Why Does Janie Not Hate Tea Cake? (yet)
At this point in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie has been through her fair share of marriages. Right now she is married to Tea Cake, and seems to be considerably more forgiving towards him than she was towards her previous husbands. How is it, that she can forgive Tea Cake, a man who stole and spent all of her money, and then beat her for no reason? Logan and Joe Starks were also bad people, so it makes sense that she was utterly appalled by them, but as far as we know, neither of them have ever physically abused her. An outsider looking in on the situation would no doubt agree that Tea Cake is the worst of Janie’s love interests, and yet, he is the one that Janie seems to be the most in love with, and so far, does not seem to be considering leaving him. Why is that?
To answer this we must first look at Janie’s previous relationships. She was miserable with Logan Killicks. Logan Killicks and Janie were a part of an arranged marriage, and never really showed affection for each other. Logan treats Janie as a servant, and constantly complains about her. He is old, and attractive, and all he really cares about is maintaining his land. The only reason Janie was married to him in the first place was because of the security of being with a landowner. It is clear, then, why Janie would jump at the first chance of escaping him.
Joe Starks seems alright at first. He scoffs at the way Logan treats Janie, and promises to treat her as a woman should be treated. The only problem with this, is that he has a skewed view of how Women should be treated. He puts her on a pedestal, but he does not let her share her own opinions, and sort of treats her as a possession of his. He quickly shoots down her thoughts, but gets extremely offended when Janie takes jabs at him. Joe is a person that seems better than Logan, sure, but still not an ideal partner for her.
Now we fast forward many years to when Janie meets Tea Cake. At this point in life, Janie is wealthy, single, and happy. Janie meets Tea Cake, and he’s a man who doesn’t seem to like Janie for her money, and treats her as an intellectual equal. This is already better than the last two. He constantly professes his love for her, and constantly apologizes for his wrongdoings. Even though Janie is much older than him, he seems to love her a lot, and would do anything for her. Tea Cake is someone who Janie genuinely enjoys being around. He seems like the perfect match. Of course that is before we learn of Tea Cake stealing Janie's money to buy a guitar, leaving her by herself for long periods of time, and beating her because he was mad at someone he talked to.
One reason for Janie being okay with Tea Cake after these events is how apologetic and honest he is. After stealing her money, he is completely honest with her about what happened, and he gets beat up to win that money back for her. The reason he is so mad at Mrs. Turner is because she was trying to discourage Janie from being married to Tea Cake because of his blackness, and he wants so badly for Janie to stay with him. When Janie confronts him about other women being flirtatious with him, he assures her there is nothing going on, apologizes, and praises her. When a person does wrong things, it is much easier to forgive them if they genuinely seem sorry and seem to care for you a lot.
Another reason could be that she was genuinely in love with him. She was never interested in Logan in the first place, as that was an arranged marriage. Although it seemed at first that she loved Joe, I believe she ran away with Joe so quickly just to get away from her previous relationship in favor of what seemed like would be a happier situation. I’m not sure there was a lot of genuine affection there. When she meets Tea Cake, she had been single for many years, and not for a lack of options. Tea Cake is someone who Janie really enjoys spending time with. Because she loves him so much, she is not so quick to fall out of love with Tea Cake, and therefore tries her best to forgive him.
I think the biggest reason is that she wants to prove everyone wrong. Ever since she was a teenager, Janie has been so infatuated with the idea of true love, and living in a happy relationship with a man for the rest of her life. Her Nanny shoots this idea down in favor of making sure Janie has stability. After Janie meets Tea Cake, her friends discourage her from going with him, thinking he is just another gold digger who isn’t actually interested in her. If Tea Cake, the only man that Janie has had a connection with in a while, is just someone who loves her for her money, how could she ever find love? This is Janie’s third marriage, and I think she feels that it might be her last chance to prove to everyone that she can have a happy relationship of true love, so she tries her best to make the relationship work.
