Tea Cake is Not Fine
Tea Cake is a very questionable character to me. While I have not finished the book completely, I still do not like him and do not think my opinion will change by the end of the novel. In my opinion, I think Tea Cake is hiding ulterior motives behind his suave facade. Tea Cake has quite a bit of reasonable characteristics to pursue a relationship with Janie, in a socio-economic sense: he is twelve years younger than her, dirt poor, and is an incredibly hard worker. Earlier in the novel, the reader is told of Janie’s experience under the pear tree and her perception of love as a result of it. I do believe that in her relationship with Tea Cake, Janie is achieving her goals of the bee and the flower by the pear tree.
Janie has achieved a relationship that is co-dependent in the more traditional way that she would like. Despite not working in the field with Logan, she goes out in the field to work with Tea Cake, showing how passionately she loves him. Marriage is not a feeling of loneliness to her anymore. However, her beliefs about what love is has become more skewed and warped, at least from the perspective of a reader.
Janie’s love of and for Tea Cake clouds her judgment and acknowledgement that what he is doing to her is wrong. With every hit, word, or action of Tea Cake’s, Janie is mostly passive. She finds a way to love him through it all. Tea Cake does not love her through it all though. Rather, this is not love, it’s manipulation. Every negative action of Tea Cake has a positive excuse or solution to miraculously fix it all. Tea Cake brushes Janie’s hair while she is asleep and says that he, “Come prepared tuh lay mah hands on it tuhnight” (103). After he does this he takes Janie to her mirror and says that she, “got the world in uh jug and make out you don’t know it”. Although wanting Janie to herself the way that he sees her is admirable, the weird brushing that Tea Cake does beforehand is unsettling. Later in the novel, Tea Cake steals Janie’s money and gambles it away, but the issue is solved because he brings back more money than he took away. In the chapters following this, Tea Cake beats Janie as a way to send a message to Mrs. Turner’s brother. How can we blame him though, when it was what was considered normal in this time period?
As readers, we can analyze the chapters in this book with knowledge of societal norms of the setting. Being an anthropologist and having close ties with the South, Hurston does an accurate job depicting a town in such a setting. However, I do not think that just because domestic abuse was common and considered socially acceptable in this time period and region, we should excuse this abuse and paint the relationship between Janie and Tea Cake as something that it is not. Hitting, stealing, and lying in the name of love is not love. It is abuse under the guise of love. Janie believes that the relationship that she has with Tea Cake is like that of the bee and the flower, but not because she has told herself this, but because Tea Cake has. In this relationship, though, I am not saying that Janie is completely without fault, as we have seen her abuse Tea Cake. Regardless, Tea Cake is not fine and neither is his relationship with Janie.
Hi, This blog post was really good and I think you summed up a lot of the problems in their relationship really well. While I was reading this, I mostly thought that Janie going to work in the field with Tea Cake was sort of an act of sacrifice out of the love that she feels for him - however, I never thought to relate it to the fact that when Logan wants her to work out in the field, she doesn't and runs away! I agree that while a lot of the interactions between Janie and Tea Cake can be written off as acts of frivolous and passionate love, there's a lot that needs to be unpacked since their relationship isn't as healthy as it may seem. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you on everything you've brought up in this blog post. Tea Cake continually seems to be showing concerning habits that make me think poorly of him. From the immature 200 dollars situation, to his abuse, his issues really seem to outweigh the benefits. Great job on your post! I for one, am definitely not crushing on Tea Cake.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I agree that Tea Cake is definitely not the right person for Janie to be in a relationship. I like how you used direct quotes to support your argument. Your post was also descriptive and your argument is strong.
ReplyDeleteI have never read a more detailed reason on why to hate Teacake, but I'm here for it! by calling Teacake's actions as what they are ("Hitting, stealing, and lying"), you effectively remove the ability to dismiss his actions as justified/playful. You also make a good point by saying that time period does not matter, everyone knows violence is not fun for the person it is inflicted on, and if you care about someone you don't hurt them.
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree that Tea Cake is definitely a questionable character. I like that you didn't even give room for people to be like "wellll but he did this" and called him out for what he does. I for sure was not and am not a fan either. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteHey Sam, great post! I think you did a great job going in depth about the relationship Tea Cake and Janie have and how problematic it is. I think that while we have to take into account the time period and how things were seen back then, it shouldn't excuse his actions, because the actions he took are inherently wrong.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I definitely agree with you that Tea Cake is not fine and that he is incredibly dismissive of Janie and her well being. I like the point you make about how, despite domestic abuse being normalized in the time period, we shouldnt try to paint the picture that what Tea Cake did to Janie was not abuse. Great job.
ReplyDeleteHi! I think you did a really good job of getting to the heart of Janie's relationship with Tea Cake. Love, as you said, is not shown in the form of hitting, stealing, and lying. And justifying those actions as done for "love" is just clear manipulation. Whether the social norms of the period were different from what they are like now, I doubt hitting was ever truly "love" in any era. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHello, this is great post! Your in-depth analysis of Tea Cake's character and his relationship with Janie did a great job of highlighting the abusive and horrifying behaviors he displayed. I really liked how you expressed that Janie's "love" of Take Cake is not love but instead manipulation and also how we shouldn't accept his abuse just because of the time period. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic post! Your post has a concise format and it flows really well. With the knowledge that you have not yet finished the book, you still make some strong arguments as you not only provide opinion, but also supplemental evidence from the book. I love your point that hitting, stealing, and lying out of love is not love. This is something that many people must realize to break harmful cycles of abuse. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI think you hit on a really important issue in Tea Cake and Janie’s relationship by pointing out that Janie brushes off a lot of questionable actions of Tea Cake’s that she doesn’t seem like she would have tolerated from Logan or Joe. It seems like Janie is willing to let a lot of things go because Tea Cake represents the promise of adventure and revitalization, and I would argue that the story itself is framed such that it kind of makes the same allowances for him, justifying some less than moral behavior because he plays such an important part in Janie’s personal journey.
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