AA Lit Stefania

In chapter 15 of Their Eyes Were Watching God , Janie gets jealous of Nunkie, another farm worker, for her flirtatious exchanges with Tea Cake. In retaliation, Janie tries to chase Nunkie (presumably to hurt her?) and when she escapes Janie goes home, away from Tea Cake and the rest of the workers. At home, when Tea Cake returns she hits him and they struggle for a long time until they make up by having sex. The next morning is when their issue is actually resolved, when Janie asks him if he loves or loved Nunkie and Tea Cake assures her that he doesn’t and didn’t. I’m conflicted about this chapter. On one hand, Janie’s violent response to Tea Cake is clearly not ok and shows that there are gaps in their relationship with communication. She doesn’t even try to talk before she hits him, and his only chance to explain was maybe intervening between her and Nunkie and physically making her stop walking away to talk to her. As well as that, even though the chapter ends amicably, there was...

 It’s odd to me that the question of whether Their Eyes Were Watching God is a love story is a way to determine whether it can serve as an empowering novel and whether it can be about Janie as an individual. When Janie has been with three men, learning different things from each relationship, the man she falls in love with absolutely speaks to her character. If the novel had ended on Jodie dying, I doubt that people would be saying that the novel is not about Janie but rather about her relationship with Jodie, since it would still follow her struggles in life. Tea Cake and Janie having a successful relationship doesn’t change that core theme, as is especially shown in the novel ending with her alone – the final note is not about their connection, but about what Janie is left with after all of her experiences that the book showed. In class, the point that she saw memories of Tea Cake in her old house after he died was used as evidence for the story not being after her individual gr...