Their Eyes Were Watching God
Chapter 1 Summary
•One evening, Janie Crawford returns to Eatonville, Florida,
from the Everglades in mourning.
•Her old community welcomes her back with scorn and
derision. They’re all sitting on their porches, watching her
return and exchanging nasty gossip born from jealousy of her
beauty and social mobility. They make snide comments about
Janie having left town in satin and returning in overalls, having
left with a young man and returning alone, etc.
•Pheoby, Janie’s best friend, defends Janie, saying that she
has never done anything to hurt anybody. Then Pheoby leaves
to take Janie some supper.
•Pheoby finds Janie washing her feet. Their banter establishes
to us that they have been good friends for a long time and
that they trust each other.
•Janie’s sure that she’s being gossip about, which Pheoby
acknowledges. Janie doesn’t care what the others think of her
and tells Pheoby so.
•Actually, the men just gawk at her because even though
she’s forty, she’s really hot.
•The two friends discuss how the local gossip-mongers are
just aching to get in everyone’s business and probably can’t
wait until Judgment Day so they can hear the lowdown on
everyone.
•When Janie walks past all of her neighbors without stopping
to chat, they take her silence as arrogance, which fuels more
gossip about her.
•Janie seems to want to talk about her story just as much as
Pheoby wants to hear it, and live vicariously through her
friend.
•We learn that Janie loved a man named Tea Cake, whom the
gossipy ladies say she was way too old for.
•Janie begins by silencing Pheoby’s fears that Tea Cake took
all of her money and ran off with a young girl. That didn’t
happen – Tea Cake was great to her.
•One of the things they resent is Janie’s beauty and the fact
that she had a relationship with a man younger than herself.
They try to paint her as whorish.
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•Janie says that Tea Cake is "gone" though what that means
isn’t clear…yet. Janie gets ready to tell Pheoby a long story.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 2 Summary
•Janie starts to tell her story, and she doesn’t start with Tea
Cake – she starts at the beginning. We enter into a flashback
of Janie’s early life.
•Janie never knew her father or mother. She’d been raised all
her life in West Florida by her grandmother, who she calls
"Nanny," along with four white children in the Washburn
household.
•Janie spends so much time with the white children that she
doesn’t realize she’s black…until she sees a photograph of the
family. After all the white children in the picture are pointed
out and named, there’s only a dark skinny girl left. In the
moment of revelation, Janie cries, "Aw, aw! Ah’m colored!"
•Janie is often called Alphabet in the Washburn household, a
nickname she gained because so many people call her
different things.
he slept with her mother. But they keep the part about her
father attempting to marry her mother hush-hush.
•However, Nanny does her best to give Janie all the
advantages she can. She even buys her own land and house.
•We flash forward and Janie is now sixteen-years-old and
discovering the phenomenon of sex for the first time.
•While lying out under a blossoming pear tree, Janie
witnesses a bee pollinating a pear blossom and describes it as
a sexual experience. The whole experience is so beautiful,
she’s sure that this is what love and marriage must be like. She
envies the tree.
•Janie happens upon Johnny Taylor, who had never before
seemed appealing to her, but in her romantic pear tree daze,
he’s a "glorious being."
•Even as a child, Janie’s beauty is apparent and envied.
•Nanny, who’s in the house taking a nap, wakes up to hear
Janie and a boy talking outside. She looks out the window just
in time to see Johnny and Janie in a liplock.
•Because she often dresses in the white children’s hand-medowns (unlike many other black children, who didn’t have
such quality clothing), she’s picked on by other black children.
•Nanny pronounces that Janie is now a woman and tells her
to get married as soon as possible. Janie resents the idea; she
doesn’t feel like she’s really a woman yet.
•The kids tease Janie relentlessly, using the story of Janie’s
parentage to shame her. Everyone knows the part about the
police sending bloodhounds hunting after her father because
•Nanny’s worried that Janie will naively end up being used
and treated like garbage by some man without her
grandmother’s guidance. And granny’s getting on in age.
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•A man named Logan Killicks is interested in marrying Janie,
but Janie is disgusted because of the huge age difference, and
because "He look like som ole skullhead in de grave yard."
Definitely unappealing.
•Nanny accuses Janie of not wanting to be an honest wife and
slaps Janie for her insolence.
•When Janie begins to cry, Nanny immediately repents and
rocks her granddaughter in her arms.
•Nanny explains that she doesn’t want Janie to suffer as she
has and as Janie’s mother did. She says that the black woman
is "de mule uh de world" and her only motive behind
suggesting reliable old Logan Killicks is to help Janie avoid a
terrible fate.
•Nanny feels her days on earth are numbered and she wants
to see Janie "protected" before she goes. Even though Janie is
young, she should get married before Nanny dies.
•Nanny tries to explain to Janie where she’s coming from.
Though it’s the early 1900’s right now, Nanny grew up as a
slave.
•Nanny describes a scene during the Civil War when her
former master rode off to fight and she was left to face the
wrath of the mistress of the house. When the mistress
discovered that Nanny’s daughter had gray eyes and blond
hair, she started slapping Nanny and threatened to have her
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beaten to a pulp and have the little girl sold off. In case you
don’t get why, it’s because the baby’s looks are proof that the
master had been sleeping with Nanny.
•Nanny ran away into the swampland and was lucky enough
to survive until slavery was abolished.
•As a free woman, she decided not to marry though she had
plenty of proposals. She was worried a man would mistreat
her daughter.
•Nanny settled in West Florida with the Washburn family and
put her daughter, Leafy, in school as soon as she could.
•Many years later, Leafy was raped by her white
schoolteacher at age 17. After Leafy gave birth to Janie, Leafy
became an alcoholic and ended up leaving.
•So all in all, the women in Janie’s family have had hard lives
and it’s no wonder Nanny wants to see her granddaughter
married.
•The chapter ends with Nanny’s sincere plea, "Ah can’t die
easy thinkin’ maybe de menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit
cup outa you: Have some sympathy fuh me."
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 3 Summary
In case you didn’t realize it, we’re still in a flashback to
for Janie’s bad mood (she’s doesn’t love Logan), Nanny
belittles it. She thinks that being an honest woman and
Janie’s youth.
being respectfully called Mis’ Killicks should be enough
Janie questions whether or not marriage brings love.
for Janie.
Nanny assures her it does and that she’ll learn to love
Janie dislikes Logan’s practical, non-romantic-ness. All
Logan after she marries him.
he does is chop wood for her. Logan also isn’t
So Janie consents to marrying Logan and becoming the
attractive in appearance or hygiene – apparently he
mistress of sixty acres of land.
has an asymmetrical head and doesn’t wash his feet.
