1. Tea cake convinces Janie his feeling is sincere in two ways. One way is that when she wakes up he is combing her hair and telling her how he knows she thinks he is a pimp. He tells her he only wants her and that she is beautiful. He also takes her to the picnic because he likes her not because he is just being nice and really wants to go with someone else. Finally he tells her one of the most prevalent lines in the book. Janie you got the keys to the kingdom. These are two ways he shows his feelings towards Janie.
2. The town thought badly of Janie and Tea Cake being together. For one she thought that Tea Cake was not good enough for Janie. She was Mrs. Mayor Starks! Also they got mad because Janie was with Tea Cake not even nine months after Joe’s death. She wore bright clothes for Tea Cake even though Joe died so shortly ago. She also stopped going to church and she started playing games like checkers with Tea Cake.
Page 111 “ De men wuz talking about it in the grove and dey was givin her and Tea Cake both the devil.”
3. Sam Watson’s challenge to Phoebe was to hint to Janie that Tea Cake might just be going for Janie’s money. She had a lot of money so Sam believed that Tea Cake just wanted money. He thought she didn’t go to church so she could use offering money as gas money. He also thought that because all the other men said it was true, it was true. Finally he thought that She would end up like Mrs. Tyler with all he money stolen away by some man. He wanted to help Janie and maybe save her from the same fate.
4. Phoebe approaches Janie and tells her the fears about how she thinks that Tea Cake just wants Janie’s money. She tells her how its odd that she goes off to baseball games and she never had before. She thinks Janie is being dragged around by Tea Cake. Janie replies by saying she wants to and Joe never let her. Also she brings up how she wears bright colors for Tea Cake when she should be grieveing for Joe. Once again she corrects her saying she isn’t even sad that Joe died and is happy with Tea Cake.
Page 113 “ People seen you out in colors and dey thinks you aint been payin the right amount of respect to you husband.”
5. Janie says that getting married to Tea Cake could be a gamble like Phoebe is warning her. She replies by saying that she isn’t like Mrs. Tyler and Who Flung. Tea Cake isn’t a stranger to her and she is an older woman who can think for herself. She also says how Tea Cake says the age doesn’t matter. It is the thought and the feeling that really counts.
6. Janie begins to get worried about this. She remembers how all of Mrs. Tyler’s money was stolen and how she lost everything to a man. She thought how embarrsed she would be coming back to town with her money gone and how everyone else would be right. She also began to worry about Tea Cake though if he got hurt out there because she loved him.
Page 118 “ Way late in the morning the thought of Annie Tyler and Who Flung came to visit.”
7. Tea cake went off to work that day. He saw the 200 dollars and couldn’t resist taking it out with him. He bought all his coworkers a big macaroni dinner and threw a big party. He paid all the ugly woman to not come in and he bought a lot of food with the money. He even got in a fight with someone at the party. He didn’t get Janie to come because he thought she wouldn’t like partying with the working class.
8. Tea Cake doesn’t want Janie to come to the party because he thought she would not like hanging out with that class of people. This reminded her a bit of how Joe wouldn’t let her go to events for the common people. Janie’s reaction was that she didn’t care about that and wanted to do whatever Tea Cake did. She didn’t want to be restricted like she was with Joe. He agreed and they did more stuff together.
Page 124 “ Look ah heah Tea Cake if you evr go off and have a good time like that and then comin back heah tellin me how nice it is ah specks tuh kill yuh dead.”
9. The muck had everything big. According to Janie it had a big lake, big weeds, big beans, and more stuff. It was swampy and a raw undeveloped town. The ground was very fertile and the plants grew like wild. The people were wild too and loved to party. Also it had good jobs with planting and you got paid well. That’s what attracted Tea Cake. It was well paying and people loved to party and be wild.
10. Janie is very happy to work in the field with Tea Cake. Back with Joe she didn’t like working the store. She thought it was easy most of the time but could be very hard and boring. She was also forced to do it by Joe because she couldn’t do anything else. Also Tea Cake wanted to work with Janie so he could be with her and not just to work. With Logan she was forced to work in the fields and not by choice. Also she didn’t love Logan. With Tea Cake she wanted to be with him and work with him. She was happy to work here and it was by choice.
Page 133 “ So the very next morning Janie got ready to pick beans with Tea Cake.”
11. Janie’s first experience with Jealousy came when Nunky came. Nunky was a chunky little girl who messed around with Tea Cake. She would steal his stuff and make him chase her. She would also try to get him alone. One day she got him alone in the fields by stealing something form it. He had to wrestle it from her to get it back and Janie saw it. She got angry and yelled at the both. She scared Nunky away.
12. Mrs. Turner is drawn to Janie because of the way she looks. Janie has white person features but she is black. Mrs. Turner worships white people and wants to live with them. She hates living with black folk and wants to leave them. She does that because she is part white also. Since Janie is like her and she wants to be in a white society she loves being with Janie and almost treats her like a god. She does that because Janie looks like a white person.
Page 141 “ Youse different from me . Ah cant stand black niggers.”
