pagesofjulia

The Heroine’s Bookshelf is hosting another readalong! We are reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, and I encourage you to participate. Today we’re discussing chapters 7-13 (please pop over to THB at the above link to join in). We recently discussed chapters 1-6, and chapters 14-20 are coming up on December 12.

Part 2 begins with Janie getting well settled in Eatonville as Mrs. Mayor Starks, but not in a good way. “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face.” Husband #2, Joe, has become a disappointment, criticizing Janie unfairly and keeping her hidden away; she’s not living life to the fullest as she’d hoped to. Joe’s death releases Janie, though, and she begins to have friends, to have a social life. She’s not quickly ready to remarry to have new male company around, though; she sees her suitors for what they are: men ready to take advantage of a wealthy widow, wanting to bed her beauty, and not interested in accompanying her through the exciting and fulfilling life she still wonders about. She considers that she may not want to remarry at all.

All this changes though when Tea Cake comes around: a younger, handsome, sweet-talking man who inspires her love. Despite the warnings of her friend Pheoby, she takes off to meet Tea Cake in Jacksonville where they marry, and Janie embarks on her third marriage.

I was a little leery of Tea Cake myself, and quickly found that our concerns were well-placed when he disappears with her hidden cash savings of $200. He comes back, with a story of the grand party he threw for a bunch of strangers with her money – not an endearing story, considering she wasn’t even invited! and he’s shown an inability to keep his hands in his pockets when there are dollars in them! but at least he does come home, and even returns her money to her, although he does this (apparently) by means of a poker game that ends with some knife wounds that Janie has to care for.

I was surprised to see Janie’s years with Joe fly by so quickly in so few pages; but I guess we got the feel for the monotony and uneventfulness of those years. I am definitely worried about Tea Cake as a stable mate for Janie. I still want for her what she wants for herself: Maslow’s self-actualization, I guess – fulfillment, joy, happiness, love, a realization of her potential and a seeing of a little bit of the world.

This part of the book I found less compelling then the first part, but I’m very willing to let my pain pills take part of the blame there. (If you missed yesterday’s post, I just had knee surgery.) I look forward to some other readers’ input on this section; maybe I missed some strong emotional pull. And I definitely look forward to the rest of the book, and finding out what happened to Tea Cake that has left Janie telling her story to Pheoby in the dark on the back porch.

Don’t forget to hop over to The Heroine’s Bookshelf for today’s discussion!

Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: Their Eyes Were Watching God Readalong |