Janie marries Logan at Nanny’s house and afterwards
When Janie starts to cry, saying she wants to have a
they feast.
marriage like a blossoming pear tree,
When Janie reaches Logan’s house, she finds that it’s a
Nanny sends her away without comfort, telling her to
pretty lonely, boring place off in the middle of
wait a bit longer for love to come.
nowhere.
Nanny worries about Janie, but is sure that she’s done
She waits three months for love to come and when it
the best for her granddaughter that she could do. She
doesn’t, Janie goes to see Nanny.
prays to God to take care of the girl.
During her visit with Nanny, Janie is pretty quiet and
Within a month, Nanny is dead.
seems down in the dumps.
About a year later, Janie has learned her lesson:
Nanny goes from thinking that Janie is quiet because
marriage doesn’t bring love. With this realization, she
she’s pregnant ("knocked up already"), to assuming
grows increasingly distant, taking comfort in the
that Logan is abusing her ("beat mah baby already").
beauty of nature around her. She is fascinated by the
But when Nanny learns the more melodramatic reason
concept of creation, especially now in the spring.
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The chapter ends with a sort of adage. Janie’s first
dream of love died. Thus she became a woman.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 4 Summary
•Janie’s marriage has gone all wrong. Essentially, the
honeymoon period is over and Logan has come to take Janie
for granted.
•Logan and Janie bicker about chopping wood. Logan thinks
Janie should be able to haul wood, and maybe even chop it,
too. After all, his first wife chopped wood…blah blah blah. We
could be wrong, but talking about your first wife doesn’t seem
like a good way to win your current wife’s heart.
•One day, Logan asks Janie to help him prepare potatoes for
planting while he goes off to bargain for a second mule. When
Janie asks him what they need with two mules, he says he’s
looking for a big harvest and this other mule has been "all
gentled up so even uh woman kin handle ‘im."
•Apparently, Logan thinks that Janie should be plowing the
fields and planting potatoes along with keeping the house and
making meals.
•While he is away, Janie sees an urban, stylish, confident man
walk down the road. To get his attention, she furiously pumps
water, which is loud and the effort makes her beautiful hair
cascade down. (OK, so we made that part a bit more dramatic,
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the book just says "heavy hair fall down," but her hair really is
attractive, everyone comments on it.)
•The stranger stops, eyes her meaningfully, and asks for a cold
drink.
•She learns that his name is Joe Starks from Georgia and he’s
heard of a town made up completely of black people who are
going to build and run their own city. He means to find the
town, go in early, invest, and get rich.
•They flirt and it’s obvious that Joe wants to see Janie made a
proper lady, not laboring behind a plow.
•Joe decides to stay in the area for a week or two of rest. He
and Janie find lots of time to talk.
•It’s clear that Joe is interested in Janie. He spends his time
talking about what a great future he has ahead of him.
•Though Janie is obviously unhappy with Logan, she has a few
reasons keeping her from just ditching him for Joe. First of all,
Nanny wanted her to marry Logan. Secondly, it’s nice and all
that Joe would bring a new, unimaginable kind of life, but she
also doesn’t imagine having pear tree blossom love with him
either.
•The day before Joe leaves town, he assures her that he wants
to make a proper wife out of her; he doesn’t just want to haul
her off like a rogue. After all, Joe assures Janie that he’s "uh
man wid principles."
•He promises to come down the road beyond the gate the
next morning and if she wants to come, she’ll meet him and
they’ll run away together.
•That night in bed, Janie considers the opportunity. When she
tries to talk with Logan, he keeps blabbering about how
grateful she should be to have him, considering her parentage
and all that.
•Then she poses to Logan a hypothetical situation to ask him
what he’d do if she ran away. Though it strikes a powerful fear
in Logan, he scoffs at her and says no man aside from him is
foolish enough to want her.
•The next morning, they argue. While Janie’s making
breakfast, Logan starts yelling at her to help him move a
manure pile. She refuses, saying she’s in her place (the kitchen
or home) and he’s in his (working outdoors).
•Logan responds, claiming that her place is where he wants
her.
•Janie’s had enough of Logan and she tells him that he hasn’t
done her a favor by marrying her. To top it off, she doesn’t
care at all for his sixty acres.
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•Enraged, Logan calls her spoiled, thinks that she looks down
on him because she was raised in a white household, and says
that her mother and grandmother weren’t hardworking. And,
he threatens to kill her with an axe.
•We imagine she doesn’t have much of a dilemma anymore
about running away with Joe.
•Janie isn’t even mad. She finishes breakfast for Logan and all
the while she can feel a change coming.
•After breakfast, she tosses away her apron and she wanders
down the road to meet up with Joe.
•Janie has high hopes. She believes she’ll have love and
romance in her life from now on.
•Together in a carriage, Joe and Janie ride to Green Cove
Springs, where they are married.
•Joe and Janie head off, but Hicks and the other townsmen
are all ready envying Joe for having Janie.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 5 Summary
•Joe isn’t a romantic poet, but he at least treats Janie well,
getting her nice food and candy. He seems to want to spoil her
as much as Logan wanted to un-spoil her.
•When Janie looks at Joe, she’s reminded of white people;
he’s slightly portly like them and unafraid of new, strange
places. So far, Janie’s proud of her new husband.
•They arrive in the highly-anticipated town and find it
disappointing, much smaller than they imagined. Joe demands
to talk to the mayor.
•A man named Amos Hicks, upon seeing Janie, pretends to be
the mayor. He thinks Janie is Joe’s daughter, but when he
finds out the truth, he drops the façade since he’s definitely
not getting anywhere with the pretty, married girl.
•Hicks, in particular, is jealous and starts blabbering on about
how popular he is with the ladies. Hicks thinks it’s a "good
thing he [Joe Starks] married her befo’ she seen me. Ah kin be
some trouble when Ah take uh notion."
•The town is named Eatonville after the Captain who donated
land. The Captain lives on a neighboring piece of land and Joe
ventures to talk to Captain Eaton, seeking to buy more land
from him for the town.
•Most of the village follows Joe just to see him get ridiculed.
•Meanwhile, Hicks doubles back to the house that Joe is
renting to try his luck with Janie. He thinks the world of his
manliness and grows surly when Janie doesn’t respond to him.
She basically tells him that he talks too much. Looks like Joe
doesn’t have any competition around here.
•Later that evening, Hicks has a conversation with his friend
Coker. Coker know Hicks didn’t succeed with Janie, so he lets
Hicks go on about how Janie isn’t so pretty afterall.
•Joe discovers that the town doesn’t have a mayor yet.
•Hick directs Joe and Janie to a house that they can rent until
they are settled and get their own place.
