36.) Pg.142 “Booker
T.? He wuz a great man, wusn’t he?”
To African Americans during this time Booker T. Washington
was a great man, he helped them establish a life after slavery in a white
society. Although it wasn’t as great as the life of a white person it was still
something. But Ms. Turner desperately want’s to be white, she looks down on
black people even though she is one herself. To white people in the South
during the late 1800’s early 1900’s Booker T. was a nuesance, they were still
not willing to accept the equality between a white man and a black man, just as
Ms. Tuner isn’t. She thinks like any racist white person would just because her
skin is a little lighter than the rest of the black people.
37.) Pg.143 “He was a
vanishing-looking kind of man as If there used to be parts about him that stuck
out individually but now he didn’t have a thing about him that wasn’t dwindled
and blurred.”
Being married to an overbearing woman like Mrs. Turner has
made Mr. Turner begin to lose his importance. She is “the head of the house” and
he has lost his control over anything. And a man without control is a man
without importance. The more power a man has the more power a man has to lose,
for example Jody had more power than three men combined, so when he began to
lose his power he began to lose his life. Power is what kept him alive. Mr.
Turner probably wasn’t as controlling as Jody, so when he lost his power he
began to dwindle more slowly, and rather than dying he just faded, and became
unnoticeable.
38.) Pg.144
“therefore it was right that they should be cruel to her at times, just as she
was cruel to those more negroid then herself in direct ratio to their
negroness.”
Mrs. Turner accepted cruelty from lighter skinned people
because she believed in the ranking system. The lighter you were, the more
important you were. Which gave you the right to treat the darker skinned people
like they were dirt. She considered herself white, and she only associated
herself with lighter skinned people. White doctors, even Janie. She envied
Janie for her lighter skin and her beauty, but she despises Tea Cake, because
of his “negroness”. She see’s white people and the power they have and the
respect they get and she craves that attention. She overlooks how cruel they
can be and how bad they treat her, because she believes that they have the
right to do it.
40.) Pg.145 “It was
inevitable that she should accept any inconsistency and cruelty from her deity
as all good worshipers do from theirs. All gods who receive homage are cruel.
All gods dispense suffering without reason.”
Mrs. Turner worships the white person like any person
worships god. She will do anything in order to earn their acceptance, even
treat her own people like they are at the bottom of the food chain. She
continues to give them what they want, but they continue to treat her with
cruelty. If you give a person a reason to be more powerful they will begin to
use it against you. What Mrs. Turner doesn’t realize is that she will never be
accepted the way she wants to be because of her skin color. They will just see
her as a pathetic “negro” and continue to use the attention she gives them
against her. Not only is Mrs. Turner getting no respect from the white people,
she is losing the respect of the black people. If she continues to follow the
ranking system she will soon be alone, which ends fatally in such a cruel
world.
41.) Pg.145 “Aw,
don’t make god look so foolish – findin’ fault wid everything He made.”
God created the man, but he didn’t create the black man only
to work for the white man, and God did not create the ranking system, that was
set in place to make the white man feel important, and to make more money. Tea
Cake believes in god, and he believes in equality. The fact that Mrs. Turner
looks down on him makes him very angry, because the black man was created by
god just like the white man was, and she has no right to pass judgment, and
cruelty to a person of equal life.
42.) Pg.147 “Being
able to whip her reassured him in possession.”
Tea Cake had never been very violent with Janie; he always
respected her, especially since she wasn’t a loud mouth woman who demanded
things from him. They always had equal respect for each other and allowed each
other to do what ever they please even if it wasn’t their place. Tea Cake
constantly worried that Janie was going to start second guessing her decision
to be with him, because he was so much younger, and she was a beautiful
experienced woman. As soon as Mrs. Turner started bringing up her well off
brother, Tea Cake started to get more worried that Janie would run off. And he
hit her as a way to show that she was his, and he was the man of the house. He
always treated her differently than most men treat their wives, he taught her
to do things that only men were supposed to do, and didn’t care if she worked
in the fields because all he wanted to do was be with her. The moment he
started second guessing himself, and the role in their marriage is the moment
he hit her, as a way to reestablish that role.
