How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #31
[Janie to Mrs. Turner:] "Naw, mah husband didn’t had nothin’ but hisself. He’s easy tuh love if you mess round ‘im. Ah loves ‘im."
"Why you, Mis’ Woods! Ah don’t b’lieve it. You’se jus’ sorter hypnotized, dat’s all."
"Naw, it’s real. Ah couldn’t stand it if he wuz tuh quit me. Don’t know whut Ah’d do. He kin take most any lil thing and make summertime out of it when times is dull. Then we lives offa dat happiness he made till some mo’ happiness come along." (16.11-13)
Mrs. Turner wants to turn Janie’s eyes and affection away from Tea Cake and toward her brother. She thinks her love for Tea Cake is but a sort of hypnosis that is only effective because Janie has not yet met men of real quality. But Janie is staunch in her love and loyalty to Tea Cake.
Quote #32
"We been tuhgether round two years. If you kind see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk. It’s so many people never seen de light at all. Ah wuz fumblin’ round and God opened de door."
He dropped to the floor and put his head in her lap. "Well then, Janie, you meant whut you didn’t say, ‘cause Ah never knowed you wuz so satisfied wid me lak dat." (18.37-38)
Even in the face of death, Janie doesn’t regret anything she’s done with Tea Cake, even if doing things differently might’ve saved her life. For Janie, loving Tea Cake, even for only a short two years, has made her life worthwhile and satisfying. She characterizes Tea Cake as the sunlight in her life, and Tea Cake is amazed by the intensity of her love and devotion.
Quote #33
Janie achieved the tail of the cow and lifted her head up along the cow’s rump, as far as she could above water. The cow sunk a little with the added load and thrashed a moment in terror. Thought she was being pulled down by a gator. The dog stood up and growled like a lion, stiff-standing hackles, stiff muscles, teeth uncovered as he lashed up his fury for the charge. Tea Cake split the water like an otter, opening his knife as he dived. The dog raced down the backbone of the cow to the attack and Janie screamed and slipped far back on the tail of the cow, just out of reach of the dog’s angry jaws. He wanted to plunge in after her but dreaded the water, somehow. Tea Cake rose out of the water at the cow’s rump and seized the dog by the neck. But he was a powerful dog and Tea Cake was over-tired. So he didn’t kill the dog with one stroke as he had intended. But the dog couldn’t free himself either. They fought and somehow he managed to bite Tea Cake high up on his cheek-bone once. Then Tea Cake finished him and sent him to the bottom to stay there. (18.96)
Tea Cake jumps in the water to defend Janie, his true love, from the mad dog. As a result, he is bitten and eventually dies from rabies. Thus, his gallant act of love for Janie results in death. Tea Cake dies for love of Janie.