Their Eyes Were Watching God

Question 1

Chapter 11: What worries does Janie have about Tea Cake?

Answer 1

Janie is worried about the age difference, him using her for her money and that he is just playing her and is just out with other women

Question 2

Chapter 11: What one public opinion about Tea Cake and Janie?

Answer 2

They are worried TC is below Janie and he is using her

Question 3

Chapter 11: How does Janie’s emotions vary throughout the chapter?

Answer 3

She is angry at Tea Cake and then happy to be with him and then is angry again, they fluctuate on whether she is with him or what he has told her

Question 4

Chapter 11: How does TC treatment of Janie compare to Logan and Jody?

Answer 4

TC wants her to have fun and doesn’t want her to go out of her way for him

Question 5

Chapter 11: In what ways do TC actions contradict Janie’s worries?

Answer 5

TC pays and works hard to take Janie out and he tells her how beautiful she is and how much he likes her how he keeps coming back and proving his commitment for her

Question 6

Chapter 1: What views of men and women are presented?(what the notice about Janie and their dreams)

Answer 6

The women seem to notice things about Janie to judge her and the men seem to notice things to sexualise her
The men seem to have far away dreams and ambitions that they wait and hope will arrive whereas the women seem more practical about their hopes and dreams and act to get what they want

Question 7

Chapter 1: what is the town’s attitude towards Janie and what is her attitude towards the town? How does the communal dialogue help establish the town as a character?
a. Why are the ‘porch sitters’ so negative?
b. How does Phoeby compare to the other ‘porch sitters’?
descriptions add?

Answer 7

Janie seems like someone unknown they want to find out things about her, they are curious. They judge her for dating a younger man and call her old for being over fourty. They like to embellish on the age of her and the person she is dating to pass judgement
The dialogue seems to merge into a jealous bitter character as the town
Janie doesn’t seem to care what they think she is self assured and doesn’t seem to need their approval

Question 8

Chapter 1: What do you notice about the narrator?
a. What tone or style of voice does the narrator use?
b. What seems to be the narrator’s feelings towards the characters?
c. How does the narrator establish the setting? What do the narrator’s descriptions add?

Answer 8

The narrator uses alot of idioms and their language is very proper compared to the dialogue. Sometimes it’s hard to understand but it adds to the mood of the dialogue and makes everything deeper and more important

Question 9

Chapter 1: What seems to be important to this novel? What are your predictions?
Does the novel remind you of anything?

Answer 9

It seems to be important that Janie is telling her own story to her best friend. Friendship and freedom seem to be important to the story

Question 10

Chapter 2: What do we learn from Janie about her early childhood? What seems
significant here?

Answer 10

Janie grew up with her grandma, her parents left. For most of her childhood she thought she was white because she played with the grandchildren her grandmother looked after. The white family was kind to her and gave her their case off clothes
Janie is treated differently at school because she lives with a white family. She doesn’t truly fit in anywhere. At school she hears stories of her dad doing something to her mum

Question 11

Chapter 2: Why does the writer decide to tell us the beginning of Janie’s story in her own
voice?

Answer 11

The writer starts in Janie’s voice because it adds to the emotion in the story and also speeds up the story telling. It also makes it harder to read

Question 12

Chapter 2: What happens to Janie under the pear tree? What do you notice about the
language used to describe this experience?

Answer 12

The language used to describe the experience of Janie under the pear tree is related either to marriage or nature. She seems to have a sort of revelation in which the way she sees the world had changed. It’s an important turning moment in her life. There are alot of questioning and excitement. She seems to be longing for marriage and sexual awaking.
The description of nature seems quite sensual. Janie seems to be unembarrassed about these thoughts of sex. To her it seems natural and she seems innocent and naive about all these things

Question 13

Chapter 2: Why does Janie’s grandmother want her to marry Logan Killicks? Is she
justified in wanting this?

Answer 13

Nanny wants her to marry Logan Killicks for protection from the white people and to give her a good life. Nanny reacted so drastically because she was raped by her master when she was young and she doesn’t seem trust men to treat women well

Question 14

Chapter 2: What do we learn about Janie’s grandmother and mother’s lives? What seem significant here?