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•Coker tells Hicks that Joe succeeded in buying 200 acres of
land from the Captain in cash. Joe Starks plans to build a store
and post office on the land. Eatonville previously only
consisted of 50 acres, so Joe Starks just became the big man in
town.
•Hicks gets jealous and doubts that Joe will actually start a
post office. Hicks is sure that white people won’t let a black
man run a post office.
•Coker, on the other hand, seems to thinks that Joe Starks is
capable of a lot and doesn’t find it wise to underestimate him.
•That evening, Joe asks around about the location of a
sawmill. He wants to start building a store immediately. He
knows that in order to grow, Eatonville needs a store, which
can also serve as a gathering place and the heart of the town.
This guy is a natural urban planner.
•The next day, Joe organizes a town meeting. The men of the
town decide to get together to make two roads to run through
Eatonville. Joe also hires some men to build his store.
•Joe’s business skills bring in new residents, so Joe is already
making a return on his investment by selling off lots for
homes. Joe also starts selling tons of goods from the store
before the building even has a roof.
•For the grand opening of the store, Joe wants Janie on
display. He wants to make sure that she always looks better
than all of the customers, too.
•Joe is magnanimous and gives out free drinks, cheese, and
crackers to the customers.
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•Tony Taylor is so overwhelmed with joy at the progress of
the town that he gives an impromptu speech thanking Joe. He
is laughed at by his fellows because he doesn’t know how to
give an effective speech.
•Nevertheless, Joe responds with his own speech in which he
says that the town needs a mayor (what a slick politician!) and
welcome to his store…
•The town shows their pleasure by unanimously voting him
mayor.
•The cheerful crowd wants a thank you speech from Mrs.
Mayor Starks, but Joe doesn’t let Janie speak, saying that he
didn’t marry her for her speaking ability and her place is in the
home.
•Janie didn’t really care to make a speech, but it bothers her
Joe didn’t even give her a chance to decide. It leaves her cold
that night.
•Joe’s full of plans for town (and full of himself). He insists
that he can’t run the store because he’ll be busy with more
important things. Despite her objections, Joe is determined
that Janie must run the store.
•The town continues advancing. Joe arranges for street lamps
to be brought in and makes a big deal about lighting them. He
arranges a party around it, complete with a barbeque.
•The lighting of the street lamps is surrounded by religious
imagery and hymns. But later that night, Janie reveals that she
feels Joe’s role as mayor makes their relationship strained and
unnatural. Joe disagrees, saying she should be happy because
it makes a "big woman" out of her. The conversation ends
with Janie feeling lonely.
•Janie soon learns that being the Mrs. Mayor means being
kept at a distance from the other women in town. Instead of
being friends with the local women, she is envied by them.
•Joe is also a bit of a town bully. He somehow has a way of
forcing people to do things for him, like dig drainage ditches
around the streets by his store.
•In every way, Joe sets himself up as the master of the town.
It harkens back to the times of slavery. Joe has a huge, white
two-story house, making everyone else’s house look like a
servant’s.
•Joe acquires a fancy spittoon cup that most people would be
proud to display as a vase. He doesn’t stop there either. He
gets a small flowery one for Janie. Joe’s conspicuous displays
of wealth makes the townspeople feel cheated and envious.
•They become increasingly resentful because they feel one of
their own (a black man) should not treat his own so haughtily.
•After Joe catches a man, Henry Pitts, trying to steal some of
his ribbon cane (candy) and drives him out of town, the
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townspeople start gossiping about their mayor behind his
back.
•Some point out that he’s getting rich off of the rest of them.
•They basically accuse him of loving to hear his own speeches,
being bossy, and being arrogant because of his education.
Someone observes that he changes things around him but
never lets himself be changed.
•The townspeople also disapprove of the way Joe treats his
wife. Janie is kept under certain constraints. She must keep
her hair bound and up whenever she’s in public and Joe rages
at her if she makes a mistake in the store.
•Janie seems to take Joe’s tyranny without missing a beat;
because they don’t know any better, the townspeople decide
it’s because she and Joe "understand one another."
•Overall, Joe Starks acts like the king of the town, and despite
disliking him, the townspeople don’t challenge him
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 6 Summary
•Some of the men like to tease Matt Bonner about his skinny
yellow mule. Though everyone loves the conversation (except
Matt), Joe has forbidden Janie to join in. He thinks she is too
good for them and Janie resents him for it.
•She also resents how hard Joe makes her work in the store,
especially since he doesn’t do much there himself. The most
irksome thing, of course, is his staunch resolution for her to
wear a head-rag in the store.
•We learn Joe does this because he is supremely jealous of
other men "figuratively wallowing" his wife’s hair while she is
going about her business in the store. But he does not tell
Janie this; he simply commands her to wear the head-rag.
•When Matt Bonner’s yellow mule gets loose, the men decide
to catch it and tease it for fun. Janie watches helplessly,
feeling sorry for the poor beast.
•Then Joe does something unexpected. He buys the mule
from Matt Bonner. When Matt ridicules the Mayor for it,
saying that the mule will probably be dead within the week,
Joe reveals that he hasn’t bought the mule to work, but simply
to give the poor animal some rest.
•At this revelation, the others agree that it’s generous of Joe
to do such a thing. Janie praises him for his big-heartedness,
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comparing him to Lincoln freeing the Negroes, and one of the
men remarks that Janie is a born orator.
•The freed mule becomes the talk of the town and the people
imagine him doing a great many comic things.
•Eventually the mule dies with its legs stuck straight up in the
air. One man named Lum concludes that the mule, being a
spirited creature, saw Death coming and fought to the end –
which is why he is found in such an unnatural position.
•The whole town has a great "draggin-out" for the dead mule,
who has become something of a local celebrity, and they put
on a hilarious funeral for him.
•Everyone enjoys the funeral celebration immensely – except
for Janie. Joe orders his wife to stay at the store because he
claims it wouldn’t be proper for the Mayor’s wife to be seen at
such an event.
•Janie is sullen afterwards, but silent. Joe sees her resentment
but thinks she is just being petty and ungrateful for all the
good things he does give her.
•Much of the remainder of the chapter describes the
townspeople having fun on the porch of the store, arguing and
pretending to court young girls for Joe Starks’ entertainment.
•Joe, of course, ruins all of Janie’s fun by making her stop
watching the scene and go attend to some business in the
store.
•When one of the ladies being "courted" requests a pickled
pig foot (ew!), Lum (a guy that helps Janie out in the store)
looks for the jar but can’t find any pig feet.
•Joe comes to look for the pig feet, which was supposed to
have arrived yesterday. He can’t find them and he can’t find
the bill that came with the shipment. He blames Janie and
they get in a fight with her sick of him bossing her around, and
him saying he only tells her what to do "’cause you need
tellin" and "Somebody got to think for women and chillun and
chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none
theirselves." Ouch.
