Novel Synopsis

Novel Synopsis of “Their Eyes Were Watching God”

By Alyssa Wilebski

A galleon on the high seas

 

Chapter One:

Chapter one begins with this, “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men,” (1). The setting starts with black folks sitting out after a day of work, sitting in judgment. They sat and watched what they were to judge go by. The story actually begins at the end with Janie as a forty-year-old woman. The first information we find about the main character Janie is by the judgments passed upon her. She was different. She was a forty-year-old woman who walked around with overalls on and her hair down. Woman usually wore dresses and had their hair tied up with a scarf.

She is first talked about by the name of Janie Starks (Starks being her second husband). They talk about her being too old for a man named Tea Cake. The townsfolk get mad because she doesn’t stop to talk about her business to indulge their curiosity. Pheoby Watson is a nice woman we meet who brings Janie supper and to actually see how Jaine is doing. Pheoby has been Janie’s friend for about twenty years. The first chapter reveals why Janie came back to her home town saying, “Yeah, Pheoby, Tea Cake is gone. And dat’s de only reason you see me back here-cause Ah ain’t got nothing to make me happy no more where Ah was at. Down in the Everglades there, down on the muck,” (7).

Chapter Two:

Pears on a pear tree

“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches,” (8). Hurston starts this chapter with Janie telling Pheoby how she was raised. Janie never met her father and didn’t know her mother. She was raised by her grandmother and the white folks that she worked with. The white family was called the Washburn’s and they lived in West Florida. Jaine learned to call her grandmother Nanny because that’s what all the white children called her. At this time Janie’s last name was Crawford. Janie didn’t know that she wasn’t white until she was about six years old. They took a picture of the family and when they were pointing everyone out, Janie couldn’t find herself. Finally Mrs. Washburn pointed to her in the photo and Janie saw her dress and her hair and exclaimed, “Aw, aw! Ah’m colored!” (9). All the colored children at school made fun of Jaine because she lived in the white folks back yard.

Janie goes on to tell Pheoby about one spring afternoon when she was just sixteen years old. Nanny caught Janie kissing Johnny Taylor. Nanny got extremely upset and explained that she didn’t want Janie running around with any old boy, “Ah don’t want no trashy nigger, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin’ yo’ body to wipe his foots on,” (13). Later Nanny reveals that she wants Janie to get married off quick because she is getting old and will die soon. Janie learns from Nanny that marriage is more about protection from harm and danger than about love. Janie’s mother, we find out, got pregnant because a school teacher hid her in the woods, raped her, and ran off. She was only seventeen. A man named Logan Killicks is introduced as a man who has been asking around for Janie, he is also much older than her. Nanny wants Janie to marry him.

Chapter Three:

Janie & her Nanny

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer. Janie had no chance to know things, so she had to ask. Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day?” (21). This chapter begins with Janie contemplating her pending marriage with Logan Killicks. The real reason Nanny wanted Janie to marry him was because of his land and being a hard working man. Janie and Logan got married in Nanny’s parlor on a Saturday evening. After the wedding, they rode off to Logan’s house in the middle of his often-mentioned sixty acres. Janie waited for love to begin, not in the way that most honeymoons start. She thought that after they got married, that she would fall in love with him.

She didn’t know how to love so after a couple of months of nothing, she ran off to see Nanny and Mrs. Washburn. She told them, “Cause you told me Ah mus gointer love him, and, and Ah don’t. Maybe if somebody was to tell me how, Ah could do it,” (23). Nanny’s focus was more about Janie’s protection and that she got to carry the name, Mis’ Killicks. An element of foreshadowing comes in when Nanny says this, “Ah betcha you wants some dressed up dude dat got to look at de sole of his shoe everytime he cross de street tuh see whether he got enough leather dere tuh make it across,” (23). Now that Janie lives with Logan, she knows she can’t love him. She doesn’t like how he looks, or how he acts. She especially hates that she sets out a bucket of water at night for him to wash his feet and he doesn’t. Nanny told her to go back and give it more time. When Jaine left, Nanny gained the privacy of her own little shack and stayed on her knees praying for Janie. She prayed all night long and towards the morning she muttered, “Lawd, you know mah heart. Ah done do best Ah could do. De rest is left to you,” (24). A month later Nanny had died. Janie was going to wait a year for something to happen still. She stood by the gate and expected something to come along. The chapter ends with this, “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman,” (25).