Answer 14

Nanny was a slave who ran away Janie’s mum was born because the Mistress of the house wanted to kill. She hid in the woods with Janie’s mum until the civil war was over and the slaves were freed. Nanny wanted best life for Jamie’s mum so she doesn’t get married. However one night Leafy (Janie’s mum) gets raped by a school teacher. After Janie was born she disappears and becomes an alcoholic

Question 15

Chapter 3: How do Nanny and Janie’s views and expectations of marriage compare?

Answer 15

Janie
Janie wanted to love the person she marries
She wants to be attracted to them
Nanny
Nanny is not surprised there is no love
Nanny puts more importance on material things
Nanny thinks Janie should be grateful
Nanny doesn’t even expect Logan Killicks to treat Janie kindly
Nanny wants Janie to be respectable

Question 16

Chapter 4: Read the chapter and pick out 5 things that seem particularly
significant.
2. How does this chapter develop ideas around:
a. Having / finding a voice?
b. Control?
c. Love and desire?
3. What clues are there about the kind of relationship Jody and Janie will
have? What predictions do you have for them

Question 17

Chapter 5:
What have we learned about Jody Starks already? What does the writer seem to want us to know about him? What were your predictions for his relationship with Janie?

Answer 17

Jody forces Janie to work in the store but Janie doesn’t want to. Janie wants to spend more time with Jody and she feels like Jody is isolating her from the town. Jody wants to put Janie up on a pedestal above the rest of the town but Janie wants to connect with them.

Question 18

Chapter 6: Why does everyone talk about Matt Bonner’s mule?
What is Jody’s opinion of the conversations about the mule? Why is this
significant?

Answer 18

Everyone’s talks about the old mule to tease it and make fun of it. Jody likes the conversation about the mules and listens to them but doesn’t get involved

Question 19

Chapter 6: “She wasn’t petal-open anymore with him. […] She had no more blossomy
openings dusting pollen over her man”

Answer 19

Pear tree analogy - there are no passion, love or romance between them. She can’t see the real person behind the pollen when she first met Jody

Question 20

Chapter 7: What seems significant in this chapter?

Answer 20

Jody is very vain in this chapter - he is getting old but doesn’t want to acknowledge it
So he picks on Janie’s looks and complains about how old she is getting but when Janie turns this back on him he gets defensive and annoyed at Janie. Jody is very hypocritical as he treats Janie terribly and can’t handle her treating him the same

Question 21

Chapter 8:What does Jody do after Janie’s humiliating dressing-down and why?

Answer 21

Jody goes and sleeps downstairs to make Janie feel bad. He stops eating her food and when he gets sick he doesn’t want to see her or talk to her at all. Jody also becomes friendly with people he looked down upon before

Question 22

Chapter 9: What is Joe’s funeral like?

Answer 22

Joe’s funeral is fancy, they are treating him with a lot of respect it’s a big important event appropriate for a man who cared deeply about status

Question 23

Chapter 10: How and why does Janie meet Tea Cake?

Answer 23

Janie meets Tea Cake when he came to the store when everyone was at the game and Tea Cake didn’t know where the game was

Question 24

Chapter 12: What does the town think about Janie’s new relationship with Tea Cake?

Answer 24

The town seems to think that Janie was silly for hanging around someone like Tea Cake and that it was inappropriate for Janie to be happy and out with Tea Cake so soon after Jody’s death - maybe they are jealous

Question 25

Chapter 13: Describe Tea Cake and Janie’s reunion in Jacksonville.

Answer 25

Tea Cake and Janie’s reunion was quick and loving. She is afraid of how in love she is

Question 26

Chapter 3: What is the significance of Nanny’s death?

Answer 26

Janie is now completely on her own, she has to fend for herself but she is also able to now follow her own path without Nanny judging her

Question 27

Chapter 3:How does Janie feel after a year of marriage to Logan Killicks?
(Gate imagery)

Answer 27

Janie feels unfulfilled, she expected to start to love Logan bu now but she doesn’t
Gate imagery she is looking for more and wanting to go beyond her traditional limitations

Question 28

Chapter 3: How are we to interpret the last lines of the chapter:
“The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate
and looked up the road towards way off. She knew that marriage did not
make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.”

Answer 28

The last lines in which Janie realises that she will not love someone just because she married them and the fact that the death of her dream makes her a woman links to the line in chapter one of women not hanging on to useless dreams

Question 29

Chapter 5:How does Jody behave in this chapter? What is his approach to setting up
his new life in Eatonville?