•Eventually, after a number of scenes like this, Janie give up
trying to fight Joe because it just makes him more mad and
demand her submission. She just hushes and takes it.
•Janie is only 24 and she’s been married for seven years. By
this time, she realizes that their marriage is falling apart. She
doesn’t even associate their bed with anything fun anymore;
it’s just a place to sleep.
•Even worse, after these seven years, Joe slaps Janie for
messing up his dinner. At that point, Janie realizes that she is
saving herself up for some other man, and that she has
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learned how to hide her inner thoughts from Joe while putting
up a front.
•Joe, for all his sexism, does want peace with Janie but on his
own terms.
•At the end of the chapter, the men at the Starks’ store are
lampooning Mrs. Tony (a townswoman) for her impudent
behavior, saying that her husband should beat her. Janie
speaks up in the defense of women – telling the men how
pretentious and ignorant they are for thinking they know
everything about women. Joe quickly silences her
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 7 Summary
•Janie lives with Joe for years in resigned silence. She gets no
emotional support from Joe, and his wealth and the
possessions he gives her are of no comfort.
•Janie considers running away but feels trapped. She even
realizes that she’s been with Joe half her life – she married
him at 17 and is now 35.
•She learns to imagine herself sitting underneath the comfort
of a tree in summertime while she does her work and
outwardly submits to Joe.
•Joe’s age is beginning to show – he’s about thirteen years
older than Janie – and to avert people’s attention from it, Joe
piles more and more ridicule on Janie, making her out to be
old and haggard. He calls her an "ole hen" and stuff like that.
•Eventually Janie loses her temper and stands up to Joe in the
store. She confronts him saying that he should stop pointing
out how old she is all the time and maybe comment on
himself once and a while.
•When Joe continues to insult her, she hits him where it hurts,
saying, "Talkin’ ‘bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo’
britches, you look lak de change uh life."
•The men in the store say how they’d hate to hear that
comment about themselves, which really destroys Joe’s pride.
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He can’t stand the thought of being pitied by the men of the
town, whom he considers inferior to him.
•Joe reacts with violence, hitting Janie.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 8 Summary
•After that, Joe moves into the room downstairs and he and
Janie hardly talk to each other.
•Janie doesn’t want to apologize to Joe for belittling him once
since he’s been doing that to her for their whole, long
marriage.
•Still, Janie notices that Joe really is getting old. He’s saggy
and baggy all over.
•Unbeknownst to Janie, Joe wants to regain his manliness in
her eyes and in desperation, consults with charlatan herbalists
("root doctors") trying to find a cure.
•Janie also discovers that Joe isn’t eating her cooking
anymore. He’s having an old lady, who’s a far worse cook than
Janie, make his meals. This really hurts Janie.
•Janie, who at some level still loves Joe, sobs out her sorrows
to her best friend, Pheoby. (This is the first mention of Pheoby
within the frame of Janie’s narration.) Janie doesn’t want Joe
to think ill of her. She feels like she’s killing Joe.
•Pheoby advises her to just bear it. There’s nothing Janie can
do to take back what she said about his manhood in the store,
and it’s far too late to get a divorce.
•Joe continues to get weaker, but won’t see a real doctor,
only the "root doctor." He takes to his bed and gets tons of
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visitors who pay no attention to Janie. Furthermore, Joe’s
new-found friends report to the sick Mayor about his wife and
how incompetent she is in the store.
•In desperation, Janie calls a real doctor from Orlando in to
diagnose Joe. He tells her that Joe’s kidneys have failed and
it’s just a matter of time before Joe dies.
•Janie doesn’t want Joe to die alone, but Joe refuses to see
her.
•Janie works up her nerve to confront Joe. She gives him a
piece of her mind, telling him that he never gave her the
chance to show him her love.
•She tells him that he’s dying, which terrifies him. He doesn’t
want to confront the truth.
•Janie points out that if he had listened to her before and had
seen a doctor, he wouldn’t be dying right now. He never
listened to her and never knew her through their twenty years
of marriage.
•Enraged, Joe wishes death upon her.
•Janie confesses that he’s not the man she ran away with. All
she wanted was to make a home for him, but he was too
ambitious and demanded her submission. Janie says Joe never
let her show him her love because he was too wrapped up
listening to his "own big voice."
•Joe dies trying to rebuke her.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 9 Summary
•Janie contemplates his face in death and feels pity for him.
•The community puts on a grand funeral for Joe. Tons of
people show up.
•Then she thinks about herself. She goes to the mirror and
lets her hair down. Her youth is gone, but she’s still a beautiful
woman. Janie is not destroyed by Joe’s death; rather, we get
the feeling that she can finally get on with her life.
•The chapter ends with Janie announcing out of the window
that Joe has died.
•Janie, however, doesn’t feel grief, only a great sense of
freedom.
•After the funeral, Janie burns all of the headrags that Joe
forced her to wear.
•She lives her life much as she had with Joe. The only public
changes she makes are keeping her hair down and allowing
herself some indulgence in the gossip on the store’s porch in
the evenings.
•However, Janie still feels lonely and searches for meaning for
her life. Her thoughts wander to her deceased Nanny. She
decides she hates Nanny for rendering her so unhappy in the
name of love, for strangling her dreams.
•Her new position as a (wealthy) widow draws many men
wanting to "advise" her and saying that a woman can’t stand
by herself – a woman needs a man to take care of her. Janie
laughs them off; she’s not about to trade in her new found
freedom for another loveless marriage.
•Ike Green, a local man visiting the store, warns Janie about
her suitors. He says these strange men are just looking to take
advantage of her.
Page | 14
•When she assures Ike that she has no interest in marrying, he
says she’ll change her mind because she’s still young. Ike
predicts that within a few months she’ll be thinking about
remarrying.
•Ike’s wrong, though. After six months (the mourning period),
not one of Janie’s suitors has ever gotten farther than the
store.
•Hezekiah, the store assistant and delivery boy, takes to
imitating Joe. Janie is greatly amused by him and feels
affection for him. Hezekiah starts taking of the role of Janie’s
older brother and helps her manage the store and collect rent
from her tenants.
•Janie revels in her freedom.
•Pheoby talks to Janie about how she might want to consider
marrying, but Janie tells her friend that she’s not staying single
because she misses Joe; she just loves her freedom. Janie
doesn’t care if the whole town knows how she feels.
Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 10 Summary
•One day, the whole town leaves to attend a baseball game in
Winter Park, including Hezekiah. Janie tends to the store by
herself.
•In the evening, a man walks in and they immediately hit it
off. He’s charming and claims to have come to the wrong town
looking for the ball game.