Chapter Four:

Logan Killicks

Long before the year that Janie was going to give had come around, she started noticing that Logan stopped saying nice things to her, he stopped touching her hair and even started making her do work like he did. Since he chopped up the wood for her, he figured she could haul it inside. She replied saying, since he figures he cannot chop and haul the wood that he can’t stand to get dinner. Logan points out that Janie was spoiled by her grandmother. He is upset now that he has to keep up with it and spoil her more.

While Logan went off to see about getting another mule for harvest, Janie stayed in the barn cutting up potatoes. She eventually moved everything out into the yard where she could see the road. She heard whistling coming down the road, when she looked up she saw a man who would later be introduced to her as Joe Starks. He was a “citified, stylish dressed man with his hat set at an angle that didn’t belong in these parts. His coat was over his arm, but he didn’t need it to represent his clothes. The shirt with the silk sleeve holders was dazzling enough for the world. He whistled, mopped his face and walked like he knew where he was going,” (27). Janie was extremely curious of this man. He was colored but he acted like Mr. Washburn would. Janie ran quickly and pumped water for him, letting her heavy hair fall down. As he drank the cold water, he talked friendly with her.

Joe Starks had worked with white folks all of his life. He saved up some money and heard about a town that was being made with only colored folks, and knew that is where he wanted to be. He had a big voice and working for the white folks he was unable to use it. Once he heard about this new town, he figured it was a chance for him to take charge and earn big.

Janie revealed a lot about her life to Joe. She told him her parents were dead, as was her grandmother. She told him she was married even though he thinks she is far too young looking to be married. When Janie tells him that Logan is off getting her a mule for her to plow, Joe immediately appeals to her when he tells her that a woman should not be behind a plow. He says that a pretty woman like herself is meant to sit on the front porch and eat potatoes that other folks plant special just for her. After a lot of talking Joe says to her, “Janie, if you think ah aims to tole you off and make a dog outta you, youse wrong. Ah wants to make a wife outa you,” (29). He then asks her to call him Jody and tells her that tomorrow he will be waiting for her to run away to him.

That night in bed Janie wakes up Logan and they get in an argument about their marriage, and about how Janie was raised. Eventually she puts the threat in his face about leaving him and running off. The next morning she had the breakfast halfway down when he yelled from the barn telling her to help him move a manure pile instead of fooling around in the kitchen. They got in another argument when Janie suggested that he stay in his place and she stay in hers. Janie got extremely upset turned around and walked out. She met Joe Starks where he said he would be with a car. They drove off and were married by sunset.

Chapter Five:

A house in Eatonville

They begin on a train ride. Already Joe’s sweet words to her have stopped. However, he still bought her all the best. He bought her food and clothes. But instead of talking about her, he talked about the plans for the town. Right away they were headed for the colored town. When they got there, there was basically nothing to see. No real buildings and no mayor. The first people they met in the new town were Lee Coker and Amos Hicks. The second Joe learned there was no mayor, he quickly took charge. He told them to form a committee and to get things moving around. The name of the town was Eatonville. They were given only fifty acres of land. Amos Hicks kept trying to be sweet, hitting on Janie. Lee Coker told him off saying that he can’t take a woman like Janie from a man like Joe Starks. Joe came in and bought two-hundred acres of land right away and paid cash for it. Already Joe had plans for putting up a store and a post office from the government.

Amos was very close minded. It was hard for him to see the world one way and it to change in an instant with Joe Starks arriving. He laughed at the thought of a colored man in a post office. Amos and Lee continued to argue about Amos being unable to get a girl like Janie.

Joe wanted a store right away. He wanted it so that people didn’t have to go all the way to Maitland to buy what they needed. He wanted everything right there and close. They built roads and got to work on the store right away. Janie was shocked to see the money that Joe had spent towards the store to come back to him so fast. The store went up very quickly and finally they had a welcoming party for Joe and Janie. He thanked everyone for the warm welcome and fellowship.

The first time Janie is insulted by Joe is when the men suggest a speech from Mrs. Mayor Starks, where he says, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know mothin’ ‘bout no speech-making’. Ah never married her for mothin’ lak dat. She’s auh woman and her place is in de home,” (43). She didn’t know if she could make a speech either, but she was thrown off by the fact that Joe didn’t let her say a word before he stepped in.

