Why did Tea Cake hurt so much more?
In Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, goes through 3 different marriages, Logan, Joe/Jody, and Tea Cake. None of these marriages sustain, as we see Janie's breakup with Logan and Jody, and Janie at the beginning of the novel returns with no husband, which implies things went awry with Tea Cake in the end. However, the marriage that seemed to have the most promise was with Tea Cake. From the beginning, Logan was portrayed in a negative light by the narrator, and that marriage ended rather quickly. However, the other two marriages were a bit different.
Jody was originally portrayed as a "knight in shining armor" for Janie so she can run away from Logan, however we quickly learn he is not quite the man she wanted. Jody enforces gender roles very hard on Janie, and he also forces her to do all sorts of stuff against her will, like wearing a head rag. He also won't let Janie do anything she wants to do, like join the common folk as it would be "improper of someone her status." Janie's resentment towards Jody builds over time, and the two's chemistry deteriorates as well. Eventually, Jody slaps Janie just over a bad dinner. Yet when reading this, it did not spark as much rage as maybe it should have. It was a horrible act Jody had just committed, and completely uncalled for. Yet, it didn't really take the front stage when discussing the novel, especially when compared to Tea Cake.
While discussing and reading the novel, I couldn't help but notice the outrage from the class as well as I when we discussed and read the part where Tea Cake beats Janie. Of course the outrage was completely justified, but it seemed to me that we were much more upset about this incident than the one Jody had committed, despite being the same crime, and arguably having an even worse reason. I thought to myself about why that is.
I think in the discussion before the chapters with the domestic abuse, we talked about whether or not we like Tea Cake. A lot of students felt like Tea Cake was a fine young man, but to my surprise a lot of students didn't entirely trust him yet, and thought something was up with him, and they were right. However, I felt like when Tea Cake hit Janie, there was a huge feeling of betrayal and shock there, which I think led to a more outraged response. I think this speaks to Hurston's ability to set up Tea Cake as a likeable character, even though we had our qualms about his true intention. We knew that Jody was kind of a jerk for a while, so when he hit Janie, I think we had been suspecting something of the sorts, and we didn't really like Jody in the first place. It wasn't nearly as unexpected as Tea Cake, who I think we were kind of able to build a connection with and trust. The domestic abuse came more as a shock and gave us a sense of betrayal from Tea Cake which caused a stronger hatred towards him than we had against Jody.
Another reason for this could be because of how Tea Cake could be interpreted as taking advantage of Janie. Also, Janie forgives Tea Cake for this, which is significantly more frustrating than her situation with Jody when she realized what he was doing was wrong and she didn't like him anymore. No matter what the reason, this question is still interesting to me, and in my opinion, Tea Cake deserves every bit of hate he's getting.
-Teo
Hi, I agree with the fact that Tea Cake hitting Janie was a lot more shocking and terrifying than Jody abusing her. From the start, Jody kind of treated her as this figure who had to fit herself into the role of the mayor - he never really acknowledged her individuality or treated her as equal. However, Tea Cake has fun with her and treats her like his counterpart and I felt like he was more 'progressive' for his time if that makes sense - so I was also more shaken up when he hits her, especially since it was to prove himself. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really cool blog post. Tea Cake's instance of domestic abuse was territorial- to show how Janie is his woman and he has authority over her. Jody's instance of domestic abuse was just evil abuse- he took his anger out on Janie out of a lack of respect for both himself and her. Tea Cake was still very much in the wrong and should have never laid his hands on Janie, but I believe him and Jody are not comparable, and that the lack of trust we saw from our classmates to Tea Cake was justified. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThis comparison between the domestic abuse at the hands of Jody and Tea Cake and how they and the reactions were similar and different is very interesting. I hadn't thought about how differently we responded to either situation or why that was, but I think your explanation is a good one. Because we, or at least some people, somewhat liked Tea Cake, it was more disturbing when he hit Janie. Good post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I never thought about why these two instances of domestic had such different reactions, but now I clearly see why. Tea Cake abusing Janie was such a shock and brought about such a feeling of betrayal. I totally agree with you that the most frustrating part of this situation is the fact that she forgives Tea Cake for what happened, and dismisses the horrible thing he had done to her. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteExpectation and context can drastically alter how we respond to things. imagine you were given $5 out of nowhere vs after you were promised 10, very different reactions would occur even though the same thing happened. I never thought of this concept relating to Jody and Teacake but it makes so much sense!
