Chapter One Summary:

The novel begins with a statement about the differences between the dreams of men and women. Men's dreams are like distant ships. For some men, the ship comes in and the dream is realized very quickly. For other men, the ship sails for a long, long time on the horizon. By the time these dreams finally can be realized, so much time has passed that the dreams are worthless. Women don't wait and watch for their "ship to come in." Some women have dreams and some do not. And for women, the mere possession of the dream is what matters: "The dream is the truth."

Janie has been gone from Eatonville for a very long time, and it is dusk when she returns. As she walks through the center of town to her old home, all the people of the village stare at her and judge her. The townspeople are cruel and envious. They wonder why she is returning in improper overalls instead of a proper dress and where her her husband is.

Janie walks straight through the town and does not let anyone bother her. Janie is a beautiful black woman; the men notice her tight bottom, her beautiful hair and her "pugnacious breasts." The women are envious of her; they hope she might fall to their level some day.

The women are angry that she does not stop and explain herself. Only Phoeby Watson, Janie's old best friend, defends Janie's silence saying that maybe her story is not for their ears, or maybe she has nothing to tell. Phoeby leaves the women to take some supper to Janie.

Phoeby finds Janie sitting on the back porch of her home, soaking her tired feet. Janie and Phoeby hear laughter from the women across the street; they talk about the terrible jealousy and pettiness of the women. Phoeby remarks that "an envious heart makes a treacherous ear."

Janie and Phoeby share some laughter and Phoeby says that Janie should hurry up and inform the community about her past to end all the negative gossip about her. But Janie remarks that she doesn't want to waste the time; besides Phoeby can inform them later. Janie says, "Mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf."

Janie begins her tale, which makes up the body of the novel. Janie tells Phoeby that she has nine hundred dollars in the bank. Tea Cake never touched her money, but he has recently died. She lived with him in the Everglades and now she's come back.

Analysis

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel about self-discovery. Janie Starks is a black woman living in Florida sometime during 1920-1935. (The novel was published in 1937.) In this first chapter, she has just returned from a two year journey. This novel is told "backwards" in a sense, because the first chapter begins with Janie's homecoming and only in the following chapters does the reader learn about the events leading to Janie's return.

Hurston relies heavily upon dialect, typical Southern speech which she spells phonetically, in writing this story. The speech of the characters is typical of blacks living in Eatonville, Florida during 1920-1935.

This chapter introduces a number of motifs that reoccur throughout the novel including the horizon, porches, and hair. In this chapter, ships on the horizon represent dreams that are unattainable. Porches are the usual place for community assembly, and are also the only place where people can truly feel human: all day the people feel like "mules and brutes have occupied their skins." But only on the porches, at the end of the day, do their skins feel "powerful and human." The porch is also the setting of Janie's revelations to Phoebe. Janie's hair is a powerful symbol of her individuality and sexuality. It is thick, and healthy: "the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume."

Chapter Two Summary:

Janie begins telling the story of her life. She never knew her mother or her father, and was raised by her grandmother. Her grandmother worked as a nanny for white children in the Washburn family, and Janie grows up playing with the Washburn children. She calls her grandmother "Nanny" because that is what the other kids call her. Everyone calls Janie "Alphabet" because she goes by so many names. Janie does not know that she is black until a photograph of her is taken with the other children. Until the age of six, she thinks that she is white, and "the same as everyone else." When she goes to school, the other black children are jealous of Janie because she wears the Washburn children's hand-me-downs; these clothes are much nicer than what the other black children wear. Nanny does not like the fact that Janie is picked on by the other black children for living in the white family's backyard, so she asks the Washburns to help her buy some land and create a home of her own.

Janie loves to spend the afternoons lying under a pear tree, staring into the branches. One afternoon, she is mesmerized by the beauty of bees pollinating the pear blossoms. Janie feels intoxicated by the pollen and her newly awakened sexuality. She now sees Johnny Taylor, a boy she previously thought of as "shiftless" as a "glorious being." She walks to the gate and kisses him over the gatepost.

Nanny sees Janie kissing a boy and calls her inside. Nanny is convinced that Janie's kiss has brought her into womanhood. She slaps Janie for her indiscretion, and tells her that she must get married to Logan Killicks. Janie objects, saying that Logan is ugly and old. But Nanny repeats that Janie must get married to someone who will keep her safe and protected. Nanny reiterates that she just wants to protect Janie from the burden of being a black woman. Nanny narrates to Janie the terrible experiences that she has been through. She was a slave when she was younger and remembers the day that the men on her plantation all left to fight in the Civil War. As she lay with her newly born child, Leafy, the master of the plantation came into the house, pulled off the covers, and forced her to have sex with him for the last time before he left for war. After he left, the mistress of the plantation slapped Nanny many times because the baby looked partially white with its blonde hair and gray eyes. The mistress of the plantation knew that the master had been sleeping with Nanny and threatened to whip her until she bled to death and sell the baby into slavery when it was a month old. Nanny ran away from the plantation that night and named the baby Leafy because she hid her in the leafy moss. Luckily the war ended within a few months, and Nanny never had to be a slave again.

Nanny raised her baby (the woman who was to become Janie's mother) in the same place as she raised Janie: at the Washburns' house. She wanted Leafy to grow up and become a school teacher, but after Leafy was raped by her own school teacher at the age of seventeen she became pregnant with Janie. After her daughter was born, Leafy became an alcoholic and then ran away from home. Nanny's negative experiences make her determined to make life easy for her granddaughter. Nanny says, "Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy Janie, Ah'm a cracked plate."

Analysis:

This chapter presents the story of Janie's childhood and of her sexual awakening. An important symbol that emerges in this chapter and continues to appear throughout the novel is the pear tree, which is a metaphor for Janie. It blossoms when Janie blooms, just when Janie has her sexual epiphany. The first sentence of the chapter is very important: "Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches." Janie's sexuality is always regarded by the author as natural.

At this point in the novel, Hurston moves away from third person narrative to free indirect discourse. Their Eyes began in third person, told through the voice of Hurston. From this point on, particularly in the novel's more important moments, the voices of Hurston and Janie merge. Although much of the novel is told in third-person omnicient, certain sentences like "So this was marriage!" (discribing the pollination of the pear tree) allow the reader to hear Janie's thoughts directly.

Another scene that has intense thematic importance is the love scene between Janie and Johnny Taylor. First, it is important to note that Janie feels no affection or interest in Johnny prior to her sexual epiphany under the pear tree. But after she witnesses the beauty of the bees and the blossoms, Janie wonders, "Where are the bees singing for me?" She is able to project her own desires (the desires to find a mate that is worthy of her) on to Johnny Walker. This ability to create a fantasy demonstrates a large difference between Janie and the other women in the story. Whereas the other women accept their condition, Janie has the power to see what she wants to see. She projects her dream into the world, and then transcends reality.

Another important symbol in this chapter is the gate, and the fact that Janie kisses Johnny over the gate post. Gates symbolize beginnings, openings into new worlds or new stages in life. Here, notably, Janie does not open the gate, meaning that she does not actually leave her childhood entirely. Instead, she kisses Johnny over the gatepost; symbolically speaking, she has only left her childhood for a moment and then returned to it.

Chapter Three Summary:

Before marrying Logan, Janie tries to figure out whether marriage will "end the cosmic loneliness of the unmarried." She spends a lot of time under the pear tree trying to understand how marriage might make her feel love. She does not love Logan, but she hopes that love will grow once she is married.

Janie moves into Logan's house and immediately does not like it. She thinks it looks like a "stump in the middle of the woods that no one had ever seen." After three months pass and she still feels no love for Logan, she visits Nanny. Nanny says she should love Logan merely because he has sixty acres of land on the main road. Janie says that the land does not matter. She wants sweet things in her marriage like the beauty of sitting under a pear tree. Janie starts crying and Nanny sternly tells her that her mind will change as time passes. Later that evening, Nanny prays to God saying that she feels sorry for Janie's unhappiness but that she did the best she could. Heavy-hearted, Nanny dies a month later.

Janie waits nine months and when the summer comes again, she stands at the gate and begins "expecting things." Since her decisions thus far have failed her, she looks out of the gate for a new opportunity.

Analysis:

This chapter is the first illustration of how different Janie is from other black women. Janie is miserable in her marriage and Nanny seems puzzled as to why. Logan, Janie's husband, seems ideal because he has sixty acres of land. Nanny's perspective is based on her childhood as a slave. In her experience, owning land is a priviledge reserved for whites, so a black man who owns it is immediately worthy of love. But Janie is a sensual women who grew up in nature and learned about sex and love from sitting underneath a pear tree and watching the bees spread pollen. Land is not enough to fulfill her desires and make Janie happy in her marriage. The reader finds further evidence of how Janie is closely connected with nature in the way that she measures time. Janie's consciousness is usually described in natural terms. She waits a year before she decides that she is no longer happy in her marriage, but she measures these months in terms of the seasons: "So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time. But when a the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gate and expect things." Her closeness with nature helps explain where Janie gained the values that she did not learn from Nanny.