Answer 29

Jody acts as a leader when they arrive. He uses his influence and money to become mayor. He builds the town the way he wants it to be like and is disappointed with the way they have done it so far. He gets to action straight away. He puts the street lamp up and the town holds a big feast. Jody wants to spread the word about the town.

Question 30

Chapter 5: How do the townspeople of Eatonville feel about Jody Starks and his
attempts to improve the town?

Answer 30

The towns people seem split in their opinion about Jody and his ideas. Cookey is for is for Jody’s idea and looks forward to the change. Hicks is reluctant to accept change.Jody buys the land and the towns people don’t believe that Jody could buy the land. Hubriss in the way Jody bring the town light (like a god). But the townspeople slowly warm up to him as time passes as they appreciate the improvements he brought to the town

Question 31

Chapter 5: In what ways does the idea of ‘having a voice’ develop in this chapter?

Answer 31

Jody takes away Janie’s opportunity to speak at the town meeting - taking away her voice and spoiling her idea of happiness with Jody
Jody uses his voice and his convincing speeches to assert his power and influence
Those who ‘have a voice’ and those who don’t establish the hierarchy in the town

Question 32

Chapter 5: In what ways does the idea of ‘control’ develop in this chapter?

Answer 32

Jody takes control over the town giving instructions to the towns people
He commands Janie to dress up nicely in the store
Jody likes control ‘He’s a man who changes everything but nothing changes him’
The townspeople notice how Jody tells Janie off for mistakes in the store and tries to control her.
He makes her tie up her hair as he doesn’t want anyone else to see it

Question 33

Chapter 6: How does Janie feel about how people treat the mule and about what Jody does for the mule? Why is this significant?

Answer 33

Janie feels similar to the mule because she feels oppressed like the mule. Janie is proud of Jody, she is impressed and compares him to people who freed the slaves

Question 34

Chapter 6:In what ways does Jody ‘control’ Janie?

Answer 34

Janie isn’t allowed to interact or listen to the conversations about the mule

Question 35

Chapter 6: How does Matt Bonner’s mule raise or connect with bigger concerns that the novel is interested in?

Answer 35

The mule became a symbol of hope and liberation in the town
Nanny also compared black women because they are both the beast of burden of the world. Logan Killicks wants get Janie a mule

Question 36

Chapter 6:“The spirit of marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never
went back inside the bedroom again. So she put something in there to
represent the spirit like a Virgin Mary image in a church. The bed was no
longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she
went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired”

Answer 36

She no longer feels love from Jody in private only in public. It’s a functional relationship. They are no longer in love or passionate with each other

Question 37

Chapter 6:“She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went
inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and
shattered. […] She found that she had a host of thoughts she had never
expressed to him, and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know
about. Things packed up and put away in parts of her heart where he could
never find them. She was saving up feelings for some man she had never
seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how
not to mix them”

Answer 37

She is discovering that her feelings for Jody aren’t what she thought they were. She is considering these hidden feelings. She finally snapped but she had had these feelings for a while. Jody caused these thoughts to finally reveal themselves. She has suddenly got the realisation that she is different from how she shows everyone she is realising she never loved Jody but she is hopeful that she has the capability to love someone else.

Question 38

Chapter 8: What rumour does Phoeby tell Janie is going around about her and Jody?
What is Janie’s reaction to hearing about this rumour?

Answer 38

There is a rumour going round that Janie is poisoning Jody.
Janie starts to cry and is shocked by the rumour

Question 39

Chapter 8: When Janie finds out that Jody’s health has seriously deteriorated, what does she do?

Answer 39

She tries to help him by making soup and then calling a doctor, the doctor tells her Jody is going to die

Question 40

Chapter 8: What does Janie think is the cause of Jody’s demise?

Answer 40

Janie thinks that Jody has overworked himself by being so hard on others in the town

Question 41

Chapter 8: What does Janie feel and do after Jody’s death? Why is this significant?

Answer 41

When Jody dies Janie looks at herself in the mirror and let’s down her hair. This is important because Jody forced her to put up her hair and letting it down is a sign of Janie’s new freedom
Janie admires herself in the mirror and allows herself to remind herself of what she looks like
She reflects on how she had grown up into this older woman who is still beautiful
However Janie puts her hair back up as she announces the news to the town feeling the need to keep up her facade for the town

Question 42

Chapter 8: what is significant about Jody’s death and his conversation with Janie before hand?

