TEWWG ~ Hoonah Trip ~ 20-35

1. "Somebody got to think for woman and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don't think none theirselves." (pg 71)
1. By Joe saying this, you can tell what his idea of woman are. They are just dumb animals that (like a mule) that need to be told what to do because they aren't smart enough to figure it out for themselves.
2. "She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels." (pg 76)
1.  Just when Janie thinks she can speak her mind or talk to Joe, he beats (sometimes literally) her down.
3. "Man attempting to climb to painless heights from his dung hill." (pg 76)
1.  This is an allusion to Sisyphus. In Greek Mythology, Sisyphus was a king whose punishment in Hades was to roll a very large boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down when he is almost to the top. Janie feels like her life is in an endless cycle of meaningless, medial tasks that Joe forces her to do.
4. "The motor hearse, the Cadillac and Buick carriages; Dr. Henderson there in his Lincoln; the hosts from far and wide." (pg88)
1. These are cars that are featured in a typical blues poem. Their Eyes Were Watching God is often  considered to be written in a blues poem format. Since Hurston specifies that the cars are Cadillacs, Buicks and Lincolns, this could mean that Zora Neale Hurston meant for the novel to be interpreted like a blues poem. 
5.  "Before she slept that night she burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist." (pg 89)
1.  By burning the head rags she is essentially burning all of the power that Joe had over her. She is setting herself free from Jody's control.
6. "He could be a bee to a blossom—a pear tree blossom in spring." (pg 106)
1.  In the beginning of the novel, you get an idea of what Janie thinks love is like. She can tell that Tea Cake is different from all of her other relationships. A guy like Tea Cake is what she has been looking for since the beginning. A sweet, kind, guy that listens and respects her.
7. "Janie. Ah hope God may kill me, if Ah'm lyin'. Nobody else of earth kin hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom." (pg 109)
1.  The word kingdom has a few connotations. Tea Cake could mean that Janie has the keys to his heart, or he could mean that she is like his queen and she can go where ever she pleases and he will follow. Either way Tea Cake is saying that he is in love with Janie, and may God strike him down if he is lying.
8. “Jody classed me off. Ah didn’t. Naw, Pheoby, Tea Cake ain’t draggin’ me nowhere Ah don’t wont tuh go.” (pg 112) 
1.  Janie is telling Pheoby that the Janie she thought she knew was not the real Janie. It was the Janie that Joe wanted and forced her to be. Joe wanted her as a trophy wife, so he made it so Janie couldn't really associate with the regular townspeople very much, such as when he wouldn't allow her to go to the funeral for the mule.
9. "Ah done lived Grandma's way, now Ah means tuh live mine." (pg 114)
1.  After her second marriage, Janie realizes that she hates her Nanny in a way. She hates that fact that Nanny twisted her way of thinking about love. Nanny told Janie that when you get married you don't have to love someone, you will grow to love them. Nanny just wanted Janie to have a man to take care of her and someone to grow old with and sit on a porch and enjoy the smaller things in life. Janie wanted adventure. She wanted someone that was going to love her for her and she didn't want to marry anyone that she wasn't in love with. 
2. She lived with Nanny's thought of love, now she was going to live out her thoughts of love.
10. "He done showed me where it's de thought dat makes de difference in ages." (pg 115)
1.  Janie is trying to get Pheoby to understand that she and Tea Cake are in love. That it doesn't matter that she is so much older than he is because as long as they love each other its ok.
11. "That was when she found out her two hundred dollars was gone." (pg 118)
1.  Janie is heartbroken. She is worried that what everything Pheoby had warned her about is true and that Tea Cake just married her for her money.
12. "Looka heah, Tea Cake, if you ever go off from me and have a good time lak dat then come back heah tellin' me how nice Ah is, Ah specks tuh kill yuh head. Yuh Heah me?" (pg 124)
1.  Janie wants Tea Cake to understand that she didn't marry him to be treated like a trophy. Tea Cake was worried that because Janie was classed up, she wouldn't enjoy going to a party with commoners. Janie assures Tea Cake that she goes where he goes. She wants to have fun just like he does. She has never experienced the same things that he has and she wants to know what its like.
13. "So her soul crawled out of its hiding spot." (pg 128)
1. Janie is now able to love like she has always wanted to. She is free to be herself. She realizes that what she has with Tea Cake is real; it is love. Not love like Nanny's idea of love, but her idea of love.
14. "She got to be a better shot than Tea Cake." (pg 130)
1. Foreshadow!
2. This is a foreshadow that Janie is going to have to shoot Tea Cake OR be able to out shoot Tea Cake. But because Fielding ruins the end of every book, we know that it is a foreshadow that Janie is going to shoot and kill Tea Cake.
15. "You'se something tuh make uh man forgit tuh git old and fogit tuh die." (pg 138)
1. Tea Cake is in love with Janie. He tells her that she is so wonderful that time almost stops when they are together. He doesn't care what happens in the world around him because he is married to an amazing woman.