Close Read Janie and Tea Cake

Close Read of a Passage.

In Janie’s two previous marriages the men have been very controlling of her. They only let her do the things they saw fit for her to do. But then comes along a man named Tea Cake. He is different than all the other ones because he treats her as an equal right away. Hurston writes “Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play. That was even nice. She looked him over and got little thrills from every one of his good points” (96). This shows how Tea Cake is different from the rest of the men that have been in her life. Tea Cake puts her on his level from the very beginning and she loves that about him. Janie also has feelings for him right away unlike she did for Logan and Jody. By Tea Cake putting Janie on his level from the start he is allowing her to be free in their relationship whereas Jody and Logan put her into a cage and Janie didn’t like that and was unable to grow in the relationship. Tea Cake’s and Janie’s relationship was her ultimate form of freedom in any of her relationships and she still has that freedom even after Tea Cake died.