Even after our journey through "Their Eyes
Were Watching God" has come to a close, I am still struggling with how I
feel about Tea Cake. When we were first introduced to him in Janie's store, I
was immediately charmed by his relaxed and playful demeanor, and also his air
guitar. I was especially pleased when he invited Janie to play checkers, a game
Jody wouldn't allow her to play when they were married because she was a woman.
It seemed like Tea Cake was finally going to treat Janie like a normal human being,
and I had high hopes.
The first
"red flag" we saw with Tea Cake was shortly after his and Janie’s
marriage and relocation, when he disappeared for an entire day with Janie's
secret stash of money. I, at this point being thoroughly invested in their
relationship, was very afraid that he had pulled a Who Flung, so when he
returned I breathed a sigh of relief, and when he explained himself I took it
back a little but still gave him a pass, only because I really wanted the
marriage to work out. And any doubt I had was soon forgotten when he asked her
to join him in his work in the field. Again, like with the checkers, it seemed
like Tea Cake wasn’t treating her like she was just a fragile prize.
But then there was that thing where he beat Janie
to send a message to the Turners because he was afraid something would happen
between her and Mrs. Turner’s brother? That was pretty irreconcilable! And I
decided firmly that I should hate him, and I really tried to for the rest of
the book. However, when Janie had to
shoot him, I was devastated, and it made me feel like a bad person that I was
so crushed.
I feel like part of this could be explained by
the way Hurston portrayed this incident—she described it so casually it seemed
like it was almost mentioned in passing, and she moved on from it very quickly.
Janie also wasn’t really featured in that chapter, so it gave the impression
that she didn’t have much of a reaction, or didn’t hold Tea Cake’s actions
against him. But I also could have just been feeling bad for Janie because she
loved him so much, and she deserved to be happy after having the majority of
her life be terrible. Or some part of me is somehow still very attached to Tea
Cake. Or maybe Hurston’s writing is just incredible, and her depiction of Janie’s
grief is so compelling that we are forced to be sad about Tea Cake’s death. I
don’t know, were you guys similarly conflicted over Tea Cake as a character?
Ugh yes. This is exactly how it went for me. Before this book, I would've firmly stated that I would never root for a domestically abusive character. However, Hurston normalizes it to the point where the reader is like well okay? It's so frustrating when you come across incidents that make your beliefs less black and white. While you want to believe that all domestic abusers are horrible people, it is often more complicated than that. At least Janie had the freedom to choose for herself whether she stayed with Tea Cake or not.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with this entire post. I was very conflicted with Tea Cake's character but realized that the reason for my confusion was Janie. With her other two marriages, we knew that she was unhappy. However with Tea Cake, it was made clear that she had a thing for him and wanted it to work. Because we want her to be happy, we finding ourselves (sadly) supporting the abusive character. Good post!
ReplyDeleteYes I relate to this on every level. I loved Tea Cake- like you said, the way that he treated Janie like an actual human being and respected her. he clearly deeply loved her and I was so happy that Janie had finally found someone like him. When he beat her though??? I'm so confused as to what message Hurston was trying to send, because it seems an awful lot like she's painting the beating as just another aspect of this ideal relationship. The way that the others in the town idealized his abuse and the way that it is brushed over is really concerning to me.
ReplyDeleteI understand why you hate Teacake for hitting Janie and at the time, I partially did too. I was confused none the less, until I pieced it together, perhaps there's some cultural difference, where hitting one's wife was tolerable? I'm not endorsing domestic abuse, I feel I should make that clear. However, if there was true domestic abuse within their relationship, Janie would've felt the same way towards Teacake as she did towards Jody, who hit her and also silenced her. I don't think Teacake is a man/character with ill intent built into him. Nice blog post!
ReplyDeleteEasily one of the most confusing parts of the novel, I still don't understand what Hurston tries to convey by writing in that scene. On one hand, she displays the colorful life of the muck in her novel. On the other hand, it was unlikely that itinerant workers at that time were singing and dancing and having such a good life, so where does she draw the line? Other than that Tea Cake is a wonderful character, but we can't just let him go because of that. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the confusion about this part of the book. First Hurston portrays the muck as basically paradise, and everything that happens there is good, and then she just kind of slips in the domestic abuse. I really still have no idea what she was trying to say about it since it conflicts so much with her earlier message about it. However, I guess it was ultimately Janie's decision which is good, but once again this just seems like a very odd scene in an otherwise feminist(ish) novel.
ReplyDeleteI think Tea Cake is sort of a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, if that makes sense. He comes in like a comet and sweeps Janie off her feet, being everything she wants and needs in a man. He makes her feel like a little girl (Cue "You Make Me Feel So Young from Elf": Buddy is another Manic Pixie) and is pointedly everything her first two husbands were not. During the relocation, when he disappeared with the money, the story he gives is that he spontaneously threw a huge party for all the homeless, poor people. So perhaps his flaw is that he's too much of the good things? Too generous, too spontaneous. However, the slap is really incongruous to this theory, and I don't have an answer on that.
ReplyDeleteI wrote my paper about the way Hurston depicts domestic abuse in Their Eyes Were Watching God and focused in large of the depiction of Teacake with regards to domestic abuse. And in the end I came to a similar conclusion as you did. By portraying the scene the way she does, Hurston cuts back on the viciousness of what is happening. Then showing that Janie still loves Teacake, it causes the reader to feel bad for Janie when she is forced to shoot Teacake even though he abused her.
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