I found your post interesting and you did a good job analyzing why Janie seems to have a higher tolerance for tea cake’s short comings than we do as readers. Because she has such a bad history with marriages, this one in comparison is a lot better. I also agree that she really does enjoy tea cake most of the time. The idea that she’s also doing it to prove people wrong is very interesting, I had not considered it before. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI think you make a really good point about Janie trying to prove everyone wrong, and I also think that her staying with Tea Cake could have something to do with proving something to herself. Even going back to when Janie was first forced into marriage with Logan Killicks, it was because Nanny wanted her to value having a stable life instead of chasing love. I definitely agree that this idea being forced into her head has stayed with her for her entire life, and it probably has made her more determined to find love. I think you chose a really good topic to write about, and you make a really good argument for why Janie stayed in her third marriage with Tea Cake.
ReplyDeleteConditioning has played a huge role in all of the books we've read so far, and this book is not an exception. Domestic abuse has haunted Janie through all of her relationships and as a result she has become desensitized of it.
ReplyDeleteHey John Gideon Brownridge, great post! I really like how you explored why exactly Janie is so madly in love with Tea Cake, because it is so important to the plot of the novel. From an outsiders view Janie should leave Tea Cake in a heartbeat, so it's important to analyze why she doesn't and what's problematic about that and I think you do a great job of that in this post. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteHi, John. I like how you explained Janie's thoughts through each relationship, and I agree with the fact that Janie was trying to prove everyone wrong. More accurately, I believe she was specifically going against her nanny's wishes as an act of defiance. I also thought your point about Janie genuinely being in love with Tea Cake has some merit. The beginning to their relationship was much more natural than her previous relationships (especially with Logan Killicks) and their relationship fit more accurately with Janie's romanticized view. Overall, great blog!
ReplyDeleteHey John, this was a great post! I think that you make a great point about how Janie was doing everything to defy those around her, especially Nanny. You do a good job of talking about Janie and Tea Cake's relationship and analyzing why it is problematic. Good work!
ReplyDeleteHi John, I liked reading your point of view on why Janie has "forgiven Tea Cake". I appreciated how you provided a retelling of Janie's previous relationships and her relationship with Tea Cake before providing your opinion. This was an important part to include, as it helps the reader understand how Janie has changed over the course of her three marriages. I think that the three possible reasons that you provided are completely valid, and honestly, could all be true at the same time. I would add another reason, though. A main part of why Janie does not leave Tea Cake and chooses to stay with him (I neglect saying the words "being okay with Tea Cake" and "forgiving Tea Cake" because I personally believe that is not what Janie is doing), is because of the power of Tea Cake's manipulation of Janie. As you stated in your post, in the beginning, Tea Cake is almost too good to be true. He is the ideal man for Janie and that is how she gets roped in to the idea of him and the idea of love that she has had in her mind since she was a child. No abuser starts a relationship with the abuse. They start with the love, with the compliments, and all the sweet nothings. I think a large part of why Janie stays with Tea Cake is because of the good that she had from the start and continues to have. With Logan, there was no good from the start, in the middle, or in the end. With Jody, she sees a horizon and a possibility: some good in the start, some good in the middle, no good in the end. With Tea Cake, though, she sees the good at the start, the good through the bad in the middle, and the good through the bad in the end.
ReplyDeleteHi John, I found your idea that her reason for staying with Tea Cake and trying to make it work to prove to other people that they were wrong is interesting and now that I've thought a bit about it, I actually agree with you. Of course on the surface level, Tea Cake sounds really awesome (lol this is weird to say) - he's not obsessed with money, he's not a boring guy into mules, he's a fun person, and he's physically attractive compared to everyone else. I do think that she might be in love with him - after all, she doesn't go looking for someone else to marry after he dies. However, he does have his problems - one that he considers he to be property and also does weird erratic stuff (like spending 200 dollars on mac and cheese???) without Janie's permission WITH HER MONEY. Janie does have fun though and she sees him as the first guy that she got to marry through her choice - she didn't get to pick Logan and probably went with Joe Starks since he was the only many other than Logan. Great job on this post!
ReplyDelete