Answer 42

Janie finally tells him the truth about how she feels but Jody although on his death bed doesn’t want to listen to Janie

Question 43

Chapter 9: How does Janie feel at Joe’s funeral? What does the figurative language used here
suggest? (Does this remind you of anything?)

Answer 43

At the funeral inside the veil Janie feels free and at peace but outside is a separate place, she feels free but can’t show it but Janie can be two completely different selves at the same time

Question 44

Chapter 9: What does Janie do the night after her second husband’s funeral and why is this
significant?

Answer 44

She burns all her head rags
Joe made her hide her hair but now she can be herself

Question 45

Chapter 9: To what extent does life change for Janie after Joe’s death? Why might Janie be cautious of changing her behaviour too much, too quickly?

Answer 45

Janie is starting to get attention from other me but she doesn’t want to go into a relationship
She was married for twenty years and she feels the ghost of Jody haunting her in the store

Question 46

Chapter 9: What new insights and realisations does Janie have about her mother and particularly Nanny? Why do you think she makes these connections now?

Answer 46

Janie realises that she doesn’t want to see her mother and that she hates Nanny. She blames Nanny for the terrible marriages she had.
She realises this because she finally has the freedom to consider going home

Question 47

Chapter 9: On page 102, Hurston offers a variation on a creation myth. Compare this story to
the story of Adam and Eve and describe their similarities and differences.

Answer 47

Hurston believes that humans were too shiny that angels got jealous and broke them and covered them in mud. Humans are just trying to get out of the mud and find other sparks.
This is similar to the story of Adam and Eve as you have got the idea that humans were once these wonderful creatures that were punished but the angels which made them less wonderful. However it is different because hurston’s story is focus on the jealousy of the angels rather than the fault of the humans

Question 48

Chapter 9: Once she becomes a financially independent widow, how do men treat Janie? How
does respond to her suitors?

Answer 48

Mens try to marry Janie but they treat her with respect and esteem when trying to court her
But Janie doesn’t hear anyone out

Question 49

Chapter 10: What are your first impressions of Tea Cake? How does he talk and behave?

Answer 49

Tea Cake is genuine, funny and jovial. He doesn’t put Janie up on and pedestal or try to act like he is above her. He treats her like an equal.

Question 50

Chapter 10: Explain why it is symbolically significant that Tea Cake invites Janie to play
checkers and teaches her the how to play the game. How does this make him a foil* for Joe Starks?

Answer 50

Tea Cake asking Janie to play checkers with him shows us how patient inclusive and fun Tea Cake is. This shows how he is a foil for Jody exaggerating how kind and sweet Tea Cake is in comparison to Jody who is rough and mean

Question 51

Chapter 10: How does Janie respond to Tea Cake’s flirtation? Why do you think she responds the way she does?

Answer 51

Janie flirts back with Tea Cake a little becyshe seems to very at ease with him. Janie also laughs alot she seems to be happy to be with Tea Cake

Question 52

Chapter 10: What might the significance of Tea Cake’s nickname and real name be?

Answer 52

Vergible Woods: Vergible means truthful which highlights how geniune and honest he is. Woods connects to nature and maybe the pear tree.
Tea Cake: Tea Cake shows how fun, informal and sweet he is. Having a nickname shows that he is less concerned with how he is known

Question 53

Chapter 10: Does Tea Cake seem like a good man for Janie? What are your predictions?

Answer 53

Tea Cake seems like a good man for Janie and he doesn’t seem to want her for any reason but simply treat her as a person. He also is helping her develop as a person like he taught her to play checkers. Janie herself is also now independent and on a better situation to start a relationship at her own pace

Question 54

Chapter 10: What do you make of the final image in this chapter?

Answer 54

The final image in the chapter is the moon which represents romance and this sort of female image in mythology. It also implies that Janie will get to fulfill her thirst for romance and passion she has been longing for

Question 55

Chapter 12: How does Janie respond to each of the objections that Phoeby relays to her from Sam?

Answer 55

Janie repeats to Pheoby that Tea Cake isn’t doing anything to her and that she is choosing what she wants to do. Janie trusts Tea Cake and let’s Pheoby know that this is her choice and she doesn’t care what anyone thinks. Janie thinks everyone’s concerns are kinda hypocritical as everyone else is after her money

Question 56

Chapter 12: Why are Janie and Tea Cake going to leave Eatonville?

