ‘lying’ and tale-telling sessions whenever she wants to: “She got so, she could tell big stories herself from listening to the rest” (158). Yet, even with Tea Cake, she has to face intermittent crises and physical aggression. S. Jay Walker has

A new hindrance called society skeptically watches Janie as she quickly changes from being a widow of a powerful man to the wife of a young, poor man named Tea Cake, since her quest for love was not nearly over. She had the option of either being submissive to society by staying as Joe’s widow or show tremendous self-reliance and confidence by marrying Tea Cake. Pheoby, Janie’s close friend, declares, “Dat’s de way it looks. Still and all, she’s [Janie’s] her own woman...she should know by now what she wants tuh do” (Hurston 111). This shows how Pheoby trusts in Janie’s self-reliance and genuinely believes that she can make her own decisions. Also, Janie explains that “Tea Cake ain’t no Jody [Joe] Starks… but de minute Ah marries ‘im everybody is gointuh be makin’ comparisons...dis is a love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, Ah means tuh live mine” (Hurston 114). She wants to live her own independent life, and not have to rely or depend on anyone. This is rather ironic because Janie does end up depending on Tea Cake, but perhaps not for material goods or money, like with Logan and Joe, but for something called love. Because Janie loves Tea Cake so much, she is willing to become submissive to his will. He ends up finding pleasure by letting out his anger by beating her. For example, Sop-de-bottom, one of Tea Cake’s friends, states “Ah love tuh whip uh tender women lak Janie! Ah bet

Tea Cake loved Janie so much that he would rather himself get hurt than her, which is something Janie had never experienced: true love. Without Tea Cake’s role in Janie’s life she would have never experienced true love and actual happiness. Tea Cake is a mysterious man from the

Janie has no regrets about killing Tea Cake in order to free herself, and free him from his disease, because she values her life more than happiness. She gave him three chances, but he used all three, “a minute before she was just a scared human being fighting for its life. Now she was her sacrificing self with Tea Cake’s head in her lap. She had wanted him to live so much and he was dead.” (Page 216). Even though the event was horrible for Janie

all without Janie’s knowledge or consent. Another aspect in which Tea Cake helped was integrating Janie into society. Tea Cake and Janie eventually move down to a place called the “muck”. Here Tea Cake works in a field with the other residence of the town, while Janie stayed home. The town members mock Janie as if she is too good to work with them, until one day Tea Cake convinces her to join him, claiming, “Ah gits lonesome out dere all day ‘thout yuh.

Although Tea Cake loved Janie from the start, Janie was skeptical but he reassured her by saying “‘Nobody else on earth kin hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom’” (Hurston 131). Janie most likely felt like she had the world in her hands while Tea Cake stated this about her. Her other marriages were not love and were not true, but Tea Cake’s love was another story and he had soothed her with what he had stated about his love to her. Most readers might think he is just playing he based on her old marriages but I believe Tea Cake means his words. He must truly love her to spend time so much time with her even when the town judged and labeled him as a gold digger. Tea Cake makes sure Janie knows how much he loves her because of her history and does not want to hurt her like the people in her past. Nanny hurt her by forcing her into marriage with Logan Killicks who treated her like a dog. Even when she ran away and married Joe Starks, he controlled her life for 20 years by telling her what to wear and how to act (since she was the mayor’s wife). He broke her apart of the lower class crowd even though those people were her friends and a life she wanted to live. Tea Cake was different from the other two because he was kind, treated her with respect and took her into consideration. He would not control Janie like Joe did and brought her back to the lower class ways because he means his love and has

Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake transformed when Oprah Winfrey solely cared about making Janie and Tea Cake’s affair pure and about love more than illustrating how Janie grew as a person and young lady. “While Tea Cake is vital to Janie’s development, he is not an indispensable part of her life, a crucial truth that is revealed when Janie shoots him” (sparknotes). By Oprah making Janie and Tea Cake’s

Love and communication played a big role in the relationship between Janie and Tea Cake. In chapters 18 and 19, we can see their relationship start to heal (after the jealousy and abuse). During the storm, Janie and Tea Cake are able to help each other out. When Janie gets entangled in the rough waves. As said in the chapter, “She screamed terribly and released the roofing….