ReplyDeleteThis is a super interesting comparison of these two relationships that Janie was in, and I love how you compare our reactions as readers and as a class to these two scenes of violence. I hadn’t thought much about them in direct comparison before, and I think you make some really compelling points about the class being way more in shock with Tea Cake’s violence than Jody’s (when today I maybe would have expected our reaction to be equal both). I think it’s really interesting how you discuss Hurston's very deliberate and careful attention to how Tea Cake is portrayed in comparison to other characters (particularly Janie’s other husbands) and how this makes readers feel different towards each while reading, which brings out a very different response by the audience to the violence. I think it definitely speaks to the very nuanced characters in this novel, which I really enjoyed while reading, and could serve as an example to argue against the harsh critics of the book when they say it’s “one-dimensional” and all the other strong (and unjustified, I feel) criticisms that they made (Richard Wright!).
ReplyDeleteReally great blog post! Thanks!
I never really thought about how Tea Cake's hitting of Janie was more impactful than when Jody did it. I think you're right that is has everything to do with expectations. Janie and the audience mostly like Tea Cake before he commits the crime, so the crime seems sort of like a betrayal. It was interesting reading about it! Great Post!
ReplyDeleteInteresting perspective on this post, I never really thought of comparing of Jody and Tea Cake in this sense. I think yes, we did kind of have different responses to Jody vs Tea Cake hitting her. i think that was mainly in part that Tea Cake was presented as this perfect match for Janie in a way. Tea Cake also hit her to send a message and earn the satisfaction of other people. On the contrary Jody did it out of plain spite. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThis was an interesting and perceptive blog! Comparing these two instances of domestic abuse creates a sort of divide between these Jody and Tea Cake and our perception of these two characters. I like how you described the differences between these two and why that caused a different reaction from the reader. Great post, Two!
ReplyDeletethis is a great blog post! I think that it is very interesting how you chose to compare Jody and Tea Cake. Your points are well supported and your post flows well. Good job!
ReplyDeleteGreat job, Teo! I find your comparison of Jody and Tea Cake to be really interesting and illuminating -- the two forms of abuse are different, yet both profoundly disturbing, especially int he way they're portrayed, in Their Eyes Were Watching God.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really good blog post! I really enjoyed reading your interpretation of the comparisons and differences between Jody and Tea Cake's abuse. You did a great job explaining how readers react to each of them hitting Janie and also how it impacts Janie herself. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic blog post. I think it is particularly interesting that you noticed the outrage people felt when discussing Tea Cake's horrifying actions and identified it with a sense of betrayal. I definitely agree with you that Hurston did a great job of setting Tea Cake up to be a great partner for Janie, when in reality, he was a manipulator and abuser. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! I love how you've connected some of our reactions to Tea Cake to the author's portrayal of his character. I would completely agree with your interpretation that for the audience, Tea Cake's actions were seen as far worse than Jodie's because of the trust we had put in him. I also think your last comment on how the fact that Janie remained with Tea Cake until the end of the novel played a role in our frustration towards him, perfectly captures my own thoughts. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post - I hadn't thought about it in these terms. I think it not only had to do with the fact readers were set up to like Tea Cake a lot more than Janie's previous two husbands, but also that Hurston writes Janie's last marriage as as if they're actually in love with each other. Janie and Logan were forced to be together out of circumstance, and we quickly saw that Joe was not the man he claimed to be, just as we saw Janie's attraction to him fade. Yet with Janie and Tea Cake for a lot of readers it seemed like everything was going really well and their relationship could actually last, which is what made Tea Cake's violent act; which to a modern reader pretty much destroyed the possibility of a healthy relationship between him and Janie; hurt so much more.
ReplyDeleteHi Teo. I never really tried to look at parallels between Janie's different relationships, but you did a good job at highlighting this one (domestic abuse). I think with each relationship, Janie had a larger emotional connection, and this culminated with Tea Cake. So, when he hit her, it had a larger affect on the reader (while Janie was somewhat blind to the abuse). Good blog.
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