Annotated Passage From Ch.14
Critical Analysis
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“You don’t
think Ah’m tryin’ tuh git outa takin’ keer uh yuh, do yuh Janie, ‘cause
Ah ast yuh tuh work long side uh me?” Tea Cake asked her at the end
of her first week in the field.“Ah naw, honey. Ah laks it. It’s mo’ nicer thatn settin’ round dese quarters all day. Clerkin’ in dat store wuz hard, but heah, we ain’t got nothin’ tuh do but do our work and come home and love.”
The house was full of people every night. That is, all around the doorstep was full. Some were there to hear Tea Cake pick the box; some came to talk and tell stories, but most of them came to get into whatever game was going on or might go on. Sometimes Tea Cake lost heavily, for here were several good gamblers on the lake. Sometimes he won and made Janie proud of his skill. But outside of the two jooks, everything on that job went on around those two.
Sometimes Janie would think of the old days in the big white house and the store and laugh to herself. What if Eatonville could see her now in her blue denim overalls and heavy shoes? The crowd of people around her and a dice game on her floor! She was sorry for her friends back there and scornful of the others. The men held big arguments here like they used to do on the store porch. Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to. She got so she could tell big stories herself from listening to the rest. Because she loved to hear it, and the men loved to hear themselves, they would “woof” and “booger-boo” around the games to the limit. No matter how rough it was, people seldom got mad, because everything was done for a laugh.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, 133-134.
Notes on Text:
"You don’t think Ah’m tryin’ tuh git outa takin’ keer uh yuh, do yuh Janie,"
This excerpt shows Tea Cake's feeling of responsibility to his gender role as a male and "bread-winner." He desires to maintain this role and but he misses Janie at work and asks her this question carefully because he does not want force Janie into assuming any male gender roles or to make her feel like he is abandoning his expected reponsibility. Back to passage.
The house was full of people every night.
The fact that the Tea Cake's house was full of people every night reveals how popular he and Janie were, but it also portrays Tea Cake as a leader of sort and how everyone came to his house. Tea Cake being a leading figure parallels his male gender role to be a man that takes charge and can even relate to Janie in the sense that he can be seen as the "head of the household."
- Additional comment from http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/eyes/summ4.html
"Also, it is important to recognize that Tea Cake is the leader of his community just as Joe was the leader of his; recognize the parallelism in this chapter with the comparison between Joe's big white porch and Tea Cake's doorway. However, Tea Cake's leadership is not oppressive he leads the other workers' laughter and encourages them to play in the fields. Instead of using a 'big voice' he entertains with his guitar and his good humor."
Back to passage.
Janie proud of his skill.
Janie's pride in Tea Cake's skill is important for his male gender role because it reflects how Janie can look up to her husband and he can understand that she thinks him to be one of the best as well as someone that can win for her. Back to passage
Big white house
- Comment from http://www.novelguide.com/theireyeswerewatchinggod/themeanalysis.html
"For example, Janie's husband Jody paints his house 'a gloaty, sparkly white,' (44) humiliates the citizens of Eatonville in similar ways as the white man would, and forces Janie into the slavish servitude reflected by the identity-confining head rag he makes her wear (51). Yet, Janie fights Joe's tyranny by telling him off just before he dies in Chapter Eight, then reclaims her own identity by burning up 'every one of her head rags' (85)."
Back to passage
She was sorry for her friends
Janie felt sorry for her friends because she knew they were confined to their defined gender roles whereas she was free here in the mucks with Tea Cake. She felt that her friends were stuck playing the roles that are traditionally female in nature such as cooking, cleaning, etc. whereas Janie was able to experience roles that are traditionally male in nature such as hunting and manual labor. Back to passage
She could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to.
This phrase shows how Janie can express herself freely and interact with the members of the community now that she is with a husband that is not restrictive about her gender roles as her second husband, Joe Starks was. Under Joe Starks, Janie was expected to play the gender role of a proper and ladylike woman that is not supposed to associate with commoners, but now she does not have to play the role of a proper and respectable "trophy wife."
- Additional comment from http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/eyes/summ4.html
"When Janie begins telling stories to the other men, we remember how her voice had been squelched during her relationship with Joe Starks, but is now listened to and enjoyed." Back to passage
She could tell big stories herself
This excerpt also shows how Janie is no longer restricted by the gender roles that were imposed upon her in her second marriage. She is now able to do more than just speak, which she couldn't even do in her marriage to Joe. Back to passage
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