The image of the gate reappears at the end of this chapter. Janie only begins to stand at the gate when she knows that she is irreversibly unhappy in her marriage. The gate again signifies a new beginning, a new experience, or a new adventure. The ending of this chapter heavily foreshadows that Janie's life is about to change again.

Chapter Four Summary:

One morning, Logan wakes up and tells Janie that he is going to Lake City to buy a mule, and expresses his wish for her to do hard labor while he is gone. Janie is not happy about this and says that all she will do is cut potatoes, and Logan calls her spoiled. As soon as her husband leaves, Janie hears whistling outside of the barn. She sees a citified, stylishly dressed man. He is black, but seems to Janie to be acting white. The man's name is Joe Starks. He is from Georgia. He's worked for white people all his life, but heard that there is a new town called Eatonville that is entirely populated by black people. Joe Starks is on his way to become one of the town's leaders.

Joe Starks asks Janie where her parents are. Janie laughs and says that she's married but that her husband is away buying a mule for her to plow. Joe Starks says that that is a terrible way to treat Janie. For two weeks, Joe and Janie meet every day. Joe, nicknamed Jody, asks Janie to leave Logan and marry him. Jody asks Janie to meet him on the road outside her house so that next that they can run away together.

Janie considers the matter. She tells Logan that she has considering leaving him. Logan insults her and they argue over who will move the mule's manure. Janie tells Logan that he hasn't done her any favor by marrying her, and Logan threatens to kill Janie with an axe. Janie considers this statement, then runs out of the gate to run away with Joe Starks. They head to Green Cove Springs and get married before sundown.

Analysis:

There are two minor details in this chapter that mark the turning point of Janie's relationship with Logan. It is significant to Janie that Logan stops talking to her in rhymes, because for Janie, rhymes are linked with love. In addition, she notices that Logan stops looking at her long black hair. Janie's hair is symbolic of who she is and her sexual identity, so the fact that Logan has stopped looking at her hair indicates that he has stopped caring about her at all.

Joe Starks fulfills many of the things that are lacking in Janie's life. He reminds her that she is young and beautiful and appeals to her need to have a friend that is the same age she is. The first thing that they have in common is their love of sugar in water; sweet water is a treat for young children. Furthermore, Joe thinks big. He talks about the horizon whereas Logan Killicks' dreams extend no further than his sixty acres of land. Janie, too, has high hopes. Her relationship with Logan is stifling because he inhibits her need for dreaming big dreams and trying to fulfill them. She explains her dissatisfaction with Logan's shallow dreams when she says, "You don't take nothin' to count but sow-belly and corn bread."

Chapter Five Summary:

Janie and Joe take the train from Maitland to Eatonville. When they arrive in Eatonville, both are disappointed with the town. Joe demands to talk to the mayor, but one of the men tells him that there is no mayor. Joe tells Coker that he thinks that the town is too small and that he will buy land from Captain Eaton, the gentleman that owns the neighboring land. Joe calls a meeting on his porch the next day to discuss his desire to build a post office and put up a store. The townspeople agree that building a store is a good idea. Very quickly, Joe earns back all the money he invested in building the store by selling land to people who want to move to the town.

Joe holds another meeting where he announces that Eatonville must have a mayor. Tony declares that Joe should be the mayor. The crowd shouts that they would like to hear Janie speak after Joe is elected, but Joe takes the podium instead of her, saying that Janie should not speak; she is a woman and her place is in the home. Janie is upset but makes herself smile because it is proper to do so. The next day Joe asks the town to vote on a street lamp; a majority votes for it and Joe buys the lamp from Sears. In order to make first lamplighting a real event, Joe arranges a large barbecue and party which is attended by people from miles around.

When the event is over and Janie and Joe are preparing to sleep, Janie tells Joe that his service to the town is putting a strain on their relationship. Joe says that he has always wanted a big voice in the world's affairs, and becoming mayor has helped him find it. He tells Janie that she can become a big woman by relying on his good position. Joe intimidates most people in the town. His house is built with banisters and porches and is painted a "gloaty" sparkling white. He places spittoons near his desk, one for Janie and one for himself. Janie feels isolated because her position as the mayor's wife distances her from the other women in town.

One day, a fellow in the town named Henry Pitts steals a wagon of sugar cane from Jody; Jody catches him and makes him leave town. Many of the townspeople are angry about the severity of Joe's reaction, and they start gossiping about him on his own porch. Despite their anger at Joe, all of the townspeople sympathize with Janie because they know that she must take the brunt of Joe's stubbornness. Joe forces his wife to keep her beautiful hair tied up, and does not allow Janie to talk much.

Analysis

The beginning of chapter five is similar to chapter four. Both begin with the fact that neither Joe Starks nor Logan Killicks speak in rhymes to Janie. This similarity foreshadows Janie's dissatisfaction with her relationship with Joe. Janie's problems with her first relationship are repeating themselves in her second.

This chapter is noteable for its commentary on white society through criticisms of Joe. Joe attained his power by acting white, by taking power from others. Janie observes that he is "kind of portly like rich white folks." In a later chapter, a townsperson comments that when Joe talks "it's like he has a switch in his hand." Joe has attained the power he has always desired, he has done so through the mistreatment of his fellow townspeople and of his wife. Many readers have criticized Hurston because they argue that she believes that the only way for blacks to achieve financial success is to behave like whites (as Joe does). But Hurston shows that this method of self empowerment by subjugating others is destructive to Janie and other members of the community.

Another symbol that reoccurs in this chapter is the porch, which stands for community and is the forum for all large discussions. It is on the porch where Joe first calls a town meeting, where he is elected mayor, and where he calls the vote for the land. Ironically, the community meets on Joe's own porch when it wishes to discuss its dissatisfaction with Joe. Thus, although the porch is associated with Joe, it belongs to the community.

Chapter Six Summary:

The people of Eatonville love to pass the time telling stories on the porch. One of their favorite topics is Matt Bonner's yellow mule. Lige Moss, Sam Watson, and Walter love to tease Matt for never feeding the mule and for working the mule too hard. Janie loves listening to the stories about the mule; sometimes she has her own funny comments to make but Joe forbids her from joining the conversation. Janie realizes that Joe loves to order her around. She hates the fact that he forces her to work in the store all day, forces her to tie her hair up, and becomes insanely jealous when other men look at her. One day, Matt Bonner's mule disappears. When the mule finally shows up in the center of town, the men who sit on the porch begin to torture it. First, Lum tackles the mule, then five or six other men begin to torment it. Janie feels bad for the mule; she wants to help it but doesn't want to get in trouble with Joe for speaking out. Joe hears her muttering words of sorrow under her breath and decides to do a noble thing. He pays five dollars for the ownership of the mule so that he can protect it from any further damage. Janie makes a little speech commending Joe for his noble actions and comparing him to Lincoln. The men of the community say that Janie is a brilliant orator. Joe, as usual, says nothing. He would rather that Janie had not spoken at all.

The mule becomes famous as the town's first freed animal, and it wanders about the town getting fat until it dies. There is a funeral for the mule at the swamp outside of town. Janie wants to attend, but Joe forbids her.

The funeral is a mocking-serious ceremony. In fact, Joe even stands on top of the body of the mule as he gives a speech claiming how wonderful the mule was. After they leave the mule to rot, buzzards swoop in and begin to devour it.

Back on the porch, Sam and Lige engage in "contests of hyberbole." They have a ridiculous debate over what protects people from hurting themselves: caution or nature. In effect, Sam wins the debate by arguing that nature creates caution. Nature creates everything. Thus, nature protects people from hurting themselves.

As the debate is ending, some of the town's women including a beautiful girl, Daisy, approach the porch. The men and the women talk to each other flirtatiously. Janie loves listening to the conversation but Joe ruins tbe moment for her by forcing her to go back into the store to sell something. Soon, another customer wants to buy a pickled pig's foot. Joe looks for the pig's feet and does not find any. It appears that they have sold out. Janie is certain that a new shipment of pigs' feet had come in the day before, but she cannot find the receipt for yesterday's shipment. Joe chastises her for being careless, saying: "Somebody got to think for women and children and chickens and cows."

