Janie hitting Tea Cake
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 very little actual discussion
between them to resolve it, and they fought for a long, long time before they
stopped (their clothes were ripped!), and “made up” – that is, physically but
not mentally made up.
However, the chapter appears to have been meant by Hurston
to be a depiction of a positively resolved conflict. They did make up,
and this issue of jealousy and flirting with other women doesn’t come up again
(though physical violence does occur again, albeit for a completely different
reason). And they do, after all, confirm it verbally the next morning – “She
didn’t say this because she believed it. She wanted to hear his denial”. This
seems to suggest that Janie wouldn’t have been satisfied without that verbal exchange
that put her at peace about Tea Cake’s loyalty, and puts points in favor of
their relationship being reasonably dependent on communication. However, the
next sentence, “She had to crow over the fallen Nunkie”, throws me off. It’s
one thing to take some time to resolve a conflict with your partner, meanwhile
still showing the other you love them, as the two did through physical
intimacy. But it’s another to only need that conflict verbally and clearly resolved
to feel superior to the other woman.
I may be going on a tangent here, but that’s pretty much how I feel about the chapter, still undecided. It’s clear to me that this sort of relationship would be viewed as more healthy back in the ‘20s when communication between partners was not so emphasized, than now, when we can see that physical abuse and then intimacy is not a healthy model. However, Huston herself portrayed physical abuse as bad earlier in the book, and I don’t understand why here she writes it positively, just because it lead to the issue “successfully” being solved. After all, in Joe’s eyes, he was also solving problems with violence.
Anyway, if anyone has a more concrete conclusion about this chapter and why Hurston wrote it this way feel free to share 👂
I was also torn about this chapter. Of course it was wrong of Janie to hit Tea Cake, but at the same time I almost rooted for her in the moment because she had been abused by all of her other husbands and it was so engrained into society that women would be submissive and accept their abuse. I don't believe in physical altercation, but at the same time she was trying to use her power.
ReplyDeleteYeah this chapter stuck out in the book to me a lot, because both Janie and Tea Cake act out of character. I think what you say about Hurston's intentions with chapter/these scenes makes a lot of sense. We are meant to interpret it in an almost positive way, but most people in the class didn't.
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a lot of interesting points here. I initially viewed Janie's behavior in this chapter somewhat positively since Janie was asserting some dominance for the first time, but at the same time I don't think she did it in a morally justifiable way. The way she uses her resolved conflict with Teacake to feel superior to Nunkie is also questionable. Both of these actions definitely shifted my perception of Janie and her values a little. I wonder whether Hurston thought of these behaviors positively while writing this chapter, since it seems weird that she's kind of only depicting them in a good way.
ReplyDeleteWhile what Janie did was wrong, I don't think that this chapter really demonstrates a positive way to resolve conflict. Of course the end result was good and everyone was happy in the end, but the way they reached that was definitely less than ideal. There was little to no actual dialogue between them other than angry yelling, and Janie was just attacking Tea Cake. This didn't exactly scream healthy relationship. On the other hand, Hurston might just be realistically displaying hitches that can occur in a relationship, and how they can be overcome and result in a positive outcome. This is a more extreme example of that, but I suppose for the time period it might not have been.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you wrote about this chapter. I think that the way that Hurston depicts their relationship has a lot of red flags even though overall it's pretty positive. I'm also unsure about how I feel about it. They hit each other on multiple occasions and it's often glamorized which I find to be really negative. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis scene was definitely confusing for me too. Janie has a history of abusive/unhealthy relationships, so maybe Hurston was trying to keep it consistent in showing that none of her romantic relationships will *ever* be considered perfect but this time is different because she's fighting back. Fighting back still doesn't make it okay, but it really shows how much this relationship has changed her.
ReplyDeleteI think this chapter was written by Hurston as an attempt to show how passionate their love for each other is, and how highly emotions run between them when they're together. And I think the main reason it feels so odd to read now is because our concept of what kind of romance is best has fundamentally shifted. If it is true that Hurston wrote this chapter as an example of a positive (or at least not a red flag) interaction, then her reasoning behind it is probably that, in Hurston's opinion, this is the most pure and romantic form of love. But now that it's years later and our idea of a good romantic relationship is one where people are comfortable and feel safe around each other, as opposed to one that's overstimulating, this chapter feels not right.
ReplyDeleteHey Stefania, you've perfectly captured my own internal conflict regarding this scene (and Teacake and Janie's overall relationship). Throughout reading the novel, I had a hard time taking into account the time and setting, which to some may provide context to many of the character's actions. Obviously Janie retaliating against Tea Cake was meant to be portrayed as a balancing of the scales, but two wrongs don't make a right, so I remain conflicted on the topic.
ReplyDeleteI also found this scene pretty interesting, and was surprised when it didn't come up or seem to have an effect on the rest of the book. Hurston could be portraying it positively because at least in this case, unlike with her past relationships, Janie stood up for herself and made the depths of her anger at Tea Cake known, albeit not in the best way.
ReplyDeleteIn general, the dynamics of relationships seems different than they were in the 20th-century, but they aren't. I don't think that it's okay for any partner in any relationship to hit the other partner, but it's more acceptable for a woman to hit a man rather than a man hitting a woman. I think the reason why Hurston makes this scene seem 'positive' is because Janie has been in many abusive relationships so for Janie to hit anyone shows that she has more confidence in herself. Then again, it could also be interpreted as Janie stooping down to the levels of her abusers.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this chapter is definitely hard for me to decide my thoughts on, because there's a divide between the standards of relationships from when this book was written and standards of relationships now. While I think from a personal standpoint as a result of the time period and environment I grew up in, Tea Cake and Janie's relationship is very toxic and codependent, I think in the context of when Their Eyes Were Watching God was written, Hurston aims to depict a passionate and deep love between Tea Cake and Janie. That doesn't erase the toxicity of the relationship, but it does help frame Hurston's point of Tea Cake helping Janie become the best version of herself. Great post!
ReplyDelete