“Tea Cake, the son of
the Evening Sun, had to die for loving her.” P. 169
After finding out the
truth about Tea Cake’s condition and that he might die, Janie begins to blame
herself for Tea Cake’s inevitable death. If he would never have had to save her
from that mean dog, Tea Cake would have never been bitten and would be okay. Of
course, he did that out of love for Janie. If Tea Cake wouldn’t have loved her,
he wouldn’t have risked his life. That’s one way to look at it. However, Tea Cake was too proud to listen to
all of the warnings regarding the hurricane. If he would have decided to listen
and follow the Native Americans’ idea to leave the Everglades, then they would
have never even been in the predicament where Tea Cake would need to save
Janie. In a sense, Tea Cake’s pride and ego is his downfall.
I also think it’s important to note Janie’s differing
feelings between Jody and Tea Cake’s death. After Jody passed away, although
initially somewhat saddened, she found herself mostly reveling in her new found
freedom. She was criticized by the fact that she didn’t openingly mourn for a
long period afterwards. However, she didn’t feel the need to mourn if she no
longer felt grief. Her reactions to Tea Cake’s death are much stronger.
Obviously, this is because she feels responsible for his sickness and was the
one to pull the trigger. However, she is also more strongly affected because her
feelings towards Tea Cake are much deeper. He’s the one who helped her establish
a sense of self-worth and dignity. Through him, she developed a voice. The fact
that she was willing to kill in order to save herself demonstrates how far she
has come as an individual.
On another note, I really liked the passage on page 151 where
Tea Cake asks Janie if she would blame him if they lost their lives to the
hurricane because it was his idea to move to the Everglades. Janie responds
with, “If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk.”
If Janie’s life ended right then and there, she would have been content with that
because she experienced genuine happiness in her life. This is a feeling that
many people never find and certainly a feeling Janie may have at one point
thought not possible for her. But Tea Cake helped open that door. The happiness
Janie felt was partly due to her love for Tea Cake, but mostly due to her freedom
and independence as a woman. Now, even without Tea Cake, she can continue to be
in control of her life and feel joy because of that.
Although I initially didn’t much care for this novel, partly
due to the dialect, I finish it with a sense of appreciation. In many ways it is a story of success, as
Janie battles oppression and comes up victorious.
It seems no matter how many object lessons we get, the downfall of many people is their pride and ego. No matter how many times we see people's egos grow unchecked and ultimately cause them great harm or even death, we are still susceptible to the same trap. Those who think they are immune always seem to end up being the first to succumb.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the last paragraph. Hurston's style of switching point-of-view bothered me at first, but by the end I barely noticed it and didn't mind much. Hurston's unique voice complemented her writing style nicely, providing some sentences that were really poetic and masterfully crafted.
Janie did truly have genuine happiness, and I agree that Tea Cake made it happen. Poor Janie was forced into a marriage she did not want, endured a marriage she thought was right, and so on. And yet, with Tea Cake, no matter what happened--having the possibility of dying in a hurricane--she was happy. I also would like to add that I think because she really loved Tea Cake, she was just merely content with being with him even if it meant dying together. Unfortunately, he had to die first.
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