The Real TEA (Cake)

While reading about Tea Cake I couldn't help but fall for him a bit, as I believe Hurston intended. Tea Cake, despite his random arrivals and departures, is an incredibly sweet guy. from the beginning he has cared about Janie and her needs and wants more than any other guy in her life. Though Janie had other partners that were smooth, and who could see how pretty she was they never seemed to value Janie for Janie. Though I realize it's early in the book and we don't know quite that much about Tea Cake, besides the fact that he and Janie don't work out, I can't help but swoon a bit when hearing about their relationship.

How many people, in or out of High School can say their partners take them on spontaneous fishing trips at night? How many people, regardless of how much we want it, have had someone who has truly enjoyed playing with their hair endlessly, just for the pure fact that it will make the person whose hair is being played with feel good? Tea Cake not only makes Janie excited physically, he taps into things people don't normally notice. When Janie is alone, he notices she doesn't know how to play checkers and teaches her. He went out of his way to do something nice for her, just to spend time with her and make her happy. These are the kind of hallmark movie things that make Tea Cake so great. Furthermore, he shows Janie he cares for her, and makes sure she knows, despite her initial doubts. He literally goes to her house in the morning just to tell her his feelings remain the same, after she's doubtful late at night. These little moments and reassurances may not seem like the grandest thing in the world, but to me these are the quintessential features of an amazing person. Not to say you have to take people fishing, or teach them checkers to be good; but the fact that Tea Cake not only goes out of his way for Janie, but notices and cares about the things that go on with Janie speaks for itself.

Now besides the fact that I am totally in love with Tea Cake as a character, I cant help but constantly go back to the beginning where we know they do not stay together. I partly fear Tea Cake turns out to be terrible, but somehow I am reassured that everything is ok because Janie does not seem to be broken when she arrives in town initially. All in all I am excited to see where their relationship goes, and how Hurston continues to reveal Tea Cake's true nature, whether malicious or propitious. 

Comments

  1. Curtis AlthausOctober 19, 2019 at 3:07 PM

    I never realized the detail of Janie's feelings! However, I share your skeptecism of Tea Cake. When we were first introduced to Joe, it seemed like he was the genuine one and truly cared for her feelings. Knowing this, I think that its good for us as readers to question the validity of Tea Cake's actions as we really don't know anything about him. He seems to be genuine, but it could just be a giant facade.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DanbiOctober 20, 2019 at 12:31 AM

    I also really love Tea Cake as a character so far and fell for him a little bit. I think that even though Tea Cake doesn't seem to have a lot of wealth or actual belongings (ex. he walks long distances to work because he doesn't have a car), I think that's what makes him appear even better. Instead of just offering loads of money or 60 acres of land, like you mentioned, Tea Cake does the little things like playing with her hair which I think is what most girls actually want in a guy. I love Tea Cake for Janie because even though she was constantly degraded for her growing age by Jody and she is obviously feeling older, he makes her feel youthful and adventurous again which is what I think she really needed. Tea Cake seems like an incredibly sweet guy and I found myself literally "awwing" at all his cute actions. On the other hand, I too am kind of wary of Tea Cake not only because of the beginning chapter where something has obviously gone wrong with him for Janie to be returning, but also because I feel like Hurston has shown us time and time again that appearances can be deceiving. Right before introducing Tea Cake, she shows all the men coming to Janie who are only interested in her money and we can't necessarily exclude Tea Cake from that because he too is not super wealthy so he might want her partially for her own wealth. In addition, Janie's past relationships have seen decent at first (Logan was actually very sweet and infatuated with her in the beginning and Jody was also pretty respectful and caring), we see later that both of them go down a bad path so my hopes for this relationship aren't incredibly high.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JoshuaOctober 20, 2019 at 10:58 AM

    I definitely think it's easy to like Tea Cake, especially compared to Janie's previous two husbands. However, I think the spontaneity could be potentially troublesome. Janie and the reader know very little about Tea Cake's life, or pretty much anything about what he's like when he's not with Janie. He randomly disappears very often, which leaves Janie confused and upset. Janie's relationship with Jody started off well, then went downhill fast, which I think could possibly happen again here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. IsabelaOctober 20, 2019 at 11:03 AM

