Their Eyes Chapters 14-17
There’s enough fights and action in these chapters for the whole book. Janie is jealous of Nunkie flirting with Tea Cake, Mrs. Turner is jealous of white people and how they get treated, Sterrett and Coodemay fight in Mrs. Turners restaurant. I skimmed over what was available of this book, The Everglades, by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and saw that bean picking there wasn’t exactly as great as Tea Cake and Janie portrayed it as being. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the practice seems like a way just to get some extra money and to keep busy with breaks, not a harsh necessary means of survival. It wasn’t quite that, but Tea Cake makes Janie happy and their love, which is admired by everyone may be what makes them feel so good and free.
“Sometimes Janie would think of the old days in the big white house and the store and laugh to herself. What if Eatonville could see her now in her blue denim overalls and heavy shoes? The crowd of people around her and a dice game on her floor! She was sorry for her friends back there and scornful of the others”
Janie is living a completely different life here in the everglades than she did in Eatonville. She isn’t striving to sit on the porch and chill, but voluntarily works to keep occupied and spend more time with Tea Cake. This also has the added benifit of making her look like less of a snob to the town and they all take a liking to her. Now what does Janie have to aspire to? She has found love and a life that is happy in all respects. Why will Tea Cake leave her and lead everyone in Eatonville to think he stole her money?