43.) Pg.148 “Lawd!
Wouldn’t Ah love tuh whip uh tender woman lak Janie! Ah bet she don’t even
holler. She jus’ cries, eh Tea Cake?”
The men believe that women shouldn’t have a say in anything,
and they should never fight back. But for most of these men, their wives aren’t
just going to let them slap them around, they are going to put up a fight.
Janie has never been one to fight back with force, which is another reason why
men are attracted to her. The fact that they would want to hit her because she
is more quiet and gentle than their wives is terrible. Beating your wife during
this time seems to be no big deal, they could do nothing, but if a man was
angry he was going to take a swing at you, because you’re his wife and he can
do with you what he pleases to. Tea Cake only hit her that one time, because he
respected her, but hitting her for no reason was a sign of major disrespect,
but that was his job as the man of the house.
44.) Pg.156 “If Ah
never see you no mo’ on earth, Ah’ll meet you in Africa.”
Africa during the time of slavery was a black mans heaven.
It was their home, a place where they weren’t forced to work and they were all
treated equally. Even after slavery they were still treated like crap, and they
were forced to find work and were killed, and beaten. Death was freedom, and
freedom was their home, which was Africa. Men who were born into slavery still
dreamed of going there because they knew that they would be accepted there.
45.) Pg.158 “It woke
up old Okeechobee and the monster began to roll in his bed.”
Okeechobee is the hurricane that has hit Florida, and it was
an actual hurricane that happened during this time. The monster hasn’t hit with
full force yet, it is still waking up and getting out of bed. But the weather
is changing and the hurricane is beginning. As soon as the monster awakens
there is nothing left to do to stop it, a force that large we’ll wipe out
anything in its path.
46.) Pg.159 “The time
was past for asking the white folks what to look for through that door. Six
eyes were questioning God.”
It was too late to try and escape from the storms strong
grip, now they just had to do anything they could to avoid the worst of it. They
all were hoping and praying that they would survive the storm and looking to
for answers on how to do it. They were questioning why this was happening to
them, after everything they have been through. There families were taken from
their home, and brought to a new country only to be slaves and now they are
forced to live in this new country and work and be treated like they are
nothing. Why were they being punished so much just because they had dark skin?
Their were no white men around them to tell them what to do during this storm,
so all they could do was pray for their lives, and try and find a safe way out
of the storm.
47.) Pg.159 “If you
kin see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk.”
Janie doesn’t resent Tea Cake for brining her to the storm
country, there is nothing about their relationship that she regrets because she
loves him. “God has opened the door” for her and if she dies, she will die
happy because she saw the light at daybreak. She would rather die loving Tea
Cake, then grow old without ever meeting him. She had finally gotten what she
had always wanted and any problem, even a storm, couldn’t ruin that for her.
She has now lived the life that she told her Granny that she wanted to live.
48.) Pg.160 “They
seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”
Even though the lights were out and they couldn’t see, they
were still looking to god for answers. They wanted a sign or a hint on what was
to come for them. Each person sitting in the house were praying for answers on
how to survive the storm, but God wasn’t giving them any answers. God created
the Man, but it was up to them to decide their own fate. It was no longer about the ranking system;
the storm took out any man, white or black. It was every man for himself at
this point, which became apparent to the six as their questions continued to be
unanswered.
49.) Pg.161 “The
monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred miles an hour wind had
loosened his chains.”
The Storm was not at its peak. The beast was fully awake and
it was coming full storm, strong winds, heavy rain, everything you can imagine
was happening and it grabbed any man who was to weak to fight it. This quote
personifies the how extensive the storm is, it turns the storm into a monster
making its actions seem fatal to everything it touches.
50.) Pg.164 “Common
danger made common friends.”
