Sinner, Saint, or Merely Mortal?

In the article "Janie's Tea cake: Sinner, Saint, or Merely Mortal?" by Yvonne Ashmawi she makes two claims of how the reader of "their eyes were watching god" could take a stance on Tea Cake. One stance is that he was a Saint if this was a quest novel and in the end Jaine found what she was looking for. On the other hand Tea cake can be taken as a sinner, mostly because he lives a irresponsible lifestyle, he lives on the muck and he hits Jaine. Depending on how the reader want to perceive the book will change there view on Tea cake.