One thing after another, Joe kept building the town up finding new issues and new solutions to them. When he felt the town was a little dark, he went off to Sears, Roebuck and Company and bought a street lamp. He had a huge gathering with people swarming into the town for the lighting of the lamp. This was the first street lamp in a colored town. After it was all over Joe asked Janie in bed that night, “Well, honey, how yuh lak bein’ Mrs. Mayor?” She replied saying she already felt a strain on them since he does all the fixing and she is just making time. The feeling of Joe being the big voice of the town made her felt far away from things and lonely.

At first the townsfolk thought it was strange that they had just gotten away from slavery and now Joe Starks was having them all doing things around the town, building, digging a town ditch. However, everyone had a job. Joe lived in a large two story home while the rest of the folks lived in small homes that looked more like slave quarters. Joe controls everything. He even made Janie start wearing her hair tied up in the store. People started noticing that she didn’t talk much and if she made a mistake he would go off on her. Everyone had feelings about Joe’s position, but no one was going to challenge him.

Chapter Six:

A donkey eating grass

The center of the town was at the store. Janie would sit and listen to stories that people would tell. One day she listened to a conversation between Matt Bonner, Sam, Lige, and Walter. They were talking about Matt’s mule and how skinny it is. Joe forbade her to indulge in the conversations. Joe had her doing a lot of work around the store and the post office. Janie had trouble focusing on multiple things at one time. If someone would ask her about one thing while she was doing another, she would get flustered and mess something up such as giving the wrong change. She was asked to do things that she had never handled before. She was often put in mathematical dilemmas. Janie was really upset about her hair having to be tied up but Joe was not going to let her hair show in the store. Joe never told Janie how jealous he was. He saw other men wallowing in it as she did things about the store, and one day he even caught Walter standing behind her brushing his hand on the loose end of her braid. Janie was in the store for Joe to look at, not for others.

Matt’s mule ended up walking off and then was in front of the store. All the men brought fun to tackling the mule making it angry. Janie got upset by this since the mule had been worked to death and now they keep messing with him to death. She walked away and Jody over heard her and made the men stop. Joe ended up buying the mule from Matt for five dollars. He didn’t buy the mule to work; he bought the mule to let it rest. The mule was allowed to roam around free wherever he wanted to wonder. A while later the mule died under a large tree. They ended up having a service for the mule, making the buzzards wait.

Hezekiah Potts was the delivery boy who ended up being placed in charge at times when Joe wasn’t there since Janie couldn’t handle everything that was going on. Joe kept getting angry with Janie as she messed up an order by not placing in on the nail. Joe continues to bring her down by saying, “Ah naw they don’t. They just think they’s thinkin". When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don’t understand one,” (71). Times like this put Janie to think about her marriage. All Joe wanted was Janie to submit to him. So if she fought him on something, he would fight back hard until she finally did submit. Joe hit her for the first time seven years into their marriage. When dinner had not gone perfectly, he continuously slapped her face telling her about her brains until she had a ringing sound in her ears. The chapter ends with Mrs. Robbins coming in the store begging for food for her and her children, claiming that isn’t feeding her. Other men were talking about how if she were their wife, they would beat her or kill her for making a fool of him in public like that. For the first time Janie interjected her voice in a conversation and said, “Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business. He told me how surprised He was ‘bout y’all turning out so smart after Him makin’ yuh different; and how surprised y’all is goin’ tuh be if you ever find out you don’t know half as much ‘bout us as you think you do. It’s so easy to make yo’self out God Almightly when you ain’t got nothin’ tuh strain against but women and chickens,” (75).

Chapter Seven:

Janie’s marriage was falling apart. She received nothing from Jody except for what money could buy. One day Janie looked at Joe differently. She noticed that he didn’t sit down in his chair anymore that he more fell into it. He wasn’t as young as he used to be. He stood differently and his belly protruded a little bit. Jody noticed it too and feared for Janie to finally see it. Jody instead put the focus on Janie’s age. Instead of getting upset with him, she understood that he was upset with himself and she let it pass. He continued to insult every little thing she did wrong, like when she cut Steve Mixon’s tobacco wrong, he became embarrassed and re cut the piece himself. He made comments about a woman her age shouldn’t be handling a knife. Finally Janie was fed up with his insults and confronted Jody in the middle of the store. He replied to her anger by bringing up her age again saying that she can’t get upset because she isn’t a young girl anymore. Janie brought up the fact that he never talks about his age and his looks. “Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish, which was terrible,” (79). Joe felt so embarrassed that he struck Janie with all of his strength and drove her from the store.