Janie and Joe's relationship continues to deteriorate. One day, he slaps her face for preparing a bad meal. Janie recovers from the slap by putting on a new dress and going back to the store. Mrs. Robbins is there, begging for a little piece of meat for her children. She tells Joe that her husband never feeds her. Neither Joe nor the men on the porch feel any sympathy for the woman. They criticize her for making her husband look like a bad man. After Mrs. Robbins begs for a long time, Joe gives her a tiny piece of meat.

After she has left, the men begin to rebuke her. Walter Thomas says that he would have killed Mrs. Robbins had she been his wife. Janie finally enters the conversation saying that God talks to women. He has told her that men will someday learn that they do not know as much about women as they think they do.

Analysis:

This chapter is one of the most important chapters of the novel. The first half of the chapter is about Matt Bonner's yellow mule. There is a strong parallel between the mule and Janie. Recall that Nanny warns Janie in the first chapter that the "nigger woman is de mule uh de world." Janie is the first person to be angered by the porchsitters' baiting of the mule; she identifies with the mule's struggle. Although it seems as though Joe cares for the mule because he pays five dollars to protect it, it becomes clear that he is only exploiting the mule for further self-aggrandizement. He literally uses its carcass as a platform for the "great eulogy" that he performs. Joe prevents Janie from attending the funeral, so no one is there to speak out against the mule's desecration.

Nature, in the form of buzzards, is able to articulate Janie's rage, and speak for the mule. The chief buzzard is seems like a religious figure; Hurston refers to him as the Parson. When the Parson asks what killed the mule, the other buzzard's answer "fat." The reader could interpret this reply as meaning that Joe killed the mule by freeing it because it was fed too much too suddenly.

The connection between the formerly starved mule and women is repeated by the author twice in the chapter. A few pages later, Joe baits Mrs. Robbins as if she were a mule who was starving for food. She screams, "Tony don't fee-eed me." After Mrs. Robbins leaves, the men speak about her disrespectully, as if she were an animal. Although Janie does not speak when Matt Bonner's mule is mistreated, she finally "thrusts into the conversation" when she sees a real woman being treated like a mule. She explains her faith that God and Nature will watch over women and protect them from misogny.

The symbol of the porch becomes fully personified in this chapter. Hurston claims that "the porch laughs", and that "the porch boils [in anger]." This literary device is used to point out the fact that there are no independent thinkers among the men on the porch. They all act with one consciousness, one set of beliefs, and no one is willing to act differently from the rest.

After the most shocking moment in the chapter, Hurston uses understatement to underline Joe's violence. When her husband beats Janie after she cooks a bad meal, she expresses no anger, hatred, or disgust. "Janie stood where he left her for [some] time and thought. She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her..." The fact that she feels so little rage makes the reader feel for Janie even more. The passage where Joe slaps Janie ends on an optimistic note: "She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen." This foreshadows the fact that Janie will meet another, better man.

Chapter Seven Summary:

Eleven years pass and Janie learns to stop fighting. Some days she considers running away from Joe just as she ran away from Logan years ago. But Janie fears that she is too old to run away. Janie realizes that Joe has become very old, and that he has become more abusive to her than ever before. He constantly criticizes her for being old and ugly, hoping that by pointing out her flaws, he can distract others from noticing his own age and frailty.

One afternoon, a customer named Steve Mixon wants some chewing tobacco. Janie tries to cut it, but makes a mistake. Joe recuts the tobacoo and then begins to insult Janie terribly. For the first time, Janie retaliates. She tells Joe that he is nothing but a big voice; she tells the people in the store that when he pulls his pants down that there is nothing there. Joe is irrecoverably crushed, his manliness stripped away.

Analysis:

This chapter marks a turning point in Janie's character development. She learns how to stand up to Joe and uses her voice to overpower his. There are several biblical references in the chapter which indicate the importance of religion to black culture at this time. Janie is described by Joe as "older than Methusalem." Janie's speaking out against Joe is like "the thing that Saul's daughter had done to David." The characters are not strongly religious; rather, the stories of the Christian tradition are firmly embedded in black folk culture, and their narratives are more important than a belief in them.

Rather than organized religion, it is nature that fortifies and empowers Janie. She is able to split her mind and see "the shadow of herself tending store and prostrating itself before Jody" while her true self "sits under a shady tree with the wind blowing through her hair and clothes." When she is finally able to keep part of her mind centered on nature, she becomes strong enough to stand up to Joe.

Chapter Eight Summary:

Joe's health deteriorates quickly. He begins to spend a lot of time with a root doctor, instead of relying on a real doctor. Janie worries that Joe is not eating enough, but then she finds out that Mrs. Davis is cooking for him. Janie recognizes that she is a better cook than Mrs. Davis and tries to prepare a soup for Joe. He refuses the soup, indicating that he believes she may be trying poison him or trying to hurt him with Voodoo magic.

Jody becomes very ill and takes to a sick bed permanently; he refuses to allow Janie to visit him. Other people from the town parade into the house, claiming that Joe doesn't have anyone to take care of him because Janie is so inconsiderate.

Finally, Joe Watson tells Janie that Joe is about to die. His kidneys have failed. Janie begins to think about death: she pictures a square-toed man from the West who lives in a house with no roof. She asks Sam if it would be all right to visit Joe, but Joe refuses.

Janie realizes that she must speak to Joe, no matter what. Janie walks into Joe's room and sees him looking as though he's waiting for something. She begins with an apology for not being the "perfect" wife. Joe still blames her for being unsympathetic, but Janie explains that she was never allowed to be sympathetic because Joe controlled her too much. Nonetheless, Janie wants to talk to Joe before it is "too late." Joe does not want to accept that he could die soon. Janie tells Joe that "not listening" has been the main problem of Joe's life: he has been so busy listening to himself that he has never listened to her. Joe tells her to get out, but Janie gets in the last word. She tells Joe that she did not leave Logan and "come down the road" with him to lead a life of "bowing down" and obedience. Joe breathes his last painful breath and dies.

Janie puts his hands on his chest, then walks to the mirror to look for the young girl that she had asked to wait for her in the mirror. She takes the handkerchief off her head and examines her beautiful hair. She then gathers her strength, composes herself, and calls to the other townspeople that her husband has died.

Analysis:

This chapter details how Janie is able to finally break free from the subjugation of her marriage and gain her freedom. Food is a reoccuring issue in this chapter. At the beginning of the chapter, Janie notices that Joe is not eating well, so she buys a beef bone and cooks him some nurturing soup. Joe refuses the soup, saying that another woman, "old lady Davis," had been cooking for him. He is afraid that Janie might poison him, so he stops eating what she has cooked. Food is a literal, as well as symbolic type of nurturing. By refusing Janie's food, Joe locks his wife's effort at nurturing him out of his soul.

Abstract, spiritual ideas like God and Death (which Hurston capitalizes and personifies) are made literal in this chapter through vivid imagery. Death is described as "that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the West. The great one who lived in the straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof. What need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him? He stands in his high house that overlooks the world." This type of personification is the literary device that Hurston is most famous for.

The most vivid motif of the novel reappears in this chapter: Janie's hair. Throughout her marriage with Joe, Janie's hair had been tied, symbolically indicating her captivity in the marriage. When Joe dies, however, she immediately takes the rags off her head and lets her hair free.

Chapter Nine Summary:

On the outside, Janie participates in the funeral and the requisite mourning period. But, on the inside, she rejoices. She is finally free of the heavily restricted life that Joe forced her into. She celebrates by burning the headrags that Joe forced her to wear.

Janie spends some time considering her future. She realizes that it is time for her to embark on her journey to the "horizon," a journey where she hopes to meet people rather than just gather "things" as she has been doing so far in her life. She considers tending her grandmother's grave or searching for the mother that abandoned her, but she realizes that neither woman encouraged her freedom and her quest for the horizon.

Men from Janie's community and beyond try to encourage Janie to think about remarrying; specifically, the men want her to marry them and share Joe's wealth with them. But Janie enjoys her freedom and tells her many beaus to give her some time. After all, Joe's dead body has not even had time to "get cold yet;" he has only been dead for two months.

Hezekiah continues to help Janie in the store, and he adopts some of Joe's mannerisms like smoking and treating people badly. But Janie appreciates his presence; it makes running the store bearable and less lonely. Janie confesses to Phoeby that she is not worried by Joe's death; she's enjoyed the freedom that comes with it. Phoeby tells her to keep that fact quiet because "folks will say she's not sorry he's gone." Janie says that she does not care what people think.

Analysis

This chapter is the third major denouement in Janie's life and her period of adjustment to a life without Joe. One of the most memorable images of the novel is the image of Janie "starching and ironing" her face. It first occurred in the previous chapter, but it recurs in this chapter:

"Janie starched and ironed her face and came set in the funeral behind her veil. It was like a wall of stone and steel. The funeral was going on outside. All things concerning death and burial were said and done. Finish. End. Nevermore. Darkness. Deep hole. Dissolution. Eternity. Weeping and wailing outside. Inside the expensive black folds were resurrection and life...She send her face to Joe's funeral and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world."