•Then he invites Janie to play checkers. Since she doesn’t
know how to play, he teaches her and she’s delighted that a
man thinks it natural for a woman to play as his equal.
•Janie gets excited about him. He’s everything a girl could
want – tall, dark, handsome, not-misogynistic – so different
than her old, fat, dominating husbands on every point.
•They joke around for the whole evening and we learn that
this man has a high opinion of women, saying they can do the
same things as men – play checkers, walk far, ride a train.
•Eventually we learn the stranger’s name is Vergible Woods,
but he goes by Tea Cake.
•He ends up helping her close up the store and walks her
home.
•Though Janie is cautious, she finds herself very comfortable
around him, as if she has known him her whole life.
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Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 11 Summary
•Janie worries about the kind of man Tea Cake is. She thinks
he’s too young for her, probably just wants to take her money,
and other thoughts like that. Janie is determined not to get
sucked into another marriage without love so she determines
to treat Tea Cake coldly if he ever comes back.
•He comes back after a week, and Janie can’t keep from being
friendly to him. Janie and Tea Cake end up joking around
again.
•They play checkers, and while the store’s other customers
are surprised, they don’t seem to disapprove.
•Tea Cake walks Janie home again, and this time ends up
sitting with her on the porch – something Janie didn’t allow
any of her other suitors to do. The end up chatting the night
away and eating pound cake and drinking lemonade (freshly
squeezed by Tea Cake).
•After the late night snack, Tea Cake takes Janie fishing and
she feels like a child gleefully breaking the rules. She doesn’t
get back home until early in the morning.
•The next day in the store, Hezekiah warns Janie that she
shouldn’t be walking with Tea Cake at night. Janie asks if Tea
Cake is a bad guy or a thief…or married. It seems that
Hezekiah’s objection is that Tea Cake never has any money, so
he has no place cozying up to a rich widow.
Page | 16
•The next night when she gets home from work, Tea Cake is
waiting for her on her porch with some fish he’s just caught.
They go inside and Janie cooks up the fish.
•After dinner, Tea Cake starts playing the piano and singing,
which lulls Janie to sleep. She awakes to find Tea Cake
combing her hair. This apparently isn’t sketchy, but romantic.
She really likes it and it makes her even more comfortable.
•He compliments her aspects – hair, lips, eyes. But she points
out that he’s probably said the same things to other women,
which he says is true.
•So Janie says she’s going to go to bed. But Tea Cake knows
she’s just trying to get rid of him because she’s worried he’s
"uh rounder and uh pimp." He’s pretty perceptive.
•At this point, Janie walks away from him. Tea Cake all but
admits he is in love with her.
•Janie, however, plays it safe. She’s worried that he’s going to
make fun of her later for being an "old fool" (she’s twelve
years older than him). Janie says he only thinks he cares for
her; this is just his "night thought." Essentially, she says she’s
too old for him and he’ll change his mind about her by
tomorrow morning.
•Tea Cake leaves.
•She goes to bed, but not before she checks out her hair,
eyes, and mouth in the mirror. Maybe she’s checking to see if
he was being honest in his compliments.
•For one full day, he does not come and Janie tries to console
herself by convincing herself that he is trash anyway, spending
his time with some other woman.
•The next morning, Tea Cake returns with the intention of
telling Janie his "daytime thoughts." In other words, he hasn’t
changed his mind about loving her.
•That night when Janie gets back from the store, she finds Tea
Cake on the porch. They snuggle on the hammock for a little
while. Next we know, they’re waking up in the morning and
Tea Cake is kissing Janie all over.
•After Tea Cake leaves to go to work, Janie lies in bed,
incredibly happy.
•After four days, Tea Cake comes back. In this interval, Janie
has begun to doubt his love.
•But he comes back with a car and tells her they are going to
town to buy groceries. He wants to take her to the Sunday
School picnic on the morrow and he re-declares his love for
her when she questions him.
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Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 12 Summary
•After the picnic, Janie begins spending more time with Tea
Cake and the town notices. They disapprove of her
accompanying such a young man around with her husband
only nine months in the grave.
•Sam Watson discusses the matter with Pheoby. Pheoby still
believes Janie will marry the undertaker from Sanford, but she
doesn’t disapprove of Tea Cake as much as the men do. She
points out that Janie is her own woman and can do what she
wants. But she agrees to talk to Janie nonetheless.
•Pheoby goes to see Janie the next morning. Pheoby tells
Janie that people are talking, saying that Tea Cake is dragging
her off to low-class entertainment like baseball games. Janie
admits she always wanted to do that kind of stuff before, it
was just that Joe wouldn’t let her.
•Pheoby wants to know if Janie thinks Tea Cake is just after
her money. Janie assures Pheoby that Tea Cake has never
asked her to pay for anything. And if Tea Cake does want her
money, then he’s no different than the other suitors that the
townspeople approve of.
•Pheoby also cautions Janie about seeing a younger man –
they’re usually in the relationship for money.
•Janie says she intends to marry Tea Cake, sell the store, and
start a new life far from Eatonville. She doesn’t want to stick
around and have everyone comparing Tea Cake to Joe Starks.
•Janie explains that Nanny wanted her to live the leisurely life
of a white woman, which is what she obtained with Joe, but
she felt she was being suffocated. Now that she’s done what
her grandma wanted her to, she can go off and live her life the
way she chooses.
•Janie asks Pheoby not to tell everyone her plans to sell the
store and go off with Tea Cake. She’ll make it public when
she’s ready to.
•Janie is determined to try for a new life with Tea Cake.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 13 Summary
•Janie receives a letter from Tea Cake telling her to come to
Jacksonville; she leaves the next morning in her wedding
clothes – blue satin picked out by Tea Cake. There are few
awake to witness her leaving.
•She and Tea Cake get married. Janie doesn’t tell Tea Cake
about the two hundred dollars she has brought with her, at
Pheoby’s urging, just in case things don’t go well.
•After being married for a week, Janie wakes up to find Tea
Cake gone. This doesn’t alarm her terribly because he had said
earlier that he was planning on going fishing. Hours pass and
Tea Cake doesn’t return. Then Janie discovers her secret stash
of $200 is missing.
•The image of an Eatonville widow named Mrs. Tyler jumps to
Janie’s mind. Mrs. Tyler was courted by a young tramp named
Who Flung who promised to marry her, then left her penniless
in a strange town.
•Tea Cake eventually comes home that night, serenading her
with a guitar and his voice. He assures her that he’s very much
in love with her. He’s know plenty of women, but she’s the
only woman he ever even considered marrying.
