TEWWG ~ State ~ 35 - 65

1. "All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason...Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion...Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood." (Pg 145)
1. I just found it really interesting and it sticks out in my mind. 
2. It's saying that all gods who are worshipped are cruel. They need to make men afraid so they continue to pay homage. It says that it is ok to bribe demigods, but a full god needs blood to be satisfied. 
2.  "She paid homage to Janie's Caucasian characteristics as such." (Pg 145)
1. Their (Mrs. Turner) Eyes Were Watching God (Janie)
2. Mrs. Turner idolizes Janie. She treats her like a god because she has white features. Mrs. Turner despises black people. She herself is a black woman but she has lighter skin and thinks she is better than all the other black people. Janie also has lighter skin so she thinks that Janie is also better than all the black people. 
3. "Before the week was over he had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him." (Pg 147)
1. By whipping Janie it reassures Tea Cake of his possession over her. He is hitting her to show her that he is the boss. He is angry that Mrs. Turner is trying to get her brother to take Janie away from him so he beats her to show the other people in the 'Glades that he was power over her and she isn't going anywhere unless he tells her too.
4. "The men walking in front and the laden, stolid women following them like burros" (Pg 154)
1. This shows that even in the Native community the women are treated like mules. 
5. All of the animals leaving. (Pg 155)
1. Proves that the Indians were right and that a hurricane is coming because animals can sense these things.
6. "By morning Gabriel was playing the deep tones in the center of the drum." (Pg 158)
1. In the Bible, the Archangel Gabriel typically served as a messenger to the humans from God. 
2. Gabriel is sending a message to the people that the hurricane is coming to destroy their land. 
7. "It woke up old Okechobee and the monster began to roll in his bed. Began to roll and complain like a peevish world on a grumble." (Pg 158)
1. The hurricane is compared to a monster. Monsters are big and scary and kill things and so does the hurricane. It kills thousands of people and destroys miles of homes and land. 
2. This monster shows no mercy. 
8. "The people felt uncomfortable but safe because there were the seawalls to chain the senseless monster to his bed." (Pg 158)
1. Bed = sea
2. The people think that the seawall will protect them from the hurricane by keeping the water behind it. But they are wrong and the monstrous force of nature breaks through the walls and floods the town. 
9. "Ole Massa is doin' His work now. Us oughta keep quiet." (Pg 159) 
1. Ole Massa = god like? OR Ole Massa = Master (like a slave owner)?
2. Ole Massa is a figure from African Folklore. Hurston tells a story about Ole Massa in Mules and Men.
10. "Six eyes were questioning God." (Pg 159)
1. Their (Tea Cake, Janie, & Motor) Eyes Were Watching God (hurricane).
2. Janie, Motor, and Tea Cake are watching the hurricane to see whether or not they are going to be safe or if they are going to have to continue running. 
11. "Ah was fumblin' round and God opened the door." (Pg 159)
1. Janie says that before Tea Cake she was going about life with no purpose/in the metaphorical dark. Once she found Tea Cake, God opened her eyes to love and lead her out of the dark.
12. "They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God." (Pg 160)
1. God = hurricane
2. The people were watching the hurricane to see whether or not they were going to be ok or if  God had sent the hurricane to kill all of them. 
3. Tey are staring in the dark because the weather associated with the hurricane has blocked out the sunlight. Evil/cruel things happen in the dark. (Like a hurricane killing thousands of people)
13. "The sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel." (Pg 162)
1. The hurricane has come on land and was doing some serious damage. It's 'heavy heel' was crushing houses and killing people.
14. "Common danger made common friends." (Pg 164)
1. When two things (whether these things be predator vs. prey or two enemies) are being threatened by the same force, they will put their differences aside and band together to defeat it.
15. "He wuzn't nothing' all over but pure hate." (Pg 167)
1. Janie notices that something wasn't right about the dog. This dog was angry to his core. There was nothing nice about this dog. 
2. From the description of the dog, if you know about rabies (or have seen Old Yeller) you can guess that the dog is either just really super mean or he has rabies.
16. "You don't have have tuh say if it wuzn't fuh me, baby, cause Ah'm heah, and then Ah want yuh tuh know it's uh man heah." ( Pg 167)
1. Tea Cake wants Janie to know that he has always been there for her and always will be. He is a man who is strong/brave enough to fight off rabid dogs for the woman he loves.
17. "Death had found them watching, trying to see beyond seeing." (Pg 170)
1. Death had caught them watching God, hoping for salvation. Death hit them while their backs were turned and killed them. 
18. "Examine every last one of 'em and find out if they's white or black." (Pg 170)
1. The white men don't even want the different dead races mixing together. The white people need to be separated because they are going to receive a proper burial. 
