alexm22’s Blog

In chapter 14, Janie and Tea Cake begin their life together. When first described, “the muck” does not sound like a promising place, but the casual and relaxed community seems to be a perfect fit for Janie. Tea Cake and Janie are both satisfied with their lives. In the next chapter, we see that Janie is deeply in love with Tea Cake. When Nunkie begins to flirt with Tea Cake, it seems that Tea Cake does not resist her friendship. Janie notices this and becomes obsessed with the idea that Tea Cake does not like her as much as she likes him. Chapter 14 and 15 are mainly their for story purposes, but chapter 16 is what we have been waiting for since we met the women criticizing Janie on the porch. We have learned that when this book was first published it was very controversial. Most people reading this novel would expect a black author to discuss the issues with racism, but instead Hurston uses a black character to express negatives about the black community. This style of writing makes the reader ask the question, what is racism? From this novel it seems to be more about being in a certain mindset than discriminating against a group.