Tea Cake And Tea Cake Analysis

Register to read the introduction… They both have their insecurities about their relationship. Janie feels she is too old to attract someone like Tea Cake. When she first questions his affection for her he responds, "Ah hope God may kill me if Ah'm lyin'. Nobody else on earth can hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom" (165). The answer holds true when Tea Cake stays out all night and she finds herself questioning him again; afraid that he had taken her money and abandoned her like many young men had done to the widow Ms. Tyler. Tea Cake, on the other hand, feels that his social class makes him unattractive. He expresses this when he returns from that night and explains that he had taken the money and spent it on a party for his friends. A party which he did not include Janie in because he was “too skeered” that she would take issue with the type of people that he associated with and leave him. After this incident Janie reassures Tea Cake of her love for him, telling him she wants to “partake wid everything” and Tea Cake reciprocates by sharing with her everything about himself, flaws and all. Even still, they both face the issue of jealousy later in their marriage. When Janie catches Tea Cake “struggling” in the fields with Nunkie, she reacts violently. After a loud and physical altercation, the reaffirm their love for one another and the issue is resolved until Mrs. Turner, an arrogant mulatto woman with a contempt for black people, although she is partially black herself, attempts to influence Janie to leave Tea Cake in favor of her fair skinned brother. “Mrs. Turner questions Janie's affections for Tea Cake because of the ugliness she equates with his darker skin, a comment that translates into a threat to Tea Cake's social power and masculine appeal”(Baker) As a result Tea Cake resorts to beating Janie, not because of her actions, but because he feels threatened and …show more content…
Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row, 1937.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. First Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition. New York: HarperCollins, 1937.
Bealer, Tracy L. "'The Kiss Of Memory': The Problem Of Love In Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." African American Review 43.2-3 (2009): 311-327. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 21 Apr. 2012.
Baker, Carol. "`Love me like I like to be': The sexual politics of Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, the.." African American Review 1998: 199. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Apr. 2012.
Hubbard, Dolan. "``...Ah Said Ah'd Save De Text For You'': Recontextualizing The Sermon To Tell (Her)-Story In.." African American Review 27.2 (1993): 167. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Apr. 2012.
Chinn, Nancy. "Like Love, 'A Moving Thing': Janie's Search For Self And God In Their Eyes Were Watching God." South Atlantic Review 60.1 (1995): 77-95. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 21 Apr.