Chapter Eight:

After the argument with Janie, Joe brought his things downstairs to sleep. He wanted Janie to think he hated her, but he really didn’t. He didn’t let Janie talk to him, nor feed him. She found out that he was having old lady Davis cook for him. She went to her friend Pheoby Watson to tell her how hurt she felt. She rather be dead than for Jody think that she hurt him. At this point Janie has been with Joe for twenty years. Joe had gotten too weak to look after anything and took to his bed. He refused to let Janie see him. People kept visiting bring him food without taking notice to Janie as his wife. They would watch her at the store and report back to him on how she was doing. Janie finally got him a doctor and he confirmed that it was too late for him to get better. His Kidneys were failing. She finally got the courage to enter his room. When she did, Joe gave her a ferocious look. Joe didn’t want her in there. Janie was trying her best to talk to Joe kindly and apologize to him for her mean words. He absolutely refused to listen to her and her last words to him before he died were, “All dis bowin’ down, all dis obedience under yo’ voice-dat ain’t whut Ah rushed off down de road tuh find out about you,” (87). Joe was left in a position of agonizing protest. She moved his hands and layed them on his breast and studied his dead face. She went and looked at herself in the mirror and the young girl was gone, but a handsome woman took her place. She tore down her scarf from her head and let her hair down. Then she collected herself, put back up her hair. She opened up the window and cried out to everyone that her husband is dead.

Chapter Nine:

This chapter begins with Joe’s funeral. It was the finest thing Orange County had ever seen with Negro eyes. Janie fixed her face and sat at the funeral behind her veil. After it was done, Janie went home. Before she went to sleep she burnt up all of her head rags. She was finally free of Jody having her tied up. Having her hair down was the only change that everyone saw. She spent most of her day tending the store. She questioned going back home, trying to find her mother, or tending to her grandmothers grave. She had never really seen her mother and she hated her grandmother for putting such twisted ideas of love in her head.

Before a month had even gone by of Jody’s death, Men would drive from far distances to ask after her welfare and offer their services as advisor. She was told that a woman should never be alone, and that they need assistance. She was told directly, that she needs a man. She laughed at them because there are plenty of women who are alone, the only reason this is different is because she owned land and money, where the other woman are usually poor. The men would grin at her, trying to convince her to fall in love with them, just so they could have her land. Ike Green pushed the idea of getting remarried in her head and she pushed it right back out.

Janie kept tending to the store but she never felt like the owner. She felt like one day Joe would come back in and tell her everything that she was doing wrong. Eventually she had Hezekiah do most of what Joe would do. Hezekiah would sit in Joe’s swivel chair and he even took up smoking. Janie was alright talking to men inside of the store, but she would never take them to the house to entertain. She was basking in freedom.

Chapter Ten:

One day instead of Hezekiah closing up the store he asked Janie to so he could go off with the ball team. It was slow that day so she decided to close early. She would stay open until six o’clock. At five-thirty a tall man came in. Like most of the other men, he knew who she was, but she did not know his name, but he did look familiar. They were the only two who were not at the ball game. He asked her to play checkers, but she didn’t know how since Jody would never let her play. The fact that someone wanted her to play made her glow inside. Finally after a game of checkers and a little bit of chatting, she realized that he never told her his name. His full name is Vergible Woods, but everyone calls him Tea Cake for short. They kept flirting; he pretended to leave as she threw his hat at him they joked about her being weak as he asks for a pound of her knuckle pudding. They kept on joking until other people started coming in and the laughter didn’t rest until closing time. He ended up helping her close the store when she finally thought about her safety, but the moment passed. She felt like she had known him all of her life.

Chapter Eleven:

Tea Cake looked far too young for Janie. He was around twenty five and she was sitting around forty. She thought about asking Hezekiah about him, but went against it afraid that he would misunderstand her thinking she is interested. Tea Cake came back in exactly a week. They immediately went back to joking around with one another and they played checkers again. After they were done everyone went home except for Tea Cake. The two of them headed off to her house letting Kiah close up the store. Tea Cake brought her into a ton of new adventures that she had never been allowed to do. He taught her checkers, and now he wanted her to go fishing with him. He sang for her and played the piano. They fell asleep and Janie woke up to Tea Cake combing her hair. They got into a conversation about their age and Tea Cake being too young for Janie.

