Early into Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, we are treated to a passage of Janie lying under a peartree and watching a beautiful scene of nature that appears to represent the commencement of Janie’s foray into romance. But despite such a fanciful (and to some (Mr. Mitchell) somewhat erotic) start to her love life, Janie’s experiences will prove to be anything but.
The first marriage we see Janie partake in is with Logan Killicks, a smelly, ill-tempered, and altogether unpleasant man. Janie ultimately leaves Logan for Joe Starks, or Jody. Jody is presented as smooth, sleek, and sweet-talking, everything that the peartree was meant to symbolize, a beautiful view of romance. But as the years went on, the marriage devolved into little more than a shouting match with very little benefits for either party involved.
From these two experiences, one would assume that Janie’s love life is doomed to fail, regardless of how perfect it may seem at first. And it is with this feeling of futility that we first encounter Tea Cake, who seems to be even more perfect than Jody did. Almost too perfect. Perfect enough to make a reader skeptical.
When Janie first encounters Tea Cake (and when the reader does as well), he is tall, funny, and with a charming face that makes an onlooker “in favor of the story that was making him laugh before she even heard it”. She observes Tea Cake’s full purple lips, curling lashes, lean and padded shoulders, and narrow waist and trades jokes with him. He seems very much to be a perfect man. But again, so did Jody.
But Tea Cake also has a rapport and connection with Jadie that seemed to be absent in her interactions with Logan and Jody. Despite her being a recently widowed wealthy woman, he appears to have no interest in her money. He doesn’t seem to take anything too seriously, constantly flirting with her like when they upset the game of checkers. And he combs her hair, something that, as Janie points out, is for her benefit and not his. They connect on such a level that when he leaves, Janie is left with the feeling that “she had known him all her life”.
And yet, I can’t seem to shake the feeling that there’s something off about the guy. While Hurston paints a general picture of Tea Cake being a charming ideal, it is possible she only does that because Janie has yet to break from the illusion. She appears to drop, if not hints, a general sense of eeriness about Tea Cake. He has an almost creepy omnipresence about him. When he first shows up, Janie thinks she recognizes him, and while that gives a “love at first sight” vibe, it also gives him this almost supernatural feel. When he leaves, she thinks of him as strange, but immediately shakes it off without thinking too much about it. There is also the weird thing of him showing up out of the blue combing her hair. While I am not Janie, I would be a little disconcerted if I woke up to a relatively new friend touching me. I am not alone in this suspicion either. While she is unable to back up her pleas, Hezekiah tells Janie not to mess around with Tea Cake, as if she sense something off about him as well.
There is half a book to go in our adventures with Tea Cake and with his strange nature as well as the mystery surrounding his death, I think it’s safe to say that we will learn a lot more about this seemingly flawless fellow in the pages to come.
Though Janie is forty now (and I'd imagine more wise), I wouldn't be surprised if she still falls into Tea Cake's (potential) trap and manipulation. She has always been impressionable when it comes to people she thinks she is in love with. She seems to know that she should avoid Tea Cake but has such a good time with him that she shakes it off. To be fair though, she has nothing to lose. She wasted twenty years of her life with a douchebag and I think its okay for her to let herself be lost and maybe hurt in the end.
ReplyDeleteI think he definitely is a little creepy at first, but he seems genuine enough. He treats her as his equal and doesn't confine her to the inside of the store, rather, they play checkers outside together, which she was never able to do with Joe. Aja brings up that she wasted twenty years of her life with him, and I agree that it is fair if she wants to have fun with Tea Cake, she should be able to.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there definitely seems to be something questionable about Teacake but that may be because of Janie's history of dating questionable men, and it's especially questionable because of the state she returns home in, alone with her dirty overalls.
ReplyDeleteNice pic. I brought this up in another comment but for me what really stands out about Janie and Teacake's relationship is just how happy they are. To me that really gives a different feeling and makes me more hopeful that everything will go well with Teacake. But obviously you can't be sure because we don't know enough about him (or anything even). Even if he does turn out to be not good, we can be happy that Janie finally experienced some good in her life (hoping that this won't happen).
ReplyDeleteI think that a lot of it has to do with us knowing that in the first chapter she comes back telling Phoebe that she didn't want to be with Tea Cake any more. Also since Tea Cake looks like such a nice character I think that this time around it might be Janie who is the problem.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this a lot, especially after reading the text for today. Teacake just seems really sketchy. I really liked this blog post because it flowed really easily and the argument made a lot of sense. I would have liked it even more if there were quotes from the text. Obviously all of this happened, but I think it would make your argument even more convincing if you inserted specific examples from the text.
ReplyDeleteLooking back on this post after we have finished the novel, I can see where you had been coming from. It seemed like this too-perfect relationship that was doomed to fail because nothing is really that good... right? In the end, the relationship did have its flaws, but they were very happy together, and people envied them for it. Are we supposed to think that the Tea Cake and Janie marriage was too good to be true, or are we supposed to be content with the idealistic love story that took place before Tea Cake got sick? It's up to our own interpretation I think. I'm not sure what to make of it.
ReplyDeleteEven looking back after finishing the book, I'm not sure what to make of Teacake. I agree that something seemed a little off about him, but I still can't quite put my finger on it. In general, the relationship seemed almost too good to be true, but every now and then he would do something that made me wonder if he really was the person Janie believed him to be. His death contains many of the same contradictions. He gets bitten by the dog while saving Janie's life, but in his last moments tries to kill her.
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