Tea Cake (2024)

FAQs

What does Phoebe say about Tea Cake? ›

Phoebe Watson: If that Tea Cake ever shows his behind in Eatonville again, he'll wish he hadn't. He knew you had just lost Joe, so he took advantage of you and your money. Janie Starks: He ain't wasted none of my money.

Tea Cake was spending and doing out of his own pocket, so Janie never told him about the two hundred dollars she had pinned inside her shirt next to her skin. Pheoby had insisted that she bring it along and keep it secret just to be on the safe side.

The money that Tea Cake took from Janie will be replaced through Tea Cake's skill in gambling.

how much does tea cake want to bet that he loves her? tea cake wants to bet a dollar, but then says that janie has probably never made a bet in her life.

Pheoby tells Janie that Tea Cake is too low for her, but Janie replies that while Jody wanted her to act pretentious and high-class, Tea Cake treats her as she wants to be treated. Pheoby warns that Tea Cake may be using her for her money and tells Janie that she has stopped mourning for Jody too soon.

He adds that it is probably too late to save Tea Cake but that he will order medicine from Palm Beach just in case. Tea Cake's health deteriorates and the rabies warp his mind, filling him with delusional, paranoid thoughts.

Tea Cake's decision to steal Janie's money is not malicious, but a testament to his completely untraditional approach to life – he prioritizes spontaneous play over anything serious, and seldom thinks ahead.

Tea Cake begins to identify Janie as his possession. Because he feels threatened after Janie meets Mrs. Turner's brother, he strikes his wife to reassure himself that Janie belongs to him and no one else.

Tea Cake seems to manipulate this lack to make Janie love him more. In Chapter 14 , he achieves something neither Logan nor Jody is able to accomplish: getting Janie to work out of her own free will.

That night, in bed, Janie thinks about the horrible day that she killed Tea Cake, and her whole world becomes bleak. She realizes, however, that Tea Cake gave her so much and that he will always be with her. He showed her the horizon, and now she feels at peace.

What is the symbolism of Tea Cake combing her hair? ›

The image of Tea Cake combing Janie's hair serves to represent Janie's new found independence from Joe. Finally, she is free of Joe's control, which stifled her individuality and her beauty.

Vergible Woods, known as Tea Cake, is the third husband of Janie Crawford, the protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937).

Tea Cake loves Janie as much as she loves him. Tea Cake shows Janie affection which is something that is missing in her marriage with Joe and Logan. When Tea Cake comes home to Janie and sees her crying on the floor, “he [takes] her head in his hands and ease[s] himself into the chair.

Tea Cake's Death

After Tea Cake and Janie marry, he is grievously wounded in a fight after a game of dice he played to win Janie's money back. This beating foreshadows Tea Cake's eventual demise from rabies after rescuing Janie during the hurricane.

Tea Cake's refusal to leave the muck in the face of the storm (despite the warnings from nature) highlights his excessive pride in his own physical strength as well as his emphasis on a fun-loving approach to life. Janie simply accepts this decision—she has no voice in it at all, and does not attempt to have one.

What news does Janie tell Pheoby about her and Tea Cake's future? What is Pheoby's warning to Janie? Janie tells Pheoby that she and Tea Cake were going to get married and leave the town. Pheoby warned Janie about Tea Cake turning out to be different from the way he acted around her now.

Mrs. Turner does not approve of Tea Cake because his skin is too dark and thinks Janie should be with her brother, instead. Mrs. Turner doesn't believe it when Janie tells her she and Tea Cake have a real love and so much fun together.

Worried, Janie calls for Dr. Simmons, the local white doctor who is well-respected in the muck. After Tea Cake explains his story, Dr. Simmons pulls Janie aside and informs her that the dog that bit Tea Cake must have been rabid, as Tea Cake's symptoms align with those of rabies.

What do you think Tea Cake means when he says "look lak dey think God don't know nothin' 'bout de Jim Crow law"? Tea Cake suggests that because the segregating Jim Crow law does not exist in heaven, the authorities feel they need to help God recognize who is black and who is white by providing outward signs.