One of the interesting techniques that Hurston uses here is ambiguity. The first sentence says that Janie "starched and ironed her face" and came to the funeral "behind her veil." Because "face" and "veil" are both used in the sentence, the reader is led to believe that Janie is wearing a veil over her face. But, the next sentence reads: "It was like a wall of stone and steel." Here, the use of "it" is ambiguous. Does "it" refer to Janie's face, or the veil? In fact, "it" seems to indicate that there is no veil at all, but rather just a face. The veil is simply a metaphor. This metaphor continues through the paragraph, "Inside the expensive black folds were resurrection and life." Again, a cursory glance might lead the reader to believe that Janie is wearing an expensive veil. But this is probably not the case. The folds of Janie's veil are "expensive" because they were developed over time; the folds are metaphors for the wrinkles in Janie's skin caused by her stressful and oppressive relationship with Joe. The folds are expensive because they have cost Janie her youth.

These metaphors are effective due to the style of narration. Had the story been told through a first person point of view, or an omniscient point of view, the reader would demand more specific details. But, here, the story is told as it is recollected to Phoeby; because the events are memories, they take on a dreamlike quality. It is not strictly necessary to know whether Janie is really wearing a veil, or if her face is like a veil.

Every feeling that Janie experiences is divided into binaries. For example, Janie mourns on the outside, but rejoices on the inside. Her years of sadness are caused by on her forced pursuit and acquisition of material things, rather than her desire of pursuing and meeting people. Her pursuit of the horizon is juxtaposed against her grandmother's strangulation of her freedom. Nanny belongs to the type of person who deals in scraps; whereas Janie can see wonderful ships in mud-puddles. These oppositions are set up for a distinct reason: Hurston wants to convince the reader that Janie's epiphany is the only correct answer in determining a meaning for life. Hurston does not want the reader to sympathize with Joe's goal of becoming wealthy and successful; Hurston is, in fact, opposed to people finding joy in such goals. She wants the reader to come to the realization, along with Janie, that true joy in life is obtained by "seeeing in mud-puddles an ocean with ships." These oppositions frame and countenance the authority with which Hurston states her theme.

Chapter Ten Summary:

One evening, Hezekiah asks if he can leave work a bit early to head to a ball game. The entire town is at the game except, of course, for Janie, who feels that it is important to mind the store.

In the early evening, a man walks into the store; although Janie has never met him, he looks familiar. Janie asks where he is from and he says that he is from Orlando, seven miles away. Then he buys some Camel cigarettes. He asks Janie for a light.

Janie is concerned that because everyone is at the ball game, the gentleman will be unable to go home. All the cars are gone. The gentleman says that he would love to play Janie at checkers to pass the time. Janie is "glowing on the inside" because nobody has ever asked her to play before. Janie notices how handsome the man is.

They play for a while and soon the man takes her king piece; Janie refuses to give up the piece. They mock fight for a bit and in the commotion they tip the game over and laugh. The gentleman comments that "you just can't beat a woman, they won't stand for it." The man says, too, that Janie could become a great checkers player some day; "she has the brains for it."

The man suggests that they take a break and drink some Coke. Janie says that there are plenty of cold sodas left because everyone is at the game. The man tells her that she, too, should be at the game. It isn't fair for everyone to have fun except her! He's worried about her. Janie says that she's worried about him too. How is going to get home? The gentleman says not to worry. At the worst, he could walk. Janie is shocked; how could anyone walk seven miles? She would rather take the train, so long as she has money for the fare. The man laughs; he would never pay for a train ride because he knows how to jump on the train and ride it without paying.

Janie asks the man what his name is. He says that his name is Vergible Woods, but everyone calls him Tea Cake for short. Janie flirts, "are you as sweet as all that?" Tea Cake extends the flirtation, "You should try me and see."

The flirtation has become a little too sexual, and Janie grimaces in embarrassment. Tea Cake acknowledges the embarrassment and makes a joke. He walks toward the door, saying that he's "cut a hawg," and pretends to leave. He tells Janie that he deserves a pound of "knuckle pudding," and Janie laughs and says that he deserves ten. Tea Cake sits back down with her and they continue joking for the rest of the evening. He helps her close the store at the end of the night, and Janie appreciates his help. Tea Cake walks Janie home. For a moment, Janie questions Tea Cake's motives. But he quickly says goodnight and leaves.

Analysis:

This chapter is important because it introduces the third and final man in Janie's life: Tea Cake. Hurston carefully draws contrasts between this new man and the departed Joe Starks.

The first important difference between the men is Janie's degree of sexual attraction to each. Janie loved Joe's ambition and his ability to dream, but she was never explicitly attracted to him physically. However, Janie is physically attracted to Tea Cake and his archetypically African-American features from the first moment that she sees him. She notices his "full purple lips," she admires his "full lazy eyes," with his "lashes curling sharply like drawn scimitars." She notices his "lean, over-padded shoulders" and his "narrow waist." Their flirtatious banter is a different sort of discourse with men than Janie has ever enjoyed before.

Another important difference from Joe Starks is that Tea Cake wants Janie to be a part of her community, to be like everyone else. Joe Starks always wanted Janie to stand out, to stand above everyone else. Tea Cake tells Janie that she should be at the game enjoying the sports with her neighbors. He tells Janie that she should learn to play checkers like the others, something that Joe would never allow her to do. Tea Cake tells Janie that she should learn to walk instead of relying on trains and cars.

There are many subtle allusions to their future relationship in this chapter. When Tea Cake walks in and asks for a light for his cigarette, he asks Janie, "got a lil piece of fire over dere, lady?" Literally, of course, this means that he needs to light his cigarette. Metaphorically, he seems to recognize the "fire" that Janie has inside her. This symbol links back to chapter nine, where the narrator compares the people of the world to mud balls with a spark inside them. The narrator comments that Janie struggles to make her spark shine.

Chapter Eleven Summary:

Janie wants to ask Hezekiah about Tea Cake but decides not to. She rationalizes the reasons that a relationship between them would not work. First, he is twenty-five and she is forty. Plus, it's obvious that he does not have much money; she thinks that he is probably just being nice to her so that he can have her cash. Janie prepares to snub Tea Cake the next time that she sees him.

About a week after their first meeting, Tea Cake comes to the store pretending to play an invisible guitar. Janie laughs at his playfulness. Tea Cake says it's time to drink some Cokes. Janie tries to snub Tea Cake as she had planned; she tells Tea Cake that she has already had a Coke. Tea Cake is unwilling to be snubbed; he replies that she will just have to drink another.

Janie asks how Tea Cake has been. Tea Cake tells her that he has been working hard and that he has made some money. Janie sarcastically jokes that Tea Cake is now a "rich man." Tea Cake is not about to be put down, so he plays along. He tells her that he can get Janie a battleship or a passenger train; he'll get her whatever she wants because "it all depends on her."

Tea Cake and Janie play checkers, and at the end of the evening Tea Cake comes over to Janie's for a snack. Janie gets some pound cake and Tea Cake picks lemons from the tree and makes lemonade. Tea Cake tells Janie that the moon is too beautiful not to enjoy it. He suggests that they go fishing. Digging for worms by lamplight is so crazy that Janie feels like a "child breaking the rules." They catch a few fish, and then they have to smuggle Tea Cake out of the back gate so that Janie's neighbors won't gossip.

In the morning, Hezekiah tells Janie that she should not allow Tea Cake to walk her home; people in the town will speculate that something is going on. Janie asks why Hezekiah is concerned: is Tea Cake a thief? Is he married? Hezekiah responds no, but that Tea Cake does not make money, or spend it. Janie is not concerned about that; she tells Hezekiah not to worry.

At night, Tea Cake is waiting for Janie at her doorstep with a string of trout to eat. They have dinner and then Tea Cake combs Janie's hair, scratching the dandruff from her scalp. Janie asks why Tea Cake brought a comb. Tea Cake replies that he had been wanting to touch Janie's hair for a long time; he has had trouble sleeping because he has been wanting to touch her hair so badly. He tells Janie that she has beautiful hair, eyes, and lips. She lets others enjoy her beauty but she should stare into the mirror sometimes and enjoy her own beauty. Janie tells Tea Cake that he probably says that to all the women and Tea Cake says that that is true: "I'm the apostle to the Gentiles; I tell them and then I show them."