Everyone, and everything at this point is fighting to
survive the storm. Hungry animals are eating dead bodies of men who couldn’t
survive. The danger that this storm is causing humans is a buffet for hungry
animals, as terrible as they may sound. Now you must not only fear the storm,
you must fear the fierce animals, and the anxious people who will do anything
to survive. It doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, human, animal, if your
weak then you will probably end up dead. But everyone is most likely going to
end up homeless, moneyless, and their will no longer be a ranking system. The poverty
will spread to every race and everyone will fight for money and shelter.
51.) Pg. 167 “Once
upon a time, Ah never 'spected nothin’, Tea Cake, but bein’ dead from standin’
still and tryin’ tuh laugh. But you come ‘long and made somethin’ outa me.”
Despite recent events, Janie still doesn’t regret running
off with Tea Cake because he brought her to life. Her marriage to Jody, living
in that town, working at the store, weren’t things that made her happy. Her
life was at a stand still there, she did the same thing everyday and she was
controlled which was something that she really didn’t enjoy. Tea Cake gave her
life, which was ironic cause at this moment with him she was so close to death,
but it didn’t matter she would rather be there struggling with him then back at
that big house alone, unhappy, not in love. Love is the only thing that Janie
needs to survive, her love is a normal persons water, it feeds her and keeps
her alive. Without it she lives in a life of nothingness. Tea Cake opened her
up to love and now he is her everything, better die alongside him then without
him.
52.) Pg.167 “ He
aimed tuh kill me stone dead. Ah’m never to fuhgit dem eyes. He wuzn’t nothin’
all over but pure hate.”
The dog had a hate in his eyes that Tea Cake had never seen
before. This was obviously not a pet dog, most likely wild and hadn’t gotten
its shots yet. The dog wasn’t going to save anything but itself, and wild dog
has absolutely not sympathy, its brain, which is telling it to evil things,
controls it. Almost as If it has been taken over by a demon, that won’t stop
until everything around it is dead. The eyes that Tea Cake saw were not the
eyes of that dog, they were the eyes of the insanity that had taken over the
dog.
53.) Pg.168 “And then
again Him-with-the-square-toes had gone back to his house.”
The storm has passed and death is no longer taking its huge
toll. Death’s duties were over which means it could go back to its roofless
house. Now all that was left was the cleanup, the storm wiped out several
houses and people, and it was the job of those who survived, who were probably
all completely exhausted, to pick up all the death around them. The worst part
of getting visited by a monster is cleaning up the mess they have made after
they are gone, picking up the bodies of your friends and family and having to
find somewhere to live after all the houses have been destroyed.
55.) Pg.171 “Got
orders from headquarters. They makin’ coffins fuh all de white folks. ‘Tain’t
nothin’ but cheap pine, but dat’s better’n nothin’.”
The white people who were killed by the hurricane are put in
coffins, but all the black people are just being thrown in a hole. They don’t
get any proper burial because they are “Nothing” so they just get thrown away
like trash. As the storm ends, you start to see more of the racism coming back
into the story it is no longer every man for himself, the black people again
start becoming second rate citizens and they are forced to throw their own into
giant holes, and safely put the white people in coffins.
57.) Pg.173 “He
bought another rifle and a pistol and he and Janie bucked each other as to who
was the best with Janie ranking him always with the rifle. She could knock the
head off of a chicken-hawk sitting up a pine tree.”
The description of Janie’s shooting skills is a foreshadow
to what is to come in the book. He being better at shooting then Tea Cake we’ll
prove why she survived and he was killed when both holding each other at gun
point. Tea Cake taught Janie how to shoot so she could keep herself safe when
he wasn’t around, but he probably wasn’t expecting to be the harmful thing
attacking her that she would have to shoot. Her aim was impeccable even while
frightened for her life aiming at her one true love.
58.) Pg.175 “But the
demon was there before him, strangling, killing him quickly. It was great
relief to expel the water from his mouth.”
