Ch. 11-13
During tonight’s reading, I could not help but think about personal and class reactions to The Great Gatsby where we began to question Gatsby’s character as the novel progressed. In the same way, this reading made me question Tea Cake and his motives — yet, just like how I was with Gatsby, I do believe that Tea Cake has pure intentions despite speculations that could prove otherwise. I honestly do not believe that Hurston would build Janie up as a character raised to believe that status and material things are most important but then learns that there is more than just material things, and then have the man she trusted because of her deeper understanding of the important things in life steal her money and leave her with virtually nothing to have or to believe in. It would be much too complicated, and I also do not believe that Hurston would do this to Janie because it would reverse the moral already instilled in the reader to follow your heart and not strive for only wealth in life, and to reverse a moral such as that would truly be a crime on the author’s part. I also believe that Tea Cake has good intentions from his promises to reimburse Janie for her money that he has used and for wanting to be the provider in the household despite her wealth. Symbolically, another example in Tea Cake’s defense that caught my eye was when Janie woke up in Chapter 11 to find Tea Cake brushing her hair. Throughout the novel, her hair has represented her freedom and inner-strength and how beautiful those two qualities are, and for Tea Cake to be brushing that hair can definitely be read as him nurturing those qualities Janie has instead of denying them like Logan and Jody had.