•He tells a relieved Janie that he did indeed take her two
hundred dollars. He had never had so much money in his life
before and decided to put on a party. He partied with all the
Page | 18
railroad hands and spent all but twelve dollars of the two
hundred. In his defense, he says he wanted to come back and
bring Janie, too, but was scared that she wouldn’t want to
mingle with such common people. Janie assures him
otherwise and demands that she’s not left out of the action in
the future.
•Tea Cake tries to win back the two hundred dollars gambling.
He is gone almost all night and Janie begins to worry. To
distract herself, she comes up with arguments about how Tea
Cake is a better man, despite his gambling habit, than all sorts
of "so-called Christians" who might criticize him.
•When Tea Cake finally shows up at dawn, he looks like he is
asleep. Janie discovers it is from blood loss.
•Tea Cake got into a fight with another gambler named
Double-Ugly who had lost all his money and accused Tea Cake
of cheating. Tea Cake got away with his winnings and two
wounds from Double-Ugly’s razor.
•Janie cries as she cleans her husband’s wounds and listens to
his story.
•He has won back more than just the two hundred. He has a
total of three hundred and twenty-two dollars and he tells
Janie to take her two hundred back.
•He vows that they’ll live off his earnings and not depend on
her cash or the money she has saved up in her bank account.
Page | 19
•Tea Cake assures his wife that they’ll go try their luck farming
in the Everglades once he recovers. As he falls asleep, Janie
feels a "self-crushing love" for him.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 14 Summary
•Janie and Tea Cake arrive in the Everglades and Tea Cake
immediately finds employment with the "right folks" – those
who plan to plant a lot of beans. Then they acquire a house,
which is really a shack for migrant workers, but Janie makes it
a home.
•Because there is nothing else to do, Tea Cake and Janie go
hunting. Tea Cake teaches Janie to shoot and she eventually
becomes a better shot than he.
•Migrant workers finally begin arriving in hordes. Though they
don’t have housing and camp out by fires, the workers make a
lively scene with their banjos and jook houses (see Hurston’s
definition of a jook joint). They all make good money, farming
out in the fertile muck of the bean fields.
•Janie stays at home cooking beans and keeping house while
Tea Cake works in the fields. Eventually, Tea Cake starts
coming back at strange hours of the day when he should be
working. Janie asks him about it, suspecting that he doesn’t
trust her being alone all day and he refutes it, saying he comes
home because he misses her badly. He asks her to come work
with him and relieve his loneliness.
•Janie agrees and it turns out well. It shows the rest of the
people that Janie is not too stuck up to work with the rest of
them. And everyone enjoys the capers Janie and Tea Cake pull
Page | 20
behind the boss’s back. They become great favorites in the
little community.
•Now that Janie’s working during the day, Tea Cake even
helps her make supper in the evenings.
•Janie reflects happily on her situation and considers what
Eatonville would think of her now, mucking around in the
fields with Tea Cake and all the migrant workers. She laughs at
the thought and rejoices in her freedom.
•The chapter closes with a scene of three of the migrant
workers playing cards, illustrating all of the fun that all of the
workers have together, and Janie’s contentment.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 15 Summary
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 16 Summary
•Janie becomes jealous of a "little chunky girl" named Nunkie
who keeps flirting with Tea Cake. Tea Cake allows himself to
be drawn in to the game.
•After the harvest, the migrant workers leave in droves, but
Janie and Tea Cake decide to stay.
•One day in the field, Tea Cake and chunky Nunkie go missing.
When Janie finds them in the cane field, they are "struggling."
Nunkie takes off running at the sight of Janie. Irate, Janie tries
to catch the younger woman, but Nunkie is too quick.
•At home that evening, Janie and Tea Cake fight; Janie tries to
physically strike him, accusing him of "messin’ round" with
Nunkie, but he denies it.
•They continue fighting but eventually they tear each other’s
clothes off and their aggression turns into desire. As you might
predict, they end up having great sex.
•In the morning, Tea Cake again denies that he ever wanted
Nunkie, saying, "Whut would Ah do wid dat lil chunk of a
woman wid you around? She ain’t good for nothin’ exceptin’
tuh set up in uh corner by de kitchen stove and break wood
over her head. You’se something tuh make uh man forgit tuh
git old and forgit tuh die."
•Janie celebrates her victory.
•Janie becomes friends with a woman named Mrs. Turner,
who comes from a mixed heritage, much like Janie. Even
though Mrs. Turner isn’t beautiful (she’s slightly deformed),
she takes pride in her own appearance because she thinks it
sets her apart from the other black people.
•Mrs. Turner decides to befriend Janie because Janie is also
fair-skinned.
•In her conversation with Mrs. Turner, Janie learns that the
woman is very anti-black and resents having to live with them.
She really feels above black people and likes to think of herself
as practically white because of her mixed blood. Mrs. Turner
thinks that her new friend Janie should feel the same way.
•Mrs. Turner wants Janie to ditch Tea Cake (who she thinks is
too dark) and marry her brother, a scholar who has perfectly
straight hair and freely criticizes Booker T. Washington. She
arranges for Janie and her brother to meet, but Janie reminds
the woman that she is already married and isn’t interested in
any man but her husband.
•Tea Cake overhears the whole conversation. Janie reassures
him that she is happy with him and has no intention of
marrying Mrs. Turner’s brother.
Page | 21
•Tea Cake hates Mrs. Turner and doesn’t want her hanging
around his house.
•Tea Cake meets Mr. Turner and his son one day on the
street. Mr. Turner is described as a "vanishing-looking kind of
man" whose features were "dwindled and blurred." Tea Cake
learns that Mr. Turner doesn’t approve of his wife’s behavior,
either, but can’t do anything about it.
•From Mr. Turner, Tea Cake also learns that the Turners have
had bad luck with childbirth – they lost several children at
birth and only have one son.
•Mrs. Turner is extremely racist in her perspective on black
and white people. She sees white people as gods and black
people as worshippers.
•She "worships" Janie to a certain extent because Janie has
more white features than she does. And even if Janie treats
her badly and doesn’t encourage her, Mrs. Turner admires
Janie the more for it, thinking that gods and idols shouldn’t
always be nice to those below them. In Mrs. Turner’s mind,
Janie’s snubs prove that she’s worth worshipping.
•In her mixed up racist-religious scheme, Mrs. Turner hopes
that worshipping white people will gain her admittance into a
heaven of white people.
Page | 22
•As part of her idolization of white people and white features,
Mrs. Turner fervently hates black people, especially Tea Cake,
because she sees them as "desecrators" of her faith.
•Janie tries to discourage Mrs. Turner from visiting, but she is
persistent. Janie and Tea Cake simply ignore her for most of
the fallow season.
