1)
Hurston
uses nature – the pear tree, the ocean, the horizon, the hurricane – not only
as plot device but also as metaphor. How do they function as both?
2)
Many
readers consider the novel a coming-of-age novel, as Janie journeys through
three marriages. What initially attracts her to each man? What causes her to
leave? What does she learn from each?
3)
What
do the names of Janie’s husbands – Logan Killicks, Jody Starks, Vergible “Tea
Cake” Woods – tell us about their characters and their relationships with Janie?
4)
How
do the imagery and tone of the last few pages of the novel connect with other
moments in the novel? Does Janie’s story end in triumph, despair, or a mixture
of both?
Chapter 15
The incidents with Nunkie. At first
problematic, proves to strengthen their relationship. Because he wholly possesses her, she cannot
bear the thought that she does not wholly possess him. Once again—we see the
issue of possession in relationships.
Chapter 16
Mrs. Turner introduces the idea of
“racism” within the black community of the muck. She dislikes Teacake because
he is dark skinned and wants Janie tomarry her lighter skinned brother. This
issue being raised by Hurston points out the complexity within the African
American community and perhaps raises issues the dominant white culture was
unaware of her. She believed this was important to include in the novel.
Chapter 17-18
In this section we see Teacake beat
Janie. What is the deal with that? Has she decided the positives with Teacake
outweigh this new negative?
The storm is coming and Janie finds
out about by the Native Americans leaving the area. This hints at the often
supernatural ability of Native American characters in American Literature. Teacake is stubborn and believes they should
wait out the storm. He is wrong.
Has all that has happen between these
two made Janie strong enough to survive “the storm’?
What could the storm be symbolic of?
Think of storms in other examples of literature.
During the storm Janie tries to climb
onto of a cow but a dog standing on top of them cow is fighting her. Teacake
jumps in to save her---this can be another example of nature-vs-man. As
successful as Janie has been on her journey to the horizon, she is till
powerless against nature.
Chapter 19-20
Two white men force Teacake to start
burying corpses. This can be viewed as an example of race still being the most
important when it comes to social hierarchy.
The dog that bit Teacake during the
flood is rabid and we see him start to suffer from the effects. He eventually
goes and tries shooting her. An all white jury finds her not guilty.
The moment of Tea Cake’s death,
though horrible for Janie to endure, reflects how much she has grown as a person
and how secure she has become. Although Tea Cake means everything to her, she
is able to kill him to save herself. Her relationship with him has brought her
along the path of enlightenment, and now that she has achieved the horizon, she
is strong enough to live on her own.
Janie survives the trial, but, in a
final, complex commentary on race, Janie is welcomed by the white women but
shunned by the black community. Again, this reversal seems to reflect Hurston’s
anthropological views on race: racism is a cultural construct and as such,
black people are as susceptible (or potentially resistant) to its doctrines as
anyone else. This final scene reinforces the broad view of humanity that
informs the entire book: Janie’s quest is ultimately not specifically a black
person’s quest or a woman’s quest (although her race and gender are certainly
significant) but a fundamentally human one.
Her story finished, Janie tells Pheoby that she is
content to live in Eatonville again, having already lived her dream; she has
been to the “horizon and back.”
That night, in bed, Janie thinks
about the horrible day that she killed Tea Cake, and her whole world becomes
sad. She realizes, however, that Tea Cake gave her so much and that he will
always be with her. He showed her the horizon, and now she feels at peace.
“pull[ing] in her horizon” vs the opening image of men’s
“[s]hips at a distance.”
What
is the difference here?
“Tea Cake
began to cry and Janie hovered him in her arms like a child. She sat on the
side of the bed and sort of rocked him back to peace”
“Tea Cake
hung back defensively. "Whut Ah got tuh do wid dat [burying bodies]? Ah’m
uh workin’ man wid money in mah pocket. Jus’ got blowed outa de ‘Glades by de
storm."
How is Tea
Cake different from her two previous husbands?
The short [white] man made a quick move with
his rifle. "Git on down de road dere, suh! Don’t look out somebody’ll be
buryin’ you! G’wan in front uh me, suh!"
Race is more
important than money.
“Janie]:
"Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house
and live by comparisons. Dis house ain’t so absent of things lak it used tuh be
befo’ Tea Cake come along. It’s full uh thoughts, ‘specially dat bedroom”
“Soon
everything around downstairs was shut and fastened. Janie mounted the stairs
with her lamp…Now, in her room, the place tasted fresh again. The wind through
the open windows had broomed out all the fetid feeling of absence and
nothingness”
Her
experiences have shaped her.
Instead, Hurston introduces a third way of achieving
self-autonomy through Tea Cake. He represents an independence from reliance on
communal validation, and instead serves as a mirror for Janie to discover her
narrative power. In relation to the author's narrative power, Tea Cake is the
epitome of a good reader, one that is receptive to the transformative message
of the text. Language is the understanding and sharpening of one's identity
while communication comes second. In Hurston's innovative narrative, she is
attempting to fulfill the "ideal narrative", which is one that
nurtures and changes both the reader and the author.
“This is Zora Hurston's third novel, again about her own
people--and it is beautiful. It is about Negroes, and a good deal of it is
written in dialect, but really it is about every one, or least every one who
isn't so civilized that he has lost the capacity for glory”