Answer 56

Janie doesn’t want people to compare Tea Cake and Jody she wants to start over somewhere new where she can live the life she want wants

Question 57

Chapter 12: How have Janie’s attitudes toward marriage changed?

Answer 57

Janie had realised that the last two times she married strangers and that she married for money but this time she is marrying someone she knows and she is confident in her choice but does realise people can change

Question 58

Chapter 12: Janie again reflects on Nanny’s worldview. In what ways have Janie’s views on Nanny also changed?

Answer 58

Janie knows that Nanny only wanted what she thought was good for her because from Nanny’s perspective getting Janie married so she wouldn’t have to work and would sit up high like a white woman. Janie understand why Nanny thoytjat and doesn’t seem to resent Nanny as she once did but she also knows that Nanny was wrong and that she shouldn’t have made Janie’s decisions for her

Question 59

Chapter 12: What is Phoeby’s opinion of Janie’s plans?

Answer 59

Phoeby seems to think Janie is rushing into things with Tea Cake and maybe she is being a little reckless

Question 60

Chapter 13: What secret does Janie keep from Tea Cake? Why does she keep this secret?

Answer 60

Janie keeps two hundred dollars from Tea Cake. Phoeby tells her her to hide it because she is worried Tea Cake is trying to swindle Janie out of her money

Question 61

Chapter 13: What causes Janie to begin to think about Annie Tyler and Who Flung? After reading Annie
Tyler’s story, explain why Pheoby mentioned her as a warning to Janie.

Answer 61

When Janie wakes up one day and Tea Cake and her money is gone she thinks Tea Cake took her money like Who flung did to Annie Tyler
Pheoby used Annie Tyler’s story as a cautionary tale because Annie got embarrassed and was forced to come back home Phoeby told her this to continue her not to trust Tea Cake blindly Annie had also just wanted to be loved

Question 62

Chapter 13: When Tea Cake returns, what story does he tell Janie about where he’s been? Do you think he is telling her the complete truth? Why or why not?

Answer 62

He throws a big party, pays a woman to stay out and buys a guitar. When Tea Cake returns he seems reluctant to tell Janie where he has been and his story is all over the place and I don’t think he is telling the whole truth.

Question 63

Chapter 13: What reason does Tea Cake give for not taking Janie with him? How does she respond?

Answer 63

Tea Cake says that he wanted Janie to be with him and that he tried to come back for her but was scared that she would she he was too common for her Janie tells him that she wants to go anywhere with him

Question 64

Chapter 13: What “secret” does Tea Cake reveal about himself? How is he planning to get back the two hundred dollars he took from Janie? What happens to him?

Answer 64

Tea Cake tells Janie that he is good at gambling and that he will back Janie two hundred dollars with his dice. When he is out he gets cut by a angry loser with a razor

Question 65

Chapter 13: Why do you think Janie decides to tell Tea Cake about the money she has in the bank?
How does he respond when he finds out how much money she has?

Answer 65

When Tea Cake gives her her money back Janie tells him about her other money. I think it is because Janie trusts Tea Cake since he kepts his promise. He tells her that he doesn’t need her help and that he came make his own money

Question 66

Chapter 13: At the end of the chapter Janie feels a “self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.” How do you interpret these final words? What is she feeling and why?

Answer 66

Maybe Janie feels like her love for Tea Cake will kill her and she feels like she is again going to become the wife her husband wants her to be and not herself

Question 67

Chapter 14: What does Tea Cake teach Janie to do while they are waiting for the beans to grow?

Answer 67

Tea Cake teaches Janie to shoot and Janie gets really good at it Janie finds this very exciting and fun

Question 68

Chapter 14: Describe the atmosphere of the Glades once people start arriving to work the harvest.

Answer 68

The atmosphere is light and friendly and joyful thereis music and fun and everyone seems to be like Tea Cake and live only for the moment, everyone seems care free and happy and hardworking in the Glades even though they are poor they gamble for fun, they don’t seem to care about status or hierarchy

Question 69

Chapter 14: How are the activities on Tea Cake’s doorstep similar to and/or different from the activities on Joe’s porch?