The next day Janie had a battle in her mind resisting thoughts about Tea Cake. He wasn’t like any other man to her. He looked like the love thoughts of women. She describes him like this, “He could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God,” (106). Tea Cake woke her up the next morning confessing his thoughts. They ate dinner and fell asleep. She woke up the next morning with Tea Cake almost kissing her breath away. He held her tightly. He had to then get up quickly and hurry off to work. He didn’t have time for breakfast. She felt differently about Tea Cake than she had with Logan or Joe. After four days of being gone, he showed up in a battered car to haul her off in. He was in love with her and she was in love with him.

Chapter Twelve:

At the picnic, everyone began to notice what was going on with Tea Cake and Janie, and they were mad. She could have gotten all different men that showed up at her door and they were angry that she chose to fall for Tea Cake. Tea Cake took Janie everywhere. He took her fishing, to the Orlando, hunting, the movies, to a dance. Men judged her and even spoke their judgments to Pheoby. They thought that all Tea Cake was trying to do was throw away all the money that Joe worked hard for. They claim that Tea Cake steals women away from church. That once they fall for him, they don’t go to church anymore. Janie was happy. Tea Cake was taking her places and letting her do things that Jody never let her do. People think that she is not paying the right amount of respect to her dead husband since she was out in her colored dresses. Janie decided to sell the store and to go off and get married to Tea Cake. She didn’t want there to be comparisons between Joe and Tea Cake. She was starting over life in Tea Cake’s way. She lived in her Grandmothers way and now she was living in hers.

Chapter Thirteen:

Janie and Tea Cake were quickly headed to Jacksonville to be married. Janie had pinned two hundred dollars inside of her shirt next to her skin and never told Tea Cake about it. Pheoby told her to bring it just in case. In the morning Tea Cake got up and went out to find fish to fry for breakfast. She thought that when she got up he would be back. But when she did he hadn’t returned. All day he was gone and he had not returned. She also got up to get dressed and discovered her two hundred dollars was gone. She was afraid that he was off hurt and she didn’t know about it. She lay on the floor with her head on a rocking chair waiting for him to return. Finally he did with a guitar in his hands. Tea Cake ended up buying the guitar from a man who could not play it so that he could play it for Janie. Janie was extremely upset with him running off and not returning like that. He then told her to not worry about the money that he was going to go up to the railroad and win it all back. This is when money and gambling starts to become an issue into their relationship. The whole next week Tea Cake was practicing throwing his dice. He would practice with cards again and again. When Saturday came around he bought a switch-blade knife and two decks of cards leaving Janie around noon. After midnight rolled around Janie became very fearful if anything happened to him. Tea Cake arrived back the next morning looking dead. He had gotten cut because a guy got mad that he had lost all of his money. Tea Cake had won her back over three hundred dollars. Tea Cake started talking about leaving for the Everglades where everyone makes money, fun, and foolishness.

Chapter Fourteen:

They arrived to the Everglades and everything looked big to Janie. They got there before the season started so they could get a room in a hotel. Tea Cake’s plan was to pick beans during the day and play guitar and roll dice at night. Janie would work too. The next day Tea Cake burst in saying that the boss bought out another man and wants Tea Cake down on the lake. He has houses for the first people who get down there to work. They had time to kill and everyday they were practicing shooting. Everybody was shocked at how fast Janie caught on to shooting. She eventually got a better shot than Tea Cake. This moment is also foreshadowing for a later part of the story. Gradually day by day, other workers came pouring in. Eventually there were no more places to live and the men would make large fires where fifty or sixty men would sleep around each fire.

Tea Cake’s house was a magnet. He was an entertaining man. He would play his guitar at home and he would make them all laugh in the bean fields. Janie stayed home fixing beans and rice. Sometimes she would go out and shoot a rabbit. Sometimes Tea Cake would stop in and tease and wrestle with her for a half hour and then go on back to work. At one point Janie felt uncomfortable about it and thought that he was watching her. He honestly has trouble spending the day without her and he wants her to go out and work with him like all the other women do. She liked working in the fields better than sitting around at home all day. Every night their door step would be filled with people there to hear him play guitar or tell stories.

Janie thought a lot about back to life in Eatonville and that everyone would laugh if they could see her now in overalls and heavy shoes with people around her playing games on the floor. Here she was able to join into stories and conversations. She was allowed to laugh.

