Current Thoughts on Tea Cake

Having just read chapters 10 and 11, this is a unique opportunity to reflect on the newest addition to the novel, Tea Cake. This is an important part of the novel, where we do not know what happened to Tea Cake, only that Janie returns to her town in overalls and without him. This blog post may be a majority speculation, but I think this is a good opportunity to dive deeper into Tea Cake the character as well as his relationship with Janie.

             In class today, a major topic of conversation was simply preliminary thoughts on Tea Cake. The conversation was mostly split into two different parts: whether or not he was a likable character and whether or not Janie should trust him. I believe that Hurston definitely tried to make his character likable, and she seemed to have succeeded because the majority of the class liked Tea Cake. The attempt to make him likable was evident as soon as Tea Cake meets Janie. He enters the store saying “Good evenin’ Mrs’ Starks,” the narrator remarking that he said it with “a sly grin as if they had a good joke together” (94). For much of the novel thus far, there has been only anger and abuse, and to have this character start with some laughter and happiness was no coincidence.

            Janie even laughs at his jokes, a sign that this possible suitor will be different from the others. The difference does not stop at laughter, as he treats Janie as an equal. He asks Janie “Why ain’t you at the ball game, too?” (95) and then asks her to play some checkers. These two questions make Janie feel like an equal to him, a sensation she has been missing with all the abusive marriages. The way that Tea Cake speaks to Janie makes the reader and her like him. Then there is the interaction between the two characters. The portrayal of their laughter and conversations is primarily through a dialogue which Hurston carefully formed so that the reader will be fond of this suitor rather than the others that have come to see Janie.

            I feel that the question of whether we are meant to like Tea Cake was easy to answer when compared to the other question: whether we should trust him. The second half of the conversation followed this major topic, and I feel that there was a little more divide. My opinion is still very divided as to whether he should be trusted, mainly because of how Janie is walking alone at the beginning of the novel. Another source of suspicion comes from Janie herself. Despite the fact that Janie obviously likes Tea Cake, she is cautious and does not open up to him immediately.

            The caution stems from the possibility that he might only be into her for the money, and there are some signs that this might be the case. The first example is Tea Cake’s spending habits. He seems to live day to day, making money and instantly spending it on his next adventure. He is a very unpredictable character, and that made me weary of him. Although Hurston makes it obvious that he is a likable character, only time will tell whether he is trustworthy, but for now I will stay skeptical.