Answer 69

Janie was able to join in and listen to the activities Tea Cake also seems to be this naturally charsmatic nature which makes people crowd around him

Question 70

Chapter 14: Why does Janie start working with Tea Cake? Describe her attitude towards joining him in the fields.

Answer 70

Janie joins TeaCake because Tea Cake is lonely without Janie. Tea Cake wants her to be by his side. Janie likes working in the fields amd playing with people. She has a choice to work or not and Tea Cake helps her at home as well. They are more like equals than Jody or LOgan ever were with Janie

Question 71

Chapter 14: Describe the tone and mood of this chapter.

Answer 71

the tone of the chapter is quite lively and playful with everyone enjoying them selves

Question 72

Chapter 14: How are Tea Cake and Logan’s requests that she work with them different? And how has Janie changed since Logan’s request?

Answer 72

Logan sees Janie as a tool and doesn’t really care about what Janie wants or feels whereas Tea Cake does care that Janie is happy and he just wants Janie to be with him because he loves her. Janie has changed from believing that her place is in the home to realising tha the gendered division of labour can be oppressive to women

Question 73

Chapter 15: Explain how Janie “learns to get jealous” and how Tea Cake reassures her. Do you think she is right to be jealous?

Answer 73

Janie gets jealous of Tea Cake and Nunkie and Tea Cake tells her that Nukie means nothing to him and redeclares his love for Janie. I do think that Janie has a right to be jealous and she was right to tell Tea Cake her feelings and not hide them

Question 74

Chapter 15: When Tea Cake disappears with Nunkie into a cane field, how does Janie handle it? What do both Janie and Tea Cake’s actions and behaviour reveal about each of them and their relationship at this stage? How has Janie changed since her marriage with Joe Starks?

Answer 74

Janie chases after them, fights with Tea Cake and tries to catch Nunkie. Janie being unable to control her emotions and her violence towards Tea Cakes shows how much she had changed since Joe because if the same thing happened with Joe she wouldn’t care but she loves Tea Cake. Tea Cake ‘s actions show that he still is that care free person who doesn’t really think about his actions and does whatever thinks thinks would be fun. It also shows that although better than her other relationships Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake also has problems

Question 75

Chapter 16: Why do Janie and Tea Cake decide to stay in the Everglades after the season ends?

Answer 75

Janie and Tea Cake want to stay in the muck another year and they don’t really see a reason to leave

Question 76

Chapter 17: Why does Tea Cake become jealous? How does he handle his jealousy?

Answer 76

Tea Cake becomes jealous because Mrs Turner brings her brother around. He handles his jealousy by hitting/ whipping Janie

Question 77

Chapter 18: Why do the Seminole Indians say they are leaving Belle Glade? Why don’t the residents believe they’re right?

Question 78

Chapter 19:Analyze the imagery used to describe “Him-with-the-square-toes” (page 192). What do you think Hurston is describing/personifying?
Why does Tea Cake end up helping gather and bury the dead? What does he find out about the different way that black and white bodies are being treated?
The narrative has taken place in a largely all-black setting so far. In Palm Beach we get a glimpse of the racism in the broader culture. Why do you think Hurston introduces this here at this moment in the story?
Why do Tea Cake and Janie go back to Belle Glade? What do they find out about their friends when they return?
How much time passes between the hurricane and the onset of Tea Cake’s illness? What are his first symptoms? How rapidly does his condition deteriorate? Which symptom is particularly alarming to Janie?
At one time, the disease Rabies was also known as hydrophobia. Why was it an appropriate name.
What does the doctor say Tea Cake’s prognosis is? What does the doctor want to do with Tea Cake?
Examine Janie’s appeal to God. What does it mean when she realizes that “God would do less than He had in His heart”?
How does Tea Cake’s illness affect their relationship?
In his delirium, what does Tea Cake become jealous about? What does he accuse Janie of doing? What does Janie find under his pillow? Why does it frighten her?
At Janie’s trial, who will decide her fate?
How do the Black audience behave? What language is used to describe them and what might be the significance of this? Why might they feel and behave like this?
How does her storytelling to the court compare to her storytelling to Phoebe?
What instructions does the judge give the jury before they begin deliberations? Why do you think he tells them this? What seems to be biggest influence on their verdict?
Explain the meaning of the epithet Janie uses to describe Tea Cake: “son of Evening Sun”.
How is the attitude of the town different at Tea Cake’s funeral than it was at the funeral of Joe Starks? How is Janie different? What does the line, “she was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief ” reveal about how her character has changed?