The demon that was inside that evil dog had now moved on to
Tea Cake, and it was starting to completely take over Tea Cakes brain. The
demon rejected water, because water represents life. A demon represents death,
and hell, any type of life is very threatening to a demon so they will do
everything in their power to get rid of it. Tea Cake’s mind is gone; all that
is left is his body, which is consumed by an evil presence passed on by the dog
when Tea Cake was bitten in the face.
59.) Pg.178 “Well,
she thought, that big old dawg with the hatred in his eyes had killed her after
all. She wished she had slipped off that cow-tail and drowned then and there
and been done.”
Seeing Tea Cake in this condition makes her wish that the
dog would have just killed her, that way Tea Cake would not be insane and he
could have lived out his life. This guilt is probably happening because Janie
is much older than Tea Cake and she feels bad that she has liven most of her
life and Tea Cake still has so much life to live but because he loves her so
much and saved her life, he has to die. Tea Cake without a doubt would do
anything for Janie and without knowing he killed himself trying to save the one
he loves. And now Janie is suffering because it is her fault that he is going
insane, rather than being grateful for him saving her life, she is completely
filled with guilt because she feels likes in a way she killed him.
60.) Pg.178 “The sky
stayed hard looking and quiet so she went inside the house. God would do less
than He had in His heart.”
Once again Janie is looking to god for answers to help save
Tea Cake, but there is nothing that god can do even if he wants to. Once a
demon has consumed a mind, it won’t leave until that body is dead. It is up to
Janie to find a solution to her problem, even if it means that Tea Cake, or her
must die.
61.) Pg.178 “What was
this thing that set his brains afire and grabbed at his throat with iron
fingers?”
Tea Cake is being tortured by the thing that’s inside him.
In some cases it is worth than death because he has no control over his own
body. All this pain I being inflicted on him and there is nothing he can do
about it. Especially since it is all in his head. As Janie tried to tell him
when it first started happening, it is all a dream, but Tea Cake doesn’t
believe that it is actually a dream. There is something that is tearing him
apart inside, when really all that is happening is the man is going insane.
62.) Pg.180 “Ah jus’
know dat God snatched me out de fire through you. And Ah loves yuh and feel
glad.”
Janie was slowly dying before she met Tea Cake. It’s like
being burned to death, slow and painful, but Tea Cake showed up and grabbed her
out of the fire and saved her life. She finally was able to live when she was
with him; even if it wasn’t always easy it was way better than things used to
be for her. She was no longer being controlled, and told what to do. Tea Cake
loved her and he wanted to be with her at all times. Their love was like water,
it put out any fire in their way until the fire got within the mind of one of
them, that was one thing they couldn’t stop.
63.) Pg. 183 “Treat
Tea Cake like he was some mad dog when nobody in the world had more kindness
about them.”
It is terrible that this demon had to take over Tea Cake
because he was the nicest most respectful man there was. The only reason why
this happened was because he was trying to save Janie. Bad things happen to
good people, Tea Cake was a man with not a lot of money who had his faults, but
in no way did he deserve to be taken over like this. It shows that this is an
evil society, and it takes out the good people because they seem powerless, and
unimportant. Although Tea Cake was very brave, he sometimes made rash decisions
that could get him in trouble, and even though Janie’s life was on the line,
fighting a rabid dog was one of them.
64.) Pg.183 “the
second click told her that Tea Cake’s suffering brain was urging him to kill.”
The man that Janie had fallen in love with was gone. All
that was left was this demon and his intentions were to kill her. She had
nothing left to but shoot, and luckily for her she had better aim then Tea Cake
because her shot killed him and his shot missed. When Tea Cake lunged forward
and bit Janie, it foreshadows that the demon might be leaving Tea Cakes body
and moving to Janies. After Janie
shoots Tea Cake her mind is consumed with guilt, and heartbreak, she just took
the life of the man she loved even though he wasn’t really there anymore.