Janie is upset; he seems to have confirmed her fear that he is a cold-hearted womanizer. She tells Tea Cake that she is tired and ready to go to sleep. Tea Cake tells Janie that she's lying. He realizes that he has upset her with what he has said and that she's making excuses to get rid of him. Janie is cold; she says that he shouldn't care what she thinks, she is not his girlfriend. Tea Cake tells Janie that he loves her; Janie is cold again, saying that those are his "night" thoughts, and that in the morning he won't feel the same way.

Upset, Tea Cake hurriedly leaves. He cannot manage to convince her of his feelings. Janie wakes up in the morning with someone knocking at her door and it is Tea Cake. He has come to tell her that he loves her. These are not just "night" feelings. He loves her all the time, morning and night. That night they have supper and sleep together. She asks Tea Cake about the problem of their large age difference. He says that age is only a matter of convenience, not love.

Tea Cake disappears for a few days and Janie begins to doubt his sincerity. But on the fourth day, Tea Cake arrives in an old car. He has come to take her grocery shopping for the Sunday picnic. He wants her to have all the best things to eat. Janie asks him if he is certain he wants her to go to the picnic with him. He says that he has worked very hard for four days to make enough money to buy good food for her. Janie says that she loves Tea Cake, too, but tells him not to pretend to love her if he really doesn't. He says that God can kill him if he's lying; no one can hold a candle to Janie.

Analysis:

This chapter is about love. It is the first chapter in the novel where the real issues surrounding love are articulated: fear, doubt, sincerity, and sacrifice. Because this is the first time in the novel that these issues emerge, the reader can conclude that her relationship with Tea Cake is the first time that Janie has truly loved.

One of the most interesting images of the chapter is the battleship at the beginning. The reader is reminded of the first image of the book: ships on the horizon. Somehow, Tea Cake brings Janie closer to the horizon; he offers her battleships to sail to the horizon with. Tea Cake is also the first man in Janie's life to love her hair. He caresses it, dreams about it, and combs it. His feelings toward her hair are markedly different from Joe's feelings. Joe had tied Janie's hair back in hair rags, prohibiting it from showing. The image of the gate reemerges as well. Tea Cake comes through the gate to Janie. It is the first time that a man has come through the gate to her, as opposed to her having to leave through a gate to find a man. Another reoccurring image is the image of pear tree blossoms. Janie searches for the "bee for her blossom" throughout the novel and is convinced that in Tea Cake she has found her allusive bee.

Janie's identification with nature and the moon in the previous chapter is echoed by Tea Cake in this chapter; it is he who suggests that the moon is too beautiful to waste and that they spend the night fishing so as to be able to admire it. Tea Cake's affiliation with nature is an indication of his compatibility with Janie. He has no possessions; when a prop is necessary (like a guitar) he pretends to own it, showing independence from the material world. Tea Cake woos Janie throughout the chapter by relying on nature for his gifts. He provides her, for example, with fish that he catches and lemonade from lemons that he picks.

Importantly, too, the gifts that Tea Cake provides Janie with are all edible; literally, he feeds her, and metaphorically, he nourishes her spirit. He provides her with Coke, lemonade, fish, and, at the end of the chapter, a ride to a grocery story to buy food for the picnic. When Janie decides to accept Tea Cake's love the evening that he is sleeping on her hammock on the porch, her first words are, "I don't know about you, but I'm hongry." Food serves as a proxy for the more difficult phrases of courtship and love.

In the chapter where Joe dies, Death is personified as a square-toed fiend. In this chapter, the reader is introduced to a similarly personified monster: Doubt. "Doubt is the fiend from hell especially provided for lovers." Hurston indicates that doubt and death are uncontrollable and inevitable. We cannot blame Janie for the death of Joe, nor can we blame her for doubting Tea Cake's love.

Chapter Twelve Summary:

After the town picnic, Janie's and Tea Cake's relationship becomes a public. The town criticizes Janie for ceasing to mourn the death of her husband so soon and for taking up with a man with no money or power.

One evening, Sam Watson asks Phoeby to talk to Janie about her relationship with Tea Cake and warn her about making a mistake. Sam believes that Tea Cake is only spending money on Janie now so that he can take all of her Janie's money later. Sam reminds Phoeby of poor Ms. Tyler, a wealthy widow whose money was stolen by a man who pretended to love her.

Phoeby talks to Janie the next morning, asking her why she allows Tea Cake to take her to places she used to never go to like baseball games, fishing ponds, and forests. Janie explains that she never wanted to do the things that Joe deemed classy, but her former husband had forced her to remove herself from public society. Phoeby also tells Janie that she should stop wearing bright colors in public; it seems to everyone that she has stopped mourning for Joe Starks too soon.

Janie explains that she has stopped grieving so why should she continue to mourn? Also, she wears bright colors, specifically blue, because Tea Cake likes to see her in blue. Joe Starks never picked a color that he liked to see her in.

Furthermore, Janie intends to marry Tea Cake, sell the store, and move out of town. Janie is done with living a life of property and wealth, her "Grandma's way of life." She says, "Dis ain't no business proposition, and no race after property and titles. Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma's way, now Ah means tuh live mine." Her grandmother saw property-owning as restricted to whites, so she valued it highly. But Janie lived her grandmother's dream and almost died doing it: "Ah done nearly languished tuh death tuh death up dere. Ah felt like de world wuz cryin' extry and Ah ain't even read the common news yet."

Janie tells Phoeby not to tell anyone about her upcoming marriage, not because she is embarrased, but because she doesn't want to have deal with gossip in town. Phoeby says: "Ah jus lak uh chicken. Chicken drink water, but he don't pee-pee" meaning that information won't leak out of her into the public arena.

Phoeby warns Janie that she is taking a big chance by running off with Tea Cake, but Janie tells Phoeby that it isn't really a big risk. Tea Cake has "taught [her the] maiden language all over." He's bought her a blue satin wedding dress, and someday soon she'll put on the dress and leave town to be married and start a new life.

Analysis:

This chapter is crucial because Janie finally recognizes in concrete terms the differences between her grandmother's dream and her own dream. She develops the courage to look for her own dream life, a life of love, although she is haunted by stories of women who were misled by the illusion of love.

Some interesting irony, ambiguity, and understatement are found at the beginning of the chapter. Details of Tea Cake's and Janie's relationship are laid out through the events of their courtship:

"Tea Cake and Janie gone hunting. Tea Cake and Janie gone fishing. Tea Cake and Janie gone to Orlando to the movies. Tea Cake and Janie gone to a dance. Tea Cake making flower beds in Janie's yard and seeding the garden for her. Chopping down that tree she never did like by the dining room window. All those signs of possession."

This passage is interesting because the position of narration is ambiguous. Who believes that these events of courtship are signs of possession? Is this Phoeby's thought? Is it the voice of the community as a whole? Is it Janie's thought? Passages like this one are good examples of free indirect discourse. One possible explanation is that it is the opinion of the community that these different events in the courtship are "signs of possession." Ironically, however, Janie would never perceive the events of her courtship as signs of Tea Cake's possession of her. Since her voice permeates the narration, it seems like she is commenting, ironically, on the community's perception of her affairs. However, it also unclear whether Tea Cake possesses Janie, or Janie possesses Tea Cake.

Chapter Thirteen Summary:

Tea Cake writes a letter to Janie telling her to meet him in Jacksonville, Florida. So, one morning, before the town wakes up, Janie gets in a train and rides to Tea Cake in her blue satin wedding dress. She packs herself two hundred dollars but tells Tea Cake nothing about this money. Janie is so happy "that she scares herself."

One week after they are married, Tea Cake wakes up in the morning and leaves before Janie wakes up. Janie has breakfast with the landlady in their apartment. Janie does not worry too much about where Tea Cake could be, until she realizes that the silk purse where she had hidden the money has vanished. Janie, frantic, looks everywhere in her room for the money; she hopes that it is lost in the room rather than having been "stolen" by Tea Cake. However, Janie realizes the truth: Tea Cake has left without telling her where he was going, and he has taken her money without asking.

Immediately, Janie thinks of the example of poor Ms. Annie Tyler. Annie Tyler was a woman who lived in Eatonville; her husband died when she was fifty-two and she was left with a large sum of insurance money and a house. Annie spent all her time cavorting with younger men; one day a younger man named Who Flung began to court her. He moved into her house and then convinced her to sell the house and move with him to Tampa. On the second day of their life together in Tampa, Who Flung ran off with Annie's money, leaving her destitute. Annie returned home penniless and with a broken heart.

Thoughts of Annie Tyler haunt Janie all night. Finally, Janie bucks up her spirits: even if Tea Cake does abandon her as Who Flung abandoned Annie Tyler, Janie would never return to Eatonville as a failure. She has twelve hundred dollars in the bank and she could live from that if she needed to.