19.  "Look lak dey think God don't know nothin' 'bout de Jim Crow law." (Pg 171)
1. Jim Crow laws were laws that mainly applied to the Southern States and mandated racial segregation in all public facilities with a supposedly 'separate but equal' status from the African Americans. Basically, the laws made it so the white people were treated better than the black people.
2. When Tea Cake and the other men are burying the people who died in the hurricane, the white men in charge told them to make sure that the white people were separated from the black people because the white folks had pine coffins being made for them. 
3. The fact that the white people get coffins makes Tea Cake and the other man think that the white men think that they are not only better than the blacks because they get a proper burial, but they are also better in the eyes of God. 
20. "It's bad bein' strange niggers wid white folks. Everybody is against yuh." (Pg 172)
1. Tea Cake recognizes that because they are black, they are lower class, but it's better to be lower class where you know the white people. When you don't know the white people, they may think you are a runaway slave or think that because you are black you are a bad person and be out to get you.
2. Tea Cake wants to go home where the white folks know who he is and where he knows he is safe among them because they aren't out to get him.
21. "Way in the midnight he woke Janie up in his nightmarish struggle with an enemy that was at his throat." (Pg 174)
1. This marks the beginning of Tea Cake's struggle to stay in control of his body. The 'demon' (the rabies infection) has begun to take its toll on his body. It wants to control Tea Cake.
22. "Janie, I'm pretty sure that was a mad dawg but yo' husband." (Pg 177)
1. Rabies!
2. Tea Cake has rabies. Once the rabies virus infects the central nervous system and symptoms begin to show, the infection is untreatable and leads to a painful death.
23. "God made it so you spent yo' ole age first wid somebody else, and saved up yo' young girl days to spend wide me." (Pg 181)
1. Tea Cake says that Janie doesn't look or act her age. He doesn't care that Janie is older because he loves her personality and may sometime forget that she is older because she can keep up with everything he does. 
2. Janie is sort of living her life in reverse. When you are young you are supposed to go live your life and experience things for yourself. When you are old is when you retire from life and sit on a porch or tend a store.
24. "Janie saw a changing look come in his face. Tea Cake was gone." (Pg 181)
1. The rabies has taken over Tea Cake and its making Tea Cake do things that he would otherwise regret. Janie realizes that the Tea Cake she loved is fighting an inner 'demon' whom has tried to possess his body.
25. "She broke the rifle deftly and shoved in the shell as the second click told her that Tea Cake's suffering brain was urging him on to kill." (Pg 183)
1. She realizes that after the second click of the pistol that the man she was standing in front of was not Tea Cake at all. He was completely gone. The demon has won and is urging the body to kill. She knows that she has to kill him but she is still hoping that she can talk him down.
26. "The pistol and the rifle rang out almost together. The pistol just enough after the rifle to seem its echo" (Pg 184)
1. This shows that Janie shot first. She knew that if Tea Cake had tried three times to kill her already he wasn't going to stop until she was dead. She anticipated the fourth shot and shot him before he could shoot her. 
27. "Janie struggle to a sitting position and pried the dead Tea Cake's teeth from her arm." (Pg 184)
1. Tea Cake bit her. If he broke the flesh, this would mean that he transferred the rabies virus to her. It is never said whether or not he broke the skin and if he did if she was administered the serum to prevent rabies.
28. "They were there with their tongues cocked and loaded, the only real weapon left to weak folks. The only killing tool they are allowed to use in the presence of white people." (Pg 186)
1. The black people who had gone to Janie's trial were ready to speak against her. Because they didn't know the whole story, they wanted to hurt (mostly verbally) Janie for taking away someone that the community loved. They wanted Janie to suffer because they think that she wanted Tea Cake gone and if that was the case than there were plenty of women willing to take him off her hands.
2. White people back then were always afraid to giving black people guns because they didn't want the slaves to rebel against them. They knew that if a slave knew how to use a gun, they would use it to get free. 
29. "If they made a verdict that she didn't want Tea Cake and wanted him dead, then that was a real sin and a shame. It was worse than murder." (Pg 188)
1. Janie just wants everyone to know that she didn't kill Tea Cake because she wanted to; she killed Tea Cake because she had too. Not only was it self-defense, but she also put Tea Cake out of his misery. She thinks that if she were falsely convicted of not loving Tea Cake and wanting him dead, it would be worse than murder because it would be a big misunderstanding.
30. "She called in her soul to come and see." (Pg 193)
1. Janie is at peace with Tea Cake's death because in her eyes, he isn't really dead. He may be physically dead, but he will forever be in her memory and heart. She tells her soul that it is OK to feel, it is OK to love again because Janie's true love is only mostly dead.