Chapter Fifteen:

Janie learned the feeling of jealously when a chunky girl took to playing around with Tea Cake in the fields. She would fall all over him; make him chase her, trying to get them away from the crowd. One day while talking to another woman she suddenly noticed that both Tea Cake and Nunkie were gone. She rushed into the sugar cane and found Tea Cake and Nunkie struggling. Nunkie had taken the working tickets out of his shirt pocket and ran off forcing him to chase her and take them back from her. Janie was furious and went to seize Nunkie but she fled. Janie went home and shortly after Tea Cake found her there and tried to talk to her. Janie was so furious that she tried hitting him and he held her wrists to keep her from beating him and so she couldn’t run away. They fought but he didn’t let go of her hands. Eventually they wrestled on until their clothes had been torn away and he, “held her there melting her resistance with the heat of his body, doing things with their bodies to express the inexpressible; kissed her until she arched her body to meet him and they fell asleep in sweet exhaustion,” (137-138). The next day Tea Cake reassured her by telling her that he doesn’t need Nunkie when he has Janie around who he loves. “You’se something tuh make uh man forgit tuh git old and fogit tuh die.”

Chapter Sixteen:

After the season closed everyone had left, but Janie and Tea Cake decided to stay. They wanted to make another season on the muck. Mrs. Turner is introduced in this chapter. She is an interesting woman who brings a different opinion than what we are used to. He was a milky woman with rounded shoulders and her pelvis stuck out in front of her so she could always see it. Tea Cake often made fun of her shape behind her back. The way that Mrs. Turner would think was far different than most Negros. Janie’s complexion and luxurious hair made Mrs. Turner forgive her for dressing like the other women who works in the fields. Mrs. Turner’s least favorite subject was Negros. She doesn’t understand how Janie can stand all the Negros coming around her house all the time. She thinks that they have to lighten up the race, and that there are too many Negros around already. She thinks that Janie is hypnotized for loving a Negro like Tea Cake. She goes on to continue to insult and even go to saying she can’t stand black niggers. She doesn’t blame white folks for hating them because she can’t stand them either. Mrs. Turner is mad because she had the facial features of a white woman but because her skin is darker, she is clumped in with the rest. Mrs. Turner tells Janie that she should meet her brother saying that he is better than Tea Cake. Tea Cake over hears and gets mad about what Mrs. Turner is saying about him. He tells Janie to keep her away from their house since her words are like poison. Once Tea Cake snapped at Mrs. Turner saying, “Aw, don’t make God look so foolish-findin’ fault wid everything He made,” (145).

Chapter Seventeen:

Mrs. Turner finally brought her brother over to introduce him to Janie. Tea Cake had a brainstorm and whipped Janie. He whipped her to reassure his possession. He didn’t brutally beat her, but just slapped her around a little bit. This wasn’t the first time that Janie had been hit; Joe had hit her many years back. After words he petted and pampered her as if the two hits almost killed her and she still hung on to him. Men were jealous that he got to hit her and show possession without her hollering. Tea Cake was lucky. Janie went wherever Tea Cake wanted to be. He explained that he didn’t hit Janie because she did something wrong, he hit her to show the Turners who is boss. After everyone’s work tickets were turned into cash, everyone went out drinking. There was a huge fight in Mrs. Turner’s place that Tea Cake broke up. After all Mrs. Turner did to him, he defended her saying that she was a nice woman and she didn’t deserve men making a mess and disturbing the place.

Chapter Eighteen:

A hurricane

Janie began to notice the patterns of animals moving east. First small animals like rabbits and snakes, then dear and panthers were moving east. People talked of rain and started packing up and heading east as well. There was talk about a hurricane and in the Glades; the land is low and vulnerable for disaster. A lot of people ended up staying and they gathered at Tea Cake’s house. The winds began to pick up and rain was seen far in the distance. Eventually a big flash of lightning and thunder rattled over the house. They sat in the house staring at the door questioning what God was going to do next. They sat and waited. Tea Cake asked Janie if she wished she would have gotten to stay in her big house away from harm and she said no. She was happy to be with him through anything. He was happy that she was so satisfied with him.