Question 79

Chapter 20:Why does Janie leave Belle Glade? What does she take with her “for remembrance”? In what ways is this a fitting remembrance?
Explain what Janie means when she tells Pheoby, “Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons.”
How has Janie’s attitude about the opinion of the townspeople changed?
Janie says there are “two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves.” What are they? What do you think Janie discovers about them?
Describe the mood of the end of the book. What has Janie lost? What has she found?

Question 80

Chapter 16: Describe Mrs. Turner’s physical appearance. What do you think it means on page 158 when Hurston calls her “a milky sort of woman that belonged to child-bed”?

Answer 80

Mrs Turner’s posture seems to be odd. She is fairer than most of the people. She had a pointed nose, thin lips and she is proud of the features that set her apart from the black people

Question 81

Chapter 16: Why does Mrs. Turner seek out Janie for friendship? Why doesn’t she approve of Tea Cake?

Answer 81

Mrs Turner became friends with Janie because Janie is fairer skinned then her. She doesn’t approve of Tea Cake because in her mind he is too dark skinned

Question 82

Chapter 16: Explain Mrs. Turner’s feelings about her racial identity. Although both Janie and Mrs. Turner have biracial ancestry, contrast Mrs. Turner’s attitudes about race with Janie’s.

Answer 82

Mrs Turner seems like she hates anyone who is black and wants to be considered white although she is biracial. Janie in comparison has no problem being classed as black and doesn’t seem to have the same vanity Mrs Turner has about being biracial. Mrs Turner seems to have very strong opinoins about the topic but Janie who has always lived amongst black people doesn’t really

Question 83

Chapter 16: How does Janie respond to Mrs Turner’s ‘rants’? What do Janie’s responses to Mrs. Turner reveal her? Should Janie speak up more forcefully?

Answer 83

Janie doesn’t seem to know how to respond. She responds in a mild mannered ay as she has never been faced with such sudden exterme views before.

Question 84

Chapter 16: Do you believe that Hurston intended readers to view Mrs. Turner sympathetically or not? Explain your answer.

Answer 84

I feel a little sympathetic towards her because she is trapped in this impossible dream of wanting to be white when she can never be. However I think that the way she treats people is horrible so I don’t feel too bad for her as she is simply forcing her own ideals onto others and doing what the white people had done to her so I don’t feel too sympathic towards her.

Question 85

Chapter 17: Based on the context, what do you think “getting their knots charged” is a slang expression for doing (page 149)?

Answer 85

Getting drunk

Question 86

Chapter 17: How is this scene in which Tea Cake “slapped her around a bit” similar to and/or different from the scene in which Joe Starks “slapped her face in the kitchen” (167, 91)? How is Tea Cake’s assertion that “Janie is wherever Ah wants tuh be” similar to and/or different from Logan Killick’s statement that Janie “ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh” (168, 36)?

Answer 86

Tea Cake slapping Janie is similar to Jodie slapping Janie in the store because both times it was to make a point and to show their control over Janie in public
However Tea Cake’s statment is that that Janie is his which is different to Logan’s similar statement because Tea Cake loves Janie and Janie choose to be with him opposed to Logan who wanted to use her as a tool and exert his control over her

Question 87

Chapter 17: Does Tea Cake’s act of beating Janie suggest that he might not be the ideal partner that she had been dreaming of? Why or why not?

Answer 87

Janie still loves Tea Cake even if he is abusive. Obviously Tea Cake isn’t the perfect person but that doesn’t change the fact that they both still love each other and despite things not being perfect.

Question 88

Chapter 17: Do you agree with scholars who argue that Hurston constructs Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake as a model of gender equality? Or do you agree with scholars who argue that Hurston uses their relationship to illustrate “women’s exclusion from power”? Why?

Answer 88

I disagree that Janie and Tea Cake are a representation of “women’s exclusion from power” as Janie has far more power now that ever had in relationships and Tea Cake’s love for her gives her power over him. But Tea Cake does have more power in the relationship as Janie is weaker than him and he also has emotional power over her aswell. They also live in a time where an equal relationsip between men and women is extermely rare and men are expected to have more power