At dawn the next morning, Tea Cake returns, playing a guitar. Tea Cake knows that Janie thinks that he had left with her money, never to return. But he tells her that she should never feel that way. He tells Janie how much he loves her and that he would never leave her for another woman. If he did leave her for another woman, he would only leave her for a woman exactly like Janie.

Over breakfast, Tea Cake explains where he has been all night. In the morning, while getting dressed for breakfast, he saw Janie's money. He took it and realized on the way to the fish market that he had to spend the money. He had never felt like a millionaire before. Tea Cake decided to spend the money buying a macaroni and chicken dinner for all his friends. He buys a guitar and pays the ugly women who show up not to come into his party. He and his friends feast all night long. One man tries to eat all the gizzards and livers, the best parts of the chicken. Tea Cake fights with the man, breaks his teeth and leaves.

Janie is angry that Tea Cake didn't invite her to the party. Tea Cake explains that his friends are all very ordinary and very rough. He wouldn't want Janie to think less of him by association. Janie says that that is nonsense, and requests to always be invited in future.

Tea Cake tells Janie not to worry about the two hundred dollars. He plans to win it all back gambling on Saturday. He tells Janie that he is one of the best gamblers in the world. Tea Cake spends the whole week practicing rolling dice and shuffling cards. On Saturday he buys a knife and some cards and goes off to gamble.

Around daybreak, Tea Cake arrives home, but he is badly cut and injured. He tells Janie that he has won her two hundred dollars back and was going to come home earlier, but the other gamblers wanted a chance to win their money back from him. He continued playing for a few more hours and won all of their money. As he was leaving, one of the gamblers named Double Ugly stabbed him with his razor; Tea Cake pulled out his knife and beat the man until Double Ugly was scared and Tea Cake came home. Janie listens to the story while applying iodine to Tea Cake's wounds and crying.

Tea Cake tells her not to cry because he has won lots of money. Janie counts it: three hundred and twenty-two dollars. He tells Janie to take back her two hundred dollars and also tells her that he will provide for her from now on. He says that she must rely on him, and his money only, which Janie readily agrees to do.

Tea Cake says that when he recovers from the cuts he wants to head to the Muck down in the Everglades because "folks don't do nothin' down dere but make money and fun and foolishness."

Analysis

In this chapter, the love between Janie and Tea Cake is tested for the first time, and they reveal their true selves to one another. At the beginning of the chapter, Janie hides money in her dress in case the relationship with Tea Cake does not work out. Her withholding of the money, as per Phoebe's advice, suggests that Janie is not yet prepared to be totally vulnerable and honest with Tea Cake. Tea Cake, too, holds back part of himself. He does not reveal his real friends to Janie, thinking that she would dislike him once she knew them. By the end of the chapter, however, Tea Cake and Janie finally are able to be more honest with one another.

The guitar is an important recurring motif. Tea Cake played an invisible guitar in his first meeting with Janie; in this chapter he buys a real guitar. This draws yet another contrast with Joe. Joe used his loud and demeaning voice to dominate people; Tea Cake uses the more subtle tool of music.

The story of Annie Tyler reiterates a moral of Their Eyes, which is that when people try to make themselves into something that they are not, they end up looking entirely pathetic. When Tyler runs away with a younger man, the "improvements" to her appearance are an effort on her part to look and behave like a white woman. For example, Annie "dyed her hair," "straightened it," and wore "blotchy powder." All the characters who are miserable in the novel have "white" values: they are driven by money and power and make themselves look unnatural.

Chapter Fourteen Summary:

Janie and Tea Cake move to the Everglades, very near Lake Okechobee. They arrive in early September to ensure that they can find a house, because when the bean-picking season begins, the boarding houses will be too full to even find floor space to sleep on.

Once the season begins, Tea Cake spends his day picking beans while Janie tends the house. Although Tea Cake spends a lot of free time entertaining Janie with his guitar, there still is not much for her to do. So Tea Cake teaches Janie how to hunt and fish. Thanks to Tea Cake's encouragement, Janie becomes an exceptional hunter, better even than her husband.

At night the pianos "clang and clamor." People sing the blues and "dance, fight, sing, cry, laugh, win and lose love." Tea Cake's house becomes the center of social life. People come to hear him play the guitar and laugh at his stories. Tea Cake starts visiting Janie during the day. One day, Janie asks why. He tells her that he misses her too much to be away all day long. He asks her to come out to the field to work with him and she does.

At night, the men have discussions and arguments, just as they used to on the porch in Eatonville. Only here, Janie can "listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wants to. She [gets] so she can tell big stories herself from listening to the rest." Some of the men gamble: namely, Ed Dockery, Bootyny, and Sop-de-Bottom. One night, after a nerve-racking game, Ed Dockery wins a pile of money. He tells the others that he is sending the money straight to Sears and Roebuck to buy clothes. He says, "And when I turn over Christmas day, it would take a doctor to tell me how near Ah is dressed tuh death."

Analysis:

When Janie comes to the Everglades, she learns to fully appreciate black culture. She sees that impoverished men and women can manage to find true joy and love in the black, itchy Muck of the Everglades. Hurston, in this chapter, reconciles two extreme contrasts. First, she describes the depth of destitution of the blacks converging on the 'Glades: "Day by day now, hordes of workers poured in. Some came limping with their shoes and sore feet from walking... They came in wagons from up in Georgia and they come in truckloads from east, west, north and south. Permanent transients with no attachments and tired looking men with their families and dogs in flivvers. Skillets, beds, patched up spare inner tubes all hanging and dangling from the ancient cars on the outside and hopeful humanity, herded and hovered on the inside, chugging on to the muck. People ugly from ignorance and broken from being poor."

Then, Hurston describes vividly their joie de vivre: she describes pianos playing all night long; she describes people singing and dancing and gambling. These contrasting images placed together articulate in picaresque form the great accomplishment of black culture at the time: their transcendence above poverty and destitution through a reliance on music, conversation, play, and love.

This chapter contains heavy foreshadowing of the flood to come. Hurston describes Okechobee as "Big" several times and then writes: "they rattled nine miles in a borrowed car to the quarters and squatted so close that only the dyke separated them from the great, sprawling Okechobee."

One difference between Janie's marriages is that Tea Cake is the leader of his community just as Joe was the leader of his. 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" to oppress, he entertains with his guitar and his good humor.

Chapter Fifteen Summary:

A little, chunky girl named Nunkie begins to flirt with Tea Cake, tapping on his shoulder and then running into the fields hoping that he will chase her. Sometimes he does. Janie is worried that Nunkie is weakening Tea Cake's loyalty to her.

One day, Janie leaves Tea Cake's side to chat with another woman. When she looks back, Tea Cake and Nunkie have disappeared. Janie runs into a row of sugar cane and finds them on the floor struggling. Janie tries to grab Nunkie but she runs off. She asks Tea Cake what he is doing, and Tea Cake says that Nunkie took his working tickets and he had to fight with her to get them back. Janie goes home.

Tea Cake follows her home, and Janie slaps him. They fight for a while, shouting and struggling, but they make up and have sex. When they wake up, Janie asks if Tea Cake loves Nunkie. Tea Cake says he never loved Nunkie. He tells Janie that no one can compare to her. He describes his wife as "something tuh make uh man forgit tuh git old and forgit tuh die."

Analysis:

Rather than focusing on black culture as many of the other chapters do, this chapter deals with the more universal theme of feminine jealousy. Janie's fear and anger regarding Tea Cake's possible affair are feelings that every woman past and present can relate to. Janie's loving relationship with Tea Cake is reinforced yet again by his unwillingness to look at other women.

Chapter Sixteen Summary:

The season of bean-picking ends and Janie begins to notice parts of her community that she had been too busy to notice before. She notices Bahaman drummers and she and Tea Cake spend evenings together enjoying their music.

Janie also gets to know Mrs. Turner. Mrs. Turner is a mixed-race woman. Her skin is "milky," her nose is "slightly pointed," her lips are thin, and her bottom is small. Mrs. Turner does not understand why Janie associates with black people or why she married a man as dark as Tea Cake. Mrs. Turner feels that women like herself and Janie that are partly white should try to "lighten the race" by only associating and marrying people that have a light skin color. Janie laughs at Mrs. Turner's ideas and tells her that Tea Cake is a wonderful man: "He kin take most any lil thing and make summertime out of it when times is dull."

Mrs. Turner continues to show her disdain for black people; she does not understand why blacks laugh so much and so loudly. She tells Janie that she thinks that the black race is dragging down people like herself. If the blacks were not there, white people would embrace mixed race people and include them in their culture. She tells Janie that she never shops at black shops; she thinks that blacks have no business sense. Then, Mrs. Turner tells Janie that she would be better off married to another, lighter man, particularly Turner's brother.