13. Janie tries to be mean to Mrs. Turner and blow her off. She does that because she hates fully black people like Tea Cake so he wants her gone. It doesn’t work because Mrs. Turner worships Janie. She then ignores all the mean things and hints Janie gives and tries to be friends with her and be the same. She hates black people that aren’t part white and hates Tea Cake too.
14. Janie has a completely different social status on the muck than she had at Eatonville. Back there she was looked upon like a queen by Joe and he wouldn’t let her do anything with normal people. She was very high up and Joe put this feeling around her that Janie was too good for everyone else. She had to work easy in the store, couldn’t go to the dragging out, and basically couldn’t interact too much with the common people. IN the muck she is an equal to everyone. Not really low class now but on the same level as everyone. She interacts with normal people and works hard in the fields. She hunts, fishes, and plants beans. Basically in the muck she is a normal person now but everyone likes her.
15. Tea Cakes motivation for striking Janie was to show everyone, especially Mrs. Turners brother, that Janie was married and she was his woman. He was afraid he would lose Janie and if she was bruised up it would show she had a husband. This was too keep Mrs. Turners brother from going for Janie and to show everyone else too. In this time beating your wife was a regular thing and showed power or ownership over your wife.
16. Tea Cake had a good plan to get the Turners off the muck. He planned to start a fight in her restaurant. He and his friends started fighting in her restaurant over something. They started to break chairs, plates, and tables. They even pulled her down in it. After destroying her shop and her husband not doing anything she left town after being defeated by the very people she hate the most.
Page 151 “ By that time everyone in the place was taking sides. Somehow Mrs. Turner fell down and no one noticed under all the fighting,”
17. Tea Cake does not really react much to the hurricane coming. He thinks all the Indians are stupid for thinking it is coming and that they don’t know what they are talking about. He ignores more signs like his friend coming by with a ride out of town and the animals fleeing. He thinks he can ride out the storm even thought that is far from true. He doesn’t react until its too late and the storm hits hard.
18. The line “ Their eyes were watching God” has a lot of significance in the book. Obviously it is the title of the book so that right there makes it stand out more than the other lines. Also it is really a true statement about what was going through the minds of the people waiting inside the house at this time. They knew they had no control over the hurricane or what happened. They knew God was working outside and they were literally watching him and waiting to see what happens. They were no longer dependent on the white man or even themselves at this time. They only had God to trust in now.
Pag1 151 “ their eyes were watching God”
19. The experience with the rabid dog was a turning point for Janie in the story. It is what gives Tea Cake his deadly disease. He is trying to pull Janie out of the river. She is hanging on to a cow and on this cow and on this cow is a dog. The dog is rabid but they don’t know. When Tea Cake pulls her off the dog attacks and bites him and the face. He is hurt bad at first and has trouble making it back to safety. He heals up later but more trouble ensues.
20. Tea Cake and Janie finally make it back to safety in Palm Beach. After the dog attack and the flood. Once they get there Tea Cake has to try and hide from the white folk because he looks so bad. The reason being, because they are using any poor black folk to bury the dead. He is spotted by two of them and is forced to work burying the dead. They just threw the black people in holes and put the white people in caskets. Tea Cake eventually managed to escape from the work.
Page 170 “Tea Cake found he was part of a small army that had been pressed into service to clear wreckage in public places and bury the dead. “
21. Tea Cake brings Janie news about Motor Boat. Motor stayed in the house in the top floor after Janie and Tea Cake left. The flood reached the house and washed it away with Motor in it. He was fine though and in fact slept through being washed away. He was fine and woke up when he got to the place the flood washed him to. Janie was surprised, amused, and happy all at once.
22. Tea Cake has a bad case of rabies. He caught it from the mad dog that bit him while he was trying to save Janie. Even though he healed up the wound the rabies still afflicted him. He got sick, had nightmares, couldn’t drink water, and became aggressive. They could have saved him if he would have got a shot. That would have worked 3 weeks earlier though. Basically there was no hope for Tea Cake anymore.
Page 177 “ Janie I’m pretty sure that was a mad dawg that bit yo husband.”
23. Tea Cake was crazy with rabies. One of the things that it made him do was have a need to kill. He had a pistol under the pillow on his sick bed and he pulled it out on Janie when she was standing with him. He put it up to her chest and prepared to shoot. Janie whipped out her rifle and shot him right before he shot. He barely missed her but she hit him right in the head. She held him and in his last moments he bit her possibly giving her rabies.
24. Janie left the muck because it reminded her of Tea Cake. Like she said the muck meant Tea Cake and he wasn’t there anymore. She stayed around a few weeks to make the other people feel better and then she left. She said now it is nothing but a big expanse of black mud. It wasn’t the fun, exciting, interesting place it was before without Tea Cake.
Page 191 “But the muck meant Tea Cake and Tea Cake wasn’t there. So it was just a great expanse of black mud.”
25. Janie is now able to live in her old house for a few reasons. For one she is single now and has no man and is free. She also never sold the house. Janie only sold her store and kept the house. This allowed her to come back to Eatonville if she wanted to and live in her big old house. Finally she was happy with her life now and could settle down and enjoy life. She had found love if only for a short while with Tea Cake.