•The chapter ends with the migrant workers returning again
with the onset of the planting season.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 17 Summary
•Mrs. Turner brings her brother to meet Janie.
•Tea Cake, of course, gets jealous. He beats Janie – not
because she has done anything wrong, but to relieve the fear
inside him and to show the Turners "who is boss." He may be
feeling insecure, but this show of possession is just not cool,
although the book seems to glorify it a little bit.
•One of Tea Cake’s friends, Sop-de-Bottom, remarks how
different Janie is from other women because she doesn’t fight
back when beaten or yell. She only cries. And this is attractive
to Sop-de-Bottom (which is more than slightly creepy).
•Tea Cake intervenes. He accuses Coodemay of disrespecting
Mrs. Turner and her restaurant, threatening to throw him out.
•Dick Sterrett defends his friend. Soon everyone in the place
has taken sides.
•The argument erupts into a full-blown brawl and Mrs. Turner
soon sees that Tea Cake’s noble efforts to defend her
restaurant will cause more trouble than simply allowing the
two drunkards to stay. She tries to tell Tea Cake so, but he
insists on defending her honor.
•The fight continues and everything in the restaurant is
destroyed.
•Tea Cake seems even more proud of his wife now and
continues to justify his display of domestic violence, claiming
that beating Janie is the best way to get Mrs. Turner to lay off.
•Eventually, Coodemay admits he is wrong and offers to buy
drinks for everyone. They all hightail it to another bar and
leave Mrs. Turner in the ruins.
•Sop-de-Bottom assures Tea Cake that all the workers will side
with him against Mrs. Turner and they plan to drive her away.
•Mrs. Turner is enraged at the destruction. She takes it out on
her husband, who did nothing to stop the fight.
•On Saturday afternoon, the workers are paid, so naturally
they go out and party.
•Finally, Mrs. Turner decides to go back to Miami "where folks
is civilized."
•Dick Sterrett and Coodemay, some of Tea Cake’s friends, get
drunk and head over to Mrs. Turner’s eating house for dinner.
•Little does she know that her brother and son have been
threatened by the workers and have already made tracks for
Miami.
•The little restaurant is packed and there is no place to sit.
When Coodemay’s order comes, he demands that Sop-deBottom give up his chair. Sop refuses and a fight ensues.
Page | 23
•Tea Cake’s scheme went according to plan – he and Janie are
now rid of Mrs. Turner.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 18 Summary
•Janie notices some Native Americans of the Seminole tribe
trekking east through town. She asks them where they are
going. They answer that they are seeking higher ground
because a hurricane is coming.
•Most of the workers don’t believe there will be a hurricane
because the white men aren’t moving. They ignore all the
warning signs – the animals migrating east in droves, the
strangely calm weather.
•When Tea Cake is given a chance to hitch a ride east with one
of his Bahaman friends, he refuses. Like most of the other
workers, he’s decided to stay.
•That night, the migrant workers hold a massive party,
complete with storytelling, singing, dancing, cards, and
gambling. Tea Cake gets caught up in a game against Motor
Boat.
•Meanwhile, the weather continues to worsen.
•Lake Okechobee begins to roil and the sun can’t be seen
though morning has set in.
•At this point, Tea Cake and Motor Boat finally stop
competing and they listen to the howling wind outside.
•They finally realize that a furious hurricane is approaching.
Page | 24
•Tea Cake, in his own way, asks forgiveness of Janie. She tells
him she would rather die with him in the coming storm than
to have stayed in Eatonville and never have met him.
•Fear overtakes the couple and they watch the sky and
question whether God is going to let them die. Here we see
the phrase which is the namesake for the book: "They seemed
to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God."
•The house starts to flood. Tea Cake decides to make a break
for it. He tells Janie to wrap up all their money and insurance
papers to keep them from getting wet.
•The car is nowhere to be found so they have to walk to
higher ground. Janie, terribly frightened, wants to stay in their
shack and sit it out, but Tea Cake convinces her to move.
•The three of them – Janie, Tea Cake, and Motor Boat – run
for higher ground.
•They see the true awesome power of the storm behind
them; the lake has swollen and is flooding the entire area. The
wind blows at 200 mph.
•Some of the fleeing workers drown.
•After a brief respite in an abandoned house, Tea Cake
decides they must continue on and get to higher ground.
•Motor Boat, however, has given up. He elects to stay in the
house, sleep, and depend on luck. Tea Cake tries to argue with
him, but to no avail.
•Janie and Tea Cake strike out on their own. They must swim
through the flood to reach safety. Janie is not a strong
swimmer and Tea Cake has to hold her up. This exhausts both
of them. By the time they reach a stopping point – the bridge
at Six Mile Bend – fleeing workers have crowded it so there is
no room to stand.
•Jane and Tea Cake have to walk on.
•Death is everywhere. Tea Cake is too exhausted to stand and
collapses.
•Janie spots a piece of tar-paper roofing nearby and thinks it
could provide a makeshift roof for poor Tea Cake. However,
when she grabs the roofing, it acts like a gigantic kite, catching
the wind and blowing Janie out into the raging water.
•Nearby a cow is slowly swimming in the flood with a massive
dog sitting on its back and shivering. Tea Cake yells for Janie to
grab onto the cow’s tail to be dragged to safety.
•Janie manages to grab onto the cow, but the dog on the
cow’s back tries to attack her. The dog, however, is afraid of
the water and cannot reach Janie.
•Seeing the ferocious dog, Tea Cake comes to Janie’s rescue.
Page | 25
•Tea Cake kills the dog with his knife, but not before being
bitten once on the cheekbone. The narrator makes it apparent
that if Tea Cake had his full strength, he could’ve killed the dog
in one stroke, without getting bitten. This will prove to be
fateful later.
•Janie and Tea Cake reach safety on higher ground and they
stop to rest.
•The next day they reach Palm Beach just as the storm peters
out. With their money, they acquire a place to sleep.
•Janie insists on finding a doctor for Tea Cake’s bite, but he
refuses – he just wants to rest.
•They discuss how fierce the dog was. Janie describes the
animal as "pure hate" and calls Tea Cake "twice noble" for
saving her.
•When Tea Cake feels sorry for himself for bringing all this
disaster upon her, Janie reassures him of her love.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 19 Summary
•After resting for two days, Tea Cake decides it is time to go
find some work. Janie warns him that there is no work to be
had except being enlisted by the white men to bury the dead
from the hurricane.
•Tea Cake decides to try his luck anyway, reasoning that if he
has money in his pockets, the white men will leave him alone.
•He’s wrong. The first two white men he encounters force him
to help out with the messy job that Janie described.
•Many black workers are doing the same thing – dumping any
human bodies they find into a deep ditch.
