I have to admit I wasn't thrilled reading Their Eyes Were Watching God. It was especially difficult to understand the black vernacular and it took a while for me to actually get into the book. I think that point was when Janie and Tea Cake got together. The excitement and happiness of their relationship made the book more interesting for me.
I was happy when Janie found herself and true love with Tea Cake. After all that she had been through, growing up without her mother, loosing her grandmother and having been in two horrible marriages, I think Janie defiantly deserved it. However the one thing I can’t seem to get out of my mind is the way Tea Cake died. It was even heartbreaking for me to find out from the doctor that Tea Cake would not be able to pull through this illness and essentially get violent, possibly hurting Janie. After hearing that, I had a feeling that Tea Cake’s death was going to be a tragic and dramatic one. It didn’t surprise me that Hurston had Janie kill Tea Cake in the end. I say this only because Janie always seemed to have strength and courage to do what she felt was best (ex: leaving Logan for Joe without divorcing him), even though she was on a quest for her self identity. I think Hurston used Janie's character to display black women of this time period as courageous, powerful and beautiful (no matter what age).
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I agree, it was interesting that Hurston had Janie kill Tea Cake. I like that you link it to Hurston showing that black women are courageous, strong, and beautiful. It makes sense, because why else would she have her kill the one man that she finally seemed to fall in love with. Janie seemed to be on a hunt for love and happiness through the whole book and now she is forced to shoot and kill him, what a twist!
I also agree that Janie seems to always know what is right. Although she might make bad decisions like the marriages that failed, she finds a way to build strength to get out of them. When she met Tea Cake she seemed to know that he was the right man for her. It is sad that he had to become ill and she had to kill him. But, I think she knew that she needed to do it because there was the possibility that he could hurt her and the violence could get out of control due to his illness. I enjoyed reading about Janie through her ups and downs. I think in the end, she was an interesting and inspiring character.
I agree with you that she seemed to always have the strength to do what is best and right at the time. I also thought it was heartbreaking about the illness he had and that if he got better he may become violent. Her marriages totally confused me though since I thought she was never even divorced from the first one so in all technicality she can't be married again. It is sad though that she has to end up killing the one man she has truly fallen in love with.
I too agree with the point that this book was difficult to read. The black vernacular is very different, but after a while I was able to understand it better the more and more I read. I also agree with you that the book got better when Tea cake was brought into the story. I was happy for Janie too. It was exciting to read about her relationships throughout the whole novel. It's what kept me into it.
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