Blog Post Ch. 15-16

Chapter 15-16
Discussion Questions:
  1. Why is Tea Cake ashamed and why does Janie hit him?
  2. Mrs. Turner is very clearly prejudiced. How does Janie react to her? Why does Mrs. Turner like Janie?
  3. Why doesn’t Mrs. Turner like Tea Cake?
  4. Why does Hurston call Mr. Turner’s laugh “powerless”? How is he characterized? Why?
  5. How does Hurston dialogue change in this chapter?
Characters:
  • Nunkie: a chunky girl who flirts with Tea Cake in the fields.
  • Sop-de-Bottom: a friend of Tea Cake and Nunkie.
  • Mrs. Turner: a funny-looking, conceited woman, talks all the time about the evils of black people. She is black.
  • Mr. Turner: husband of Mrs. Turner. He is a depressed, passive man dominated by his wife and drained by the deaths of several of his children.
Illustration:
Summary:
Janie gets really jealous that Tea Cake and Nunkie been hanging out alot together. She feels that Nunkie is trying to take away Tea Cake away from her and is flirting with him. One day, Tea Cake and Nunkie disappeared to the fields and a friend of them name Sop-de-Bottom told Janie where they went. As she went where they were, Janie found them both playfully wrestling on the floor. Nunkie saw Janie approached to where they were and ran off before Janie had the chance to even tell her something. Tea Cake denied it that she didn't wanted to do nothing with nunkie but Janie didn't believe it. They started to argue but then that argued turn into a passion love for each other. The seasons of harvesting ends and the migrants leave but Tea Cake and Janie stay in. Janie started to become friendly with a woman called Mrs. Turner who is black but is still really racist to her own kind except Janie because she is light skin. Mrs. Turner things that Janie should leave Tea Cake and marry her brother who is really educated. Tea Cake overheard the conversation between Mrs. Turner and Janie that she should married her brother and got really angry. He told Janie that she doesn’t wants her to come to the house no more but even though Janie been really mean to Mrs. Turner, she still comes and tries to convince Janie to leave Tea Cake. Janie promise that she won't leave him and doesn't wants to do nothing with Mrs. Turner’s brother. Tea Cake one day whent to visit Mrs. Turner’s husband and tell her that she should keep her away from them but said that he can’t do nothing about it. Tea Cake noticed that he is just a depressed, passive man dominated by his wife and drained by the deaths of several of his children. Janie tries to discourage Mrs. Turner from visiting, but she is persistent. Janie and Tea Cake simply ignore her for most of the fallow season. The chapter ends with the migrant workers returning again with the onset of the planting season.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discussion Question Ch. 15-16

Mrs. Turner is very clearly prejudiced. How does Janie react to her? Why does Mrs. Turner like Janie? Janie acted friendly to Mrs. Turner at first to be nice, but then later on Janie would be mean and ignore Mrs. Turner because of her racist remarks. Mrs. Turner still likes Janie because Janie is light skinned people because they look similar to her, she doesn’t like dark skinned people like Tea Cake. Janie doesn’t like her very much because she keeps telling Janie to leave Tea Cake and go with Mrs. Turner’s brother’s whose educated. Janie doesn’t like Mrs. Turner because of her persistence even though Janie continually tells her she is not interested. Why doesn’t Mrs. Turner like Tea Cake? This is because Mrs. Turner doesn’t like dark skinned people and she doesn’t think Tea Cake is good enough for Janie. Also because she thinks that her brother is a better match for Janie than Tea Cake. Why does Hurston call Mr. Turner’s laugh “powerless”? How is he charac...
Read more

Blog Post Ch. 17-18

Image
Chapter 17-18 Discussion Questions: What is the significance behind Tea Cake wanting to impress/please Mrs. Turner? Why might have Janie assimilated to life with Tea Cake after his abuse? Has she or has she not assimilated to life with him? Why/why not? If you were Janie, what would be a motivation to stay with an abusive husband? Why do you think Motor Boat decided to stay and not escape the storm with Tea cake and Janie the second time? What would you have done if you were in Janie and Tea Cake’s situation? Would you have been afraid? How do you think they will recover from the storm itself and how do you think the community will recover? Characters: Coode & Dick Sterrett: Drunk workers who cause havoc at Mrs. Turner’s business, and end up wrecking it, while causing a fight as well. Motor Boat: Worker that decides to stay with Tea Cake during the storm, leaves with Tea Cake and Janie once the storm hits, and doesn’t flee afterwards with Tea Cake after t...
Read more

Discussion Questions Ch. 17-18

Why might have Janie assimilated to life with Tea Cake after his abuse? Has she or has she not assimilated to life with him? Why/why not? She might have stayed with Tea Cake after his abuse because she knows that he doesn’t usually hit her so he might not do it again. She has assimilated life with Tea Cake because she is already older and she maybe might as well just stay with Tea Cake. If you were Janie, what would be a motivation to stay with an abusive husband? Some motivation would be because they are economically stable, which is something that really attracts some people who want to have a stable life but come from a poor family. Another motivation would be because she loves who they were before they became abusive. She probably hopes that they will return to be the same man that she came to know, so she stay with him. What would you have done if you were in Janie and Tea Cake’s situation? Would you have been afraid? I think that they were scared...
Read more