Finally, after some time, Mrs. Turner leaves. Janie goes into the kitchen and finds Tea Cake sitting with his head in his hands. Tea Cake overheard the entire conversation. He tells Janie that if Mrs. Turner hates black people so much, she should stay away from him and Janie. He tells Janie that he is going to tell Mrs. Turner's husband to keep Mrs. Turner away from their house.

Then one day, Tea Cake runs into Mr. Turner and his son on the street. Tea Cake wanted to instruct Turner to keep Mrs. Turner away from his home, but Mr. Turner was such a weak man that Tea Cake realizes Turner would not be able to prevent Mrs. Turner from doing anything. So Tea Cake tells Janie to snub Mrs. Turner every time she sees her.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Turner believed that Janie had the right to snub her because she had lighter skin. Her continued presence didn't bother Tea Cake and Janie that much because it gave them something to talk about during the dull summer months on the Muck. Sometimes they would make day little trips to the beach to pass the time; but soon enough the summer months were over and droves of people returned to the muck to do the picking.

Analysis:

Some critics rebuke Hurston for not infusing her literature with protests against racism and hatred. This chapter tends to refute that type of argument. Instead of writing "angry" literature to support black culture, Hurston's Their Eyes is a celebration of black culture, black music, and the black oral tradition.

In this chapter, Janie must defend black culture, interestingly, to another black woman. Mrs. Turner is a weak, ugly woman who takes pride only in her white characteristics and has distaste for her black characteristics. Turner ridicules blacks for laughing too much, for "whooping and hollering," for wearing bright colors, and for being poor. But Janie defends her black culture through her lifestyle choice. She marries Tea Cake and comes to the Muck to work and live and learn. Unlike her contemporaries who wrote about black rights in "white prose," Hurston supports the language and life of her people by writing in their dialect.

One important contrast in this chapter is the difference between the "white" and "black" perceptions of God. Mrs. Turner embraces the white perception of a cruel and uncaring God. She thinks, "All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped." Later in the novel, the reader is shown a clearer explanation of the traditional black perception of God. So far the reader has not seen God characterized specifically. Death is separated from God by Janie, and thus the cruelty that Mrs. Turner identifies with God would probably not be identified with Janie's God.

Chapter Seventeen Summary:

Many people return to live on the Muck after the summer. Some of the people are familiar from the previous year and some people are brand new. Mrs. Turner brings her brother to town to introduce him to Janie. Tea Cake whips Janie to show Mrs. Turner's brother that he has full control over Janie. "Being able to whip her reassured him in posession. No brutal beating at all. He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss. Everybody talked about it next day in the fields. It aroused a sort of envy in both men and women."

Other men are envious of Tea Cake's ability to hit Janie and leave marks on her skin. Because her skin is fairer than other blacks, her bruises are much more obvious. Women are jealous of the caring that her husband shows her afterward, worrying that he has killed her after a few slaps.

Tea Cake tells Sop-de-Bottom that Mrs. Turner hates blacks. Sop-de-Bottom tells Tea Cake that he thinks that they should throw rocks at her restaurant. Tea Cake agrees that they must find a way to drive her out of the city. Saturday afternoon rolls around and everyone gets paid and uses their money to get drunk. The men goes to Mrs. Turner's restaurant, telling her that she has the best beef stew in town. When the waitress brings Coodemay's dinner to him, Coodemay refuses to take it off the tray. Instead, he tells the waitress to stand there with the food on the tray and allow him to eat off it. He says that this is fair because the restaurant has run out of chairs and it would be very difficult to eat without having the waitress hold his plate. Then, Coodemay tries to take Sop-de-Bottom's chair. They begin fighting. Tea Cake steps into the fight ostensibly on Mrs. Turner's behalf saying that "she is too nice a woman" to have people destroying her restaurant. Once the restaurant is thoroughly destroyed by the brawl, the men cheerfully stop fighting, apologize to each other and go off to another bar.

Mrs. Turner yells at her cowardly husband for not standing up to the men. Mr. Turner sits calmly in his chair, smoking a pipe. Mrs. Turner begins hitting him, exclaiming that had her son and brother been in the restaurant during the fight, they would have stopped the ruckus. What she does not know is that her brother and son had in fact been at the restaurant. When they saw that there was trouble, they ran away to Palm Beach. Mrs. Turner decides to leave the Everglades and go to Miami "where people are civilized."

Monday morning, Sterrett and Coodemay come to the restaurant to apologize to Mrs. Turner. They give her five dollars each for the damage.

Analysis

This chapter focuses on Tea Cake and the "black" perspective. In the previous chapter, Hurston exalted the black spirit, culture and way of life. In this chapter she explores some of the more questionable actions of her people.

The chapter begins with understatement. Hurston explains in a brief, emotionless fashion the brutality with which Tea Cake beats Janie. He beats her in order to show another man his power. Hurston's understatement of this poor logic is designed to make the reader angry and upset at Janie's predicament as a woman in black society.

Although she has been liberated through Tea Cake by her introduction into real black society, Janie is still oppressed as a woman in black society. Although she is not a mule (as she was when she was Logan's wife) or a glittery showpiece (as she was with Joe Starks) she is still oppressed.

Hurston successfully labels Mrs. Turner and her ilk as cowards. Mr. Turner does nothing during the fight and her son and brother do not even enter the restaurant when there are signs of trouble. Through the Turners, Hurston comments on all the "Turn...er's" of black society: African-Americans who "turn" against their own when the going gets tough are cowardly, infertile, ugly, miserable people.

Chapter Eighteen Summary:

Tea Cake's and Janie's friendship with the Bahaman musicians grows. Soon, every night there is traditional African dancing around a fire behind Tea Cake's house.

One afternoon, Janie sees Seminole Indians passing through town heading east. They warn her that a hurricane is coming. Nobody believes that there can possibly be anything wrong. After all, the bean-picking season is going well, and everyone is making huge amounts of money.

The weather becomes very still, and the animals leave. The snakes, possums and rabbits all hurry east to Palm Beach. Some people get scared and leave, including the Bahamans leave. One Bahaman boy, Lias, encourages Tea Cake to come with him, but Tea Cake is resolute about staying in the Everglades. He responds that the "Indians don't know much uh nothin', tuh tell de truth. Else dey'd own dis country still. De white folks ain't gone nowhere." Lias tells Tea Cake that he will wish he had left when the hurricane comes.

That night, everyone collects at Tea Cake's house. Everyone has a wonderful evening gambling and joking. The weather starts to get worse and everyone but Motor Boat leaves to go home. As the whole world starts to rumble, Janie, Tea Cake and Motor Boat look fearfully at the rumbling door. "Six eyes were questioning God."

Tea Cake asks Janie if she wishes that she had never come with him to the Everglades. But Janie says that before she had met Tea Cake she had been fumbling around. "God opened the door" and brought her Tea Cake. The lights go out and the three stare into the darkness. "They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God."

Tea Cake and Janie decide to find a car to take them out of the storm. They wake up Motor Boat and the three trudge through the storm. The dam on the lake breaks and the water rushes behind them, dangerously high. The three find a tall house on high land. Motor decides to stay in the house; he thinks it is safe. Janie and Tea Cake continue on. Tea Cake shouts to help a passerby escape a snake; afterwards he is breathless. Janie sees a piece of roof sailing in the wind. As she grabs it, it lifts her off the ground. She flies through the air and falls into the water. She is starting to drown when Tea Cake instructs her to swim toward a large cow with a dog standing on it. Janie grabs the cow's tail and the dog starts barking at her.

Tea Cake swims into the water to rescue her and the dog bites him on the face. Afterward, Janie and Tea Cake walk to safety. Janie tells Tea Cake they should find a doctor for his dog bite, but Tea Cake says he is fine. They find a place to rest and recover.

Analysis:

Tea Cake's death is heavily foreshadowed in this chapter. At the beginning of the chapter, he is compared to John the Conqueror, who went to heaven playing a guitar and then went to Hell and gave water to all the sufferers. The reader knows that Tea Cake's death will come soon.

This chapter emphasizes the wisdom of people who watch nature and God. The Indians realize first that the hurricane is coming, but Tea Cake dismisses them in a stereotypical anglocentric capitalist manner. He believes that the Indians are wrong because they have "always been wrong." Why else would they have lost their land? Tea Cake does not realize that he too at last has become too dependent on money. He does not want to leave because he does not want to lose any potential earnings. Hurston is commenting that American blacks are too far removed from their roots and the need to watch God and the messages he sends them. The people who are closest to nature (the Indians and the Bahamans) understand God's ways and signals. The blacks and the whites are removed from perceiving God because they are too concerned about money.