    As I mentioned in class discussion, I totally agree and love Tea Cake as a character so far. I think that what makes him stand out against her past relationships is that his way of 'swooning her' like you mentioned, has less to do with material goods, and purely has to do with emotion and caring. Also, because of his lack of material goods or status, it actually makes me think he is less likely to have some sort of alternate plan with Janie. He does not seem like the type to buy into the american ideals of having tons of money, and status. I also think that the way he rejects these things really makes Janie like him more because it makes him more different and mysterious.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jenna LeeOctober 20, 2019 at 8:27 PM

    I also am falling in love with Tea Cake a little bit! I also am optimistic about this relationship based on just how much detail Janie is giving us about him and her relationship with him. Regardless of if they work out or not, it's clear this relationship is very important to Janie and that she grows and learns from it. In the beginning of the novel, even though Tea Cake isn't with her, she doesn't look broken or grieving, she looks strong despite her age and all that the town is putting her through. I'm excited to see where the relationship goes!

    ReplyDelete
  6. MarianoOctober 20, 2019 at 9:36 PM

    Tea Cake is total heartthrob. You know those memes where it's like get you guy that...it definitely seems like Tea Cake is that guy. I can only try and imagine they way her looks at her. I say this now, but I have no suspicions on Tea Cake's intentions. The only thing that worries me now is what happens between Janie and Tea Cake that ends with Tea Cake as "gone."

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Invincible Supernatural Slavery

I noticed there was a lot of discussion surrounding Morrison's choice to use supernatural elements in her book. in many class discussions, the theme of how"nothing ever dies" frequently came up and led me to think about the meaning behind the Ghost of Beloved. As I read the book, there were several moments where Morrison illustrated how nothing ever died. In Sethe's "rememories", nothing ever went away. All the trauma Paul D locks up his heart (his tin can) never really goes away as well and later on both Sethe and Paul D have to face their traumas that resurface. In this way, I think it's interesting to think about slavery in that context. Although many people like to dismiss the effects of slavery as an "event of the past" that "happened 400 years ago" and people need to "get over" the effects have tremendous impacts on people that we are still dealing with. The fact that Morrison forces her readers to have this view of sl...
Read more

Reclaiming Black Life

As we discussed Wright's criticism of "their eyes were watching god", I couldn't help but think about his comment on Hurston's writing as a form of entertainment for white people, similar to minstrel shows. The comment kept popping back in my head the longer I thought about her writing and what I'd gotten from it. In a way, I understood what Wright was saying, but I also wondered if there could've been a deliberate purpose for her portrayal of such "minstrel like" displays of the black community in the Muck. In reading wrights criticism of Hurston's novel, I could see the points he made on the sort of overemphasized idealized nature of the Muck although the people there were working on a white plantation every day. This idea of them being so happy to work there seemed odd to me but I didn't take it as a form of comedic play on Black culture in the sense Wright took it, pointing out the centuries of history behind whites taking Black cul...
Read more

Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

Throughout Native Son, I found myself hating Bigger Thomas and the decisions he made. I am aware this is what Wright intended, but it led me to question Bigger's choices more thoroughly. While it is clear he killed Mary, can we really blame Bigger? Aside from his appalling actions with Bessie and his overall awfulness as a person, how much of his actions were really his fault? Are we supposed to hate Bigger himself, or hate his environment that contributed to the way he is? Richard Wright specifically portrays Bigger Thomas as a terrible person. Even before Bigger killed anyone, Wright makes it obvious he's awful. From the opening as he taunts his sister with a dead rat and makes her uncomfortable watching her change, we are meant to hate him. This "a-hole" demeanor is only strengthened when we see him start a fight with Gus, and threaten to kill him. As the book progresses, Bigger's actions become more and more severe. While I am aware the actual killing of Mar...
Read more