Tea Cake went out seeing the beginning of the destruction. They packed up and began to leave. They wanted to get a car to get out of the glades as fast as possible but there were no cars available. They were to walk if they wanted to get away from the storm. At this time the water level was almost to their buttocks. Many people around them were trudging through the water dogging debris like they were. “The monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred miles an hour wind had loosed his chains. He seized hold of his dikes and ran forward until he meet the quarters; uprooted them like grass and rushed on after his supposed-to-be conquerors, rolling the dikes, rolling the houses, rolling the people in the houses along with other timbers. The sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel,” (161-162). They tried running as fast as they could as the water chased behind them. They reached another house and went inside. They fell asleep but shortly after Janie woke up from the sound of rushing water. The water kept creeping up slow and wide. Motor Boat was tired and went upstairs and fell back asleep and Janie and Tea Cake left trying to get further from the lake. The kept passing death all around them as they climbed further on. Janie went to grab a piece of roofing to cover Tea Cake with but it caught wind and pulled her away, she started screaming, let go of the piece and plunged towards the water. There was a cow in the water that Janie swam to. There was a dog sitting in the shoulders of the cow growling and shivering. When Janie reached the cow, the dog sprang to attack her. Tea Cake dove towards the dog with his knife. He fought the dog as the dog managed to bite Tea Cake, he finally killed the dog.

It wasn’t until the next day that they reached Palm Beach. They stood and looked at the destruction behind them. Janie looked at the bite on Tea Cake’s face asking if he needed a doctor. Tea Cake said he didn’t need a doctor, as they looked for a place to rest.

Chapter Nineteen:

Destruction of the hurricane

White men were going around looking for other men to work and help clean up all the damages. Tea Cake was pulled along to help clean up by two white men. They had to sort the men. The white folks were to be buried properly and the black folks were just to be tossed in a ditch and buried. Tea Cake wanted to get back to the Glades so they didn’t have to work like that. They went back and fixed up their house to go back and work. He found Motor up in the house where he fell asleep. He didn’t even know the storm was over when he woke up. After about four weeks, Tea Cake came home complaining about his head. He was sick from the horrible dog bite. The dog had rabies. He felt like he was being choked to death in his sleep. When he tried to drink water, he felt the same feeling. Janie brought him a doctor who gave her the bad news. If Tea Cake was treated earlier for the bite, he wouldn’t have gotten sick like this. Now there is almost nothing they can do. He told Janie to have him in a bed by himself, this was for her safety. She had to stay out of his way when he got in fits of gagging and choking. Once people get to the point where they cannot swallow water, it is too late for them to do anything but he ordered medicine anyways to try and help. Tea Cake got extremely angry with her very easily. When she slipped off to go see the doctor, he thought that she was away seeing Mrs. Turner’s brother. She held Tea Cake as he was crying and felt a pistol under his pillow. She felt like she was in a lot of danger and took out half of the bullets. The disease took over Tea Cake’s body as he sat in bed watching her every move. She kept a rifle by her side if anything were to happen. Tea Cake later got upset that she wasn’t sleeping in bed with him anymore. He held up the gun and pointed it at her chest. He took a shot and since she empties half the rounds, it was blank. She immediately pulled the rifle around her waist and snapped in the shell. He tried shooting the pistol a second time. After the third attempted shot, she threw up the barrel of the rifle. The shot of the pistol and the rifle went off together. Tea Cake’s bullet logged itself in the joist over Janie’s head. Tea Cake crumpled over with a bullet inside of him. She jumped to catch him before he fell as he closed his teeth on her forearm.

Janie cried as the man she loved sat dead in her arms. He sacrificed his life for her and she wanted him to live so badly, and now he is dead. The same day, Janie sat in jail. The doctor explained to the judge what was wrong with Tea Cake and so they called a trial the very same day. Everyone thought it was strange for Janie to shoot Tea Cake knowing the love that they shared. After the trial, Janie was found not guilty and that the death of Tea Cake was accidental and justifiable. Other men were saying that the only reason she got away with it was because he wasn’t a white man. Janie buried Tea Cake in Palm Beach. She bought him a brand new guitar and buried it in his hands.

Chapter Twenty:

A horizon

The men who were friends with Tea Cake ended up blaming everything on Mrs. Turner’s brother and ran him off the muck. She decided to leave the muck because the glades meant Tea Cake, and Tea Cake wasn’t there. The book ends where it began, with he back in Eatonville with Pheoby. She said she has been to the horizon and back and now she gets to sit and live by comparisons. After hearing everything that Janie had gone through Pheoby said that no one better be criticizing Janie in front of Pheoby. Tea Cake would not be completely dead until Janie herself stopped feeling and thinking. She sat in her bed in peace. The book ends with this, “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see,” (193).