Only when God's fury and power are literally knocking down their front door do Tea Cake and Janie "watch God."

Chapter Nineteen Summary:

Death, personified again as the man with square toes that lives in a house with no sides (so that he can see all the mortals of the earth) returns to his house. This means that the time for death is over and it is time to bury the dead.

Janie and Tea Cake are not certain where to go next. Tea Cake decides to head into town to see if he can hear any news about his friends in the Everglades. Janie warns Tea Cake not to go into the city because the Red Cross is pressing men into service burying the dead.­ Tea Cake tells Janie that because he has money, the Red Cross people will not bother him. Unfortunately, he is wrong. As soon as Tea Cake wanders into the city, he is approached by two white men with rifles who call him "Jim" and enlist him to bury the dead. Tea Cake resists their command, saying that he has just survived the storm himself. But they point their rifles at him and tell him that if does not help, he will be dead soon.

Tea Cake helps bury the dead from the storm. The Red Cross orders the workers to separate the blacks from the whites when they are dumping the bodies in the cemetary. All of the whites will be put in coffins, while the blacks will be dumped in a mass grave. Since the bodies are so mangled, it is difficult to tell black from white. So the workers are instructed to use the hair as a guide. Tea Cake remarks, "Look lak dey think God don't know nothin' 'bout de Jim Crow law."

Time passes and Tea Cake realizes that Janie must be worried. He escapes when the truck leaves to unload the bodies. Although he is almost shot, he runs home and finds Janie. Tea Cake tells her that they should leave, but Janie thinks that it is safer to stay put. Tea Cake is adamant ­that they should leave. They are in danger because they are strangers and white people don't like "strange niggers." Janie laughs. She says: "De ones de white man know is nice colored folks. De ones he don't know is bad niggers."

They return to the Everglades and find Sop-de-Bottom, 'Lias, Coodemay, Bootyny and Motor Boat. Motor Boat stayed safely in the house after Janie and Tea Cake had left. Sterrett, another friend, died in the flood. Tea Cake finds work cleaning up after the storm. He buys a new pistol and a new rifle and he and Janie practice shooting. Janie is a better shot than Tea Cake.

Tea Cake wakes up in the middle of the night feeling like someone is strangling him in his sleep. He tries to drink water but it chokes him. In the morning, Janie is worried and calls Doctor Simmons. She tells him that Tea Cake was bit by a dog one month ago in the storm. Doctor Simmons tells her that Tea Cake has rabies and will die. He will try to fetch an antidote for Tea Cake, but it is probably useless because the disease has had so much time to progress.

No serum is available in Palm Beach; Simmons calls Miami and they say that it will be delivered the next morning. Meanwhile, Simmons instructs Janie not to sleep with Tea Cake since he might bite her and give her rabies as well.

Tea Cake falls into a jealous rage when he finds out that Mrs. Turner's brother is back in the Everglades. He asks Janie why she left the house without telling him; is she interested in Turner? Janie tells him that he is sick and that he is taking everything the wrong way; she is not interested in Turner at all. In the morning, Janie sees that Tea Cake is holding a pistol underneath the pillow; he is ready to kill her. When Tea Cake goes to the outhouse, Janie rushes to see if the pistol is loaded and it is. There are three bullets inside. She whirls the cylinder so that the pistol will not fire on the first three pulls of the trigger; at least she will a warning if Tea Cake shoots. She loads the rifle and makes sure that she can grab it if she needs it.

When Tea Cake comes back from the outhouse, he has a strange loping gait and a clenched jaw. He believes that Janie is not sleeping with him because she is interested in Turner. He grabs the pistol and aims it at Janie. He fires three shots, all blanks. Janie grabs the rifle, and they both fire at each other at the same time. The rifle is slightly faster, and Tea Cake falls to the ground, biting Janie's forearm.

Janie falls to the floor with him, weeping. She whispers her love to him and he dies. Janie is arrested for murder, put in jail, and tried in court. All of her black friends believe she is at fault for Tea Cake's death and want her to go to prison. Simmons explains her case to the jury and she is not convicted of murder. She is set free.

Janie arranges a beautiful funeral for Tea Cake in Palm Beach. She explains to Sop and the other friends that she knows that they were not trying to hurt her. They loved Tea Cake and just didn't understand what had happened. Sop and the friends all apologize.

Analysis:

This chapter presents the climax of the novel: Janie and Tea Cake's shoot-out. Tea Cake taught Janie how to shoot a gun, and, in a tragically ironic twist, Janie ends up using this skill to kill Tea Cake.

This chapter is full of social commentary. After the flood, Tea Cake is forced to seperate the victims by race before burying them. Hurston suggests how absurd racial prejudices are by showing how far they extend. Tea Cake's commentary is Hurston's own political viewpoint: he says, "Look lak dey think God don't know nothin' 'bout de Jim Crow law."

The Jim Crow laws were the laws that existed in state constitutions from 1880s through the 1960s that guaranteed the equality of people through "separate but equal treatment." Tea Cake comments that giving whites coffins and blacks a mass grave is unequal treatment.

In addition to her hair, a new symbol of Janie's identity is her overalls. She wears overalls to the funeral: "She went on in her overalls. She was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief." She also wears them home to Eatonville when she returns.

Janie's voice is used more rarely in this chapter than usual. In certain scenes, for example the court scene, Janie's voice is entirely absent from the narration. Some critics have argued that places where the reader hears Janie's voice indicate places where Janie has power. In the court scene, the fact that Janie does not have power is reinforced by the fact that her voice does not mediate what is happening. Thus, critics argue, Janie fails in her quest to find her voice, because when it really matters most she is unable to speak out in her own defense.

Other critics, particularly Alice Walker, take an opposite line of reasoning: a woman who has a voice has power and may choose when to use her voice and when to keep silent. Walker argued that Janie has power in the final scene; she chooses not to use her voice because she knows that it would not help her.

Chapter Twenty Summary:

After the funeral, Janie's friends on the Muck blame Mrs. Turner's brother for Tea Cake's death and force him off the Muck again. After two days, they forget about ever having been angry at Janie; remembering is "too much of a strain." Janie remains for a few weeks, but the Muck reminds her too much of Tea Cake. She gives away all of her belongings, except a package of seeds that Tea Cake had been planning to plant before he fell ill.

The narration returns to the porch where it began in the first chapter. Back on the porch of her old home in Eatonville with Pheoby, Janie takes her feet out of the pan of water and dries them. She says that she is happy to be home and that the house does not seem so empty as it used to be, because it is now filled with her thoughts and memories. She has been to the horizon and back; she knows now that, "you got tuh go there tuh know there...Two things everybody got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves." Janie tells Phoeby to explain her story to the townspeople; perhaps they will learn a little about love from her experiences.

After a long hug, Phoeby leaves. Janie climbs the stairs to her bedroom with her nightlamp. Shutting the window and brushing her hair, she remembers the day of the shooting and the trial. She sees visions of Tea Cake all around her. Tea Cake is not dead; while Janie is living, he will live on in her memory. Janie finally finds peace; she pulls in the horizon like a great net and drapes it over her shoulders. "So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see."

Analysis:

This chapter is the resolution of the novel and of Janie's development. She has seen the horizon and taken control of it­; the horizon is no longer some strange faraway source of inspiration. Janie owns the horizon; she can wrap it around herself and rejoice in the memories that have been trapped in it like fish in a net.

The theme of the novel is summarized by Janie in three sentences: "you got tuh go there tuh know there...Two things everybody got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves." These sentences empower direct action by all people, women and men alike. Janie has found that she must live for herself in order to be self-fulfilled.

More difficult to understand, perhaps, is the theme of "going to God" or "watching God." Why would Janie recommend that all people find God? Janie's recommendation is not synonymous with the traditional Christian understanding of finding God. Janie "finds God" in the hurricane. The might and fury of the storm causes Janie and her friends to seek a larger meaning behind the storm. They watch God to try to glimpse a meaning behind nature's fury, nature's creation, and their own destinies.

• Biography of Zora Neale Hurston
• About Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Character List
• Major Themes
• Glossary of Terms
• Short Summary
• Full Summary and Analysis
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters 1-4
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters 5-8
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters 9-12
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters 13-16
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters 17-20
• Related Links on Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Suggested Essay Questions
• Hurston: Part of the Harlem Renaissance?
• Author of ClassicNote and Sources
• Purchase Their Eyes Were Watching God and Other Works
• Test Yourself! Quiz 1
• Test Yourself! Quiz 2
• Test Yourself! Quiz 3
• Test Yourself! Quiz 4
• Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Message Board on Their Eyes Were Watching God