Brief Summary Of Tea Cake By Zora Neale

This story begins at Janie’s grandmothers house, in the deep south, around the 1930’s. But the book begins in the middle of the road in third person, where worn out old Janie comes walking back into town, in overalls, and her hair a mess. The story begins at the end, and then starts from the beginning again. At first it sounds like any small town, gossip, women sitting on the porch talking harshly of others and then playing it fake when meeting that person. The gossip today is focused on Janie and how she ran away with a younger man, Tea Cake, and he stole all her money and left her to walk home with no shoes. After Janie gets to see her friend Phoebe we begin the story at the real beginning in first person. Janie lived with her grandmother …show more content…
But their courage turns to fear when they are nearly drowning in the ocean water. Janie gets swept into the chaos and can’t find her love, she goes to climb onto the roof of a house when a vicious dog tries to attack her. (These next moments are the climax of the book.) Tea Cake like the true prince charming he is, shows up and stabs the dog, although he gets bit, he saves Janie and they ride out the storm laying together on a roof of a house. The storm passes and the people return to clean up the town. Days pass and Tea Cake is acting weird, he is angrier, and can’t drink water, always spitting.. Janie finds a doctor and we realize that Tea Cake has had rabies for a week. The doctor promises to go to town and get the proper medication needed for Tea Cake’s survival… But he is too late. Tea Cake and Janie get into a fight, over her not wanting to sleep with him anymore. He accuses her of cheating, and has a gun. His eyes are dilated, and he’s foaming. Janie does her best to calm him down but to no avail. He aims at her and pulls the trigger twice, but no bullets… Janie knows the third time she wont get lucky, and she grabs the shotgun.. Just as Tea Cake goes to shoot her, she kills