Tea Cake: Really a Treat? or Kind of a Stale Asshole?
After Janie’s first two failed marriages, when Tea Cake comes along, he might seem like the perfect replacement: someone who lets her be who she is and allows her to have a lot more fun, but is he actually that much better? I think, despite the fact that he doesn’t push her to do things she doesn’t want to, treats her with much love, and shows her lots of new fun things, he’s still kind of an asshole. It’s important to not gloss over his flaws and paint him as a perfect rosy replacement for his unappealing predecessors.
After the “mourning”
of her previous husband Jody, she meets Tea Cake, and at first, he seems to be like
a wonderful person. He doesn’t ask anything much of her and they have lots of fun
experiences together that are new to Janie. They form a close connection and he
shows her a very sincere love. However, in Jacksonville, an incident occurs
where Tea Cake’s true colors really start to show through. Soon after the couple
got married, Janie wakes up after Tea Cake who has apparently gone for fish. Janie
is much wealthier than Tea Cake and when they went to Jacksonville, she brought
200 dollars secretly just in case anything happened with Tea Cake. When she wakes
up that morning, she finds Tea Cake and her hidden money gone.
Janie worries
about where Tea Cake is, and after spending over 24 hours fretting, he finally
returns. He stalls, denying that he’s done anything wrong, and after a scolding, he finally tells Janie what he did. As he was leaving the house he spotted the
money, and because he’s always been poor, the prospect of that much money excited
him, so he took it. He spent Janie’s money on a new guitar for himself and on a
big party which he did not invite her to. His excuse was that he just wanted to
see what it was like to be rich and that she probably wouldn’t have enjoyed
the party. However, I think the fact that he just took her money like it was
his own with no hesitation, spent it to his own liking, and didn’t even invite her
to the party shows what kind of person he was. I think it was really shitty of
him to do that, and he didn’t even show any kind of remorse or apology afterward.
Some people might say, oh well at least he gambled it back, so it’s okay that he ran off with her money. However, I think just cause he technically got it back does not mean what he did was okay. He deliberately stole from her and was not honest with her and I think that is unacceptable. His behavior was incredibly immature and childish.
Another example of Tea Cake's poor character is when he hits Janie. A reader may think he is above violence, but we see him violently hit the woman he claims to love so much. To add to the damage, the reasoning he gives is even grosser and concerning. He basically does it to fuel his own ego and image, and reassure himself of his possession over her.
Overall, Tea
Cake does have a lot of good characteristics and often treats Janie with care,
however, he has a lot of flaws that I think are not addressed enough. These specific examples and his general way of acting above criticism are definitely a
red flag for me. Do you think Tea Cake is great, or do his actions concern you?
Great post! I think you did a good job of explaining all the different aspects of Tea Cake's character. To answer your question, I would have to say that Tea Cake's actions concern me. He shows some signs of being manipulative and abusive, despite Janie's good view of him. Of course he has many qualities that are good, but it is quite striking how little attention these flaws are given.
ReplyDeleteGood post! I would agree that Tea Cake, much like Janie's other love interests, has his flaws, and I think they are important to address. Even though he seems like a generally good person, he makes mistakes and does bad things, which might go to show that Janie's image of the beautiful flowery marriage that she was hoping for is inherently flawed.
ReplyDeleteNice post! I totally agree when you say that Tea Cake seems like the perfect person for Janie compared to her other love interests. But he does have flaws that are considerably pretty terrible such as the habit of disappearing and the odd way of getting satisfaction out of hitting her.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I think you did a great job covering this controversial topic of teacake, and with a clever title as well. I also liked how you ended the post with a question, which allows us to think about this question beyond just the post. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great insight into the elusive true intentions Tea Cake has and how the reader must analyze his actions in order to determine his effect on Janie. His character is very questionable at times and I agree with your takes on him. Great job!
ReplyDeleteGood job! You analysis of Tea Cake is so illuminating -- he's both the ideal match for Janie, especially compared to her previous suitors, and also a questionable example of toxic male characteristics. Personally, I think Tea Cake is in the gray area, just like most other characters.
ReplyDeleteAnya, this is a great post! You did a great job of analyzing so many aspects of Tea Cakes character that really shine light on his many flaws. Tea Cake is painted as the perfect man for Janie, but clearly he makes a lot of mistakes, that are debatably dealbreakers in a relationship. Nice Work!
ReplyDeleteHi Anya, I think you did a really good job addressing the flaws in Tea Cake. It's really easy to ignore that side of him since he's kinda hot and he's better than Janie's previous husbands so we tend to give him the benefit of the doubt. However, he's also really messed up in a way so I definitely think that many of his actions are huge red flags. Just because he's nice most of the time and is relatively better doesn't mean we should let awful stuff he does pass. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog post. You do a good job explaining all of your points and the format is easy to follow. I agree that it does not matter that Tea Cake won that money back, the problem is that he stole from Janie (not knowing for sure if he could win it back) and not even offering for her to join him. Great job!
ReplyDeleteJanie agrees that it is "shitty" of Tea Cake not to invite her to his party--but this is really the only thing she seems mad about, and she seems to understand and respect his explanation about never having money and temporarily losing his mind. She threatens to "kill" him if he ever has a party like that and doesn't invite her--which is a pretty strong self-assertion and condemnation of his actions. But also note that, in HER story as SHE tells and shapes it, Janie presents this as an important moment of mutual understanding between them: she is now aware that Tea Cake still sees her as somewhat "classed off," not interested in his sketchy roughneck railroad friends, but she sets him straight, saying she wants to "partake in everything" with him. The end result of this conflict, remember, is their decision to go down to the Muck together, and this setting proves transformative for Janie as a person. It's certainly valid for this episode to raise "red flags" for a reader about Tea Cake, but if we value the literary context of a woman telling and shaping and interpreting her own story, we should acknowledge that Janie comes to somewhat different conclusions, and Tea Cake seems quite eager to introduce her to his world, now that he knows she's down for it.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you brought this up! The way that Tea Cake is depicted is really weird to me in some ways because he's painted in an almost entirely positive light. It would make more sense for Janie to love him and also accept his shortcomings or at least acknowledge the bad things he did. It's also strange to me how glamorized the abuse was. Hitting someone is never ok it's domestic abuse regardless of if Janie likes Tea Cake or the other way around. Nice analysis!
ReplyDeleteGood post! I agree that Tea Cake isn't a good person (stealing, lying, etc.), Janie sees him as a good person. In a way, she is blind to his faults, even though as a reader from a third person perspective, they are as clear as day to us. I think that Janie's blindness comes from her unconditional love towards Tea Cake, which emerges from Janie's previous bad experiences with love. Comparatively, Tea Cake is significantly better than her past experiences so, despite his shortcomings, he comes off as a good person to Janie.
ReplyDeleteif anyone every supported Teacake, they don't now. You chose great examples for why he is a bad partner. I really like the idea that even if he gets the money back it is wrong because he stole from and lied to Janie. Great blog.
ReplyDelete