•Soon, however, the orders change. The workers are to
separate the white corpses from the black because the white
ones will have coffins made for them, and the black corpses
won’t.
•Motor Boat is particularly lucky. When Tea Cake and Janie
split ways with him, Motor Boat fell asleep on the top floor of
an abandoned house. His whole building was swept away by
the flood, but the storm never touched him.
•Tea Cake finds work in the ‘Glades, helping rebuild what the
hurricane destroyed.
•At home, Janie continues practicing her shooting.
•In the fourth week, Tea Cake starts exhibiting signs of
sickness. He asks for food, then when Janie brings it to him,
refuses to eat it. Then he asks for some water, but gags it up.
•Janie, alarmed, calls in a white doctor and has Tea Cake
diagnosed. She tells the doctor the story of their escape from
the hurricane, including the episode with the cow and dog.
•The doctor prescribes some pills and then pulls Janie out to
talk to her privately.
•After several hours of this toil, Tea Cake realizes Janie will
probably be worrying about him. So he runs away, even after
being threatened with guns.
•He reveals that Tea Cake has been bitten by a mad dog (in
other words, one with rabies), and that Tea Cake’s inability to
drink water is one sure symptom.
•At home, he finds Janie weeping. He consoles her and
convinces her to leave Palm Beach with him.
•He warns Janie to stay away from Tea Cake, especially when
he has one of his choking fits, because she could get bitten
and be infected by the same disease. Tea Cake has a very slim
chance of living.
•They return to the Everglades. Tea Cake discovers some of
his friends – Sop-de-Bottom, Stew Beef, Dockery, ‘lias,
Coodemay, Bootyny, and Motor Boat – alive.
Page | 26
•The doctor assures Janie that he will send for the antidote
serum from the city, but warns her that Tea Cake should have
taken it weeks ago. It probably won’t help much now.
•She reassures him of her love, but while she is putting him to
bed, she feels the cold steel of a pistol underneath his pillow.
She says nothing because he hasn’t brought it up himself.
•Janie clings to hope.
•She realizes that the dog of pure hate has killed her after all,
but not directly. He is killing her slowly and painfully through
Tea Cake’s suffering. She asks God for help, but her prayers
remain unanswered.
•Meanwhile Tea Cake still thinks seeing a doctor is
unnecessary. He says he only gags on water because Janie’s
been giving him dirty water. When he pumps his own water
and has the same reaction, he becomes embarrassed; he
doesn’t want Janie to see him in such a weak state.
•When Janie leaves home to see about the medicine, she does
it in secret because she doesn’t want Tea Cake to worry.
•Janie runs into Sop-de-Bottom and Dockery. She asks them
to go sit with Tea Cake while she is gone and keep him
company. They comply.
•When Janie returns home, Tea Cake has become madly
jealous because Sop has told him that Mrs. Turner’s brother is
back in town and has the same sickness as Tea Cake. Tea Cake
takes this to mean that Janie has been visiting with Mrs.
Turner’s brother.
•When Janie tells him the truth (that she has gone to check on
the medicine), he breaks down, crying in her arms.
•That night, Tea Cake suffers two choking attacks and
continues being unaccountably suspicious of Janie. He will not
let her out of his sight, even to get the doctor.
•Janie is frightened by Tea Cake’s odd behavior, so while he’s
in the outhouse, she sets the pistol underneath his pillow so
that it will snap three times before actually firing. She hopes
she is wrong in fearing that Tea Cake will turn the pistol on her
but she wants to err on the side of safety.
•Tea Cake returns with a strange loping stride and his jaws set
strangely.
•His natural jealousy is being amplified by the disease. He asks
Janie coldly why she no longer sleeps in the same bed as him.
She reminds him that the doctor prescribed it. But he is
beyond reason.
•Tea Cake thinks that Janie is fooling around with Mrs.
Turner’s brother and he turns the pistol on her.
Page | 27
•As the three clicks come and go, Janie whips out a rifle to
protect herself.
•Janie recognizes that Tea Cake is no longer Tea Cake; her
husband has been taken over by the fiendish disease that
urges him to kill anything in sight.
•Janie shoots an instant before Tea Cake does. He misses. She
doesn’t.
•Tea Cake dies in her arms, still hateful and biting down
Janie’s forearm. She weeps over his body and silently thanks
him for giving her the chance to love.
•The same day, Janie is put on trial for killing Tea Cake.
•The entire black community is set against her; they feel like
she has betrayed Tea Cake. Ironically, the white women in the
audience sympathize with Janie.
•Dr. Simmons, who treated Tea Cake, testifies on Janie’s
behalf.
•A man named Mr. Prescott testifies against Janie, saying that
Tea Cake always treated her well and that she left Tea Cake
for another man while her husband was sick. Hardly the truth
of the situation.
•When Janie gives her testimony, she makes a point of telling
the truth as she knows it and not pleading to anybody.
Page | 28
•The verdict is in Janie’s favor so she goes free.
•The white women surround Janie in their support while her
black peers leave with their heads hanging.
•As she leaves, Janie overhears a couple of men saying she
only went free because she had killed a black man, not a white
one.
•Janie arranges an elaborate funeral for Tea Cake, whom she
has come to idealize as "son of the Evening Sun."
•She is so distraught that she doesn’t care about her
appearance; rather than wearing black for mourning, she
wears her overalls.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 20 Summary
•The black community’s anger against Janie is short-lived.
They take it out on Mrs. Turner’s brother instead, running him
out of the ‘Glades.
•Janie stays a few weeks after Tea Cake’s funeral, not because
she wants to, but because the community begs her to.
•She gives away everything in her house except a little packet
of seeds that reminds her of Tea Cake. She means to plant
them when she gets home.
•At this point, Janie’s story ends. She is back in her house in
Eatonville, talking to Pheoby. Janie tells Pheoby that she is
home for good and now feels that she has lived a full life.
•She also gives Pheoby permission to relay her story to
Eatonville’s gossipy ladies. Janie urges her friend to tell them
love is not a single constant thing, but it is like the sea, shaped
by the shores it meets.
•After listening to Janie’s story, Pheoby doesn’t feel satisfied
with her small isolated life. She wants to spend more time
with her husband, Sam. She also assures Janie that she won’t
stand for hearing a word spoken against her.
•Janie advises her friend that experiencing life is the most
important thing – going out, living, and finding God. It will not
satisfy you to just sit around, talking and listening to tales.
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•After Pheoby leaves, Janie goes upstairs into the bedroom,
which is full with memories.
•She remembers the fateful day of Tea Cake’s death and
decides that Tea Cake is not dead and will not be until Janie
herself dies. He helped her see her own limits, her own
horizon.
•The book ends with Janie feeling at peace.