Their Eyes were Watching God-Chapter 17

By: Katie Royce, Kennedy Dick, Kyle Brown, Noah Schubargo, and Lucas Walz

Thematic Statement



Aggression doesn’t solve problems.

Diction

   Disturbance- “Looka heah, y’all, don’t come in heah and raise no disturbance in de place. Mis’ Turner is too nice uh woman fuh dat. In fact, she’s more nicer than anybody else on de muck”. It shows that Tea Cake had no business trying to get in the middle of the fight, because he only escalated it causing Mrs. Turner to get hurt. Using his aggression only caused more conflict that never got solved. Page 150, Chapter 17, Paragraph 27.

Dismay: If Tea Cake would have stayed out of the situation, and used words instead of violence, people would have reacted differently and the problem could have been solved. It shows the readers that acts of violence is the wrong direction and if Tea Cake didn’t use violence, there would have been less dismay. Page 151, Chapter 17, Paragraph 33.

Worse: Tea Cake only made the situation worse by trying to make them leave the restaurant. This made the other characters angry that Tea Cake was acting violently so they acted the same. If they both were to not act aggressively, it would have ended differently. Page 151, Chapter 17, Paragraph 33.

Imagery

   “He just slapped her around a bit to show her who was boss”. It portrays an image of Janie getting beaten by Tea Cake that demonstrates his aggression towards Janie to solve his problems. It is evident that it isn’t right to treat your wife with aggression because it will end badly.

“Tea Cake shouted and fastened down on Coodemay. Dockery grabbed Sterrett and they wrassled all over the place. Some joined in and dishes and tables began to crash”. Chapter 17, Page 151, Paragraph 33. This scene shows vivid imagery on how the fight started and the aggression between the characters. All of this fighting just got more people involved and even made someone get hurt which didn’t solve the problem. “…..under all the fighting, and broken dishes and crippled up tables and broken off chair legs and window panes and such things”. This vivid imagery shows all the broken things in Mrs. Turners restaurant and she was the one that got hurt.This

shows that aggression such as fights don’t end in a positive way. In this case, it only caused damage on Mrs. Turner and her restaurant.

Figurative Language

   He confides to Sop-de-Bottom that it’s Mrs. Turner’s fault that he hit Janie because she sent her brother “tuh bait Janie in and take her away from me”. Beating Janie comes from Tea Cakes need to control her and the fear of losing his wife. Chapter 27, Page 148, Paragraph 6 “Dat would look like she had some influence when she ain’t. Ah jus’ let her see dat ah got control”. Chapter 17, Page 148, Paragraph 8. This shows how Tea Cake is using aggression against Janie in order to try to solve his problems. “Ah beat her tuh show dem Turners who is boss”. Chapter 17,Page 148, Paragraph 6. This shows that Tea Cake is trying to look tough in front of others so he isn’t judged for not looking dominant in the relationship.

Dialogue

 {Mrs. Turner}: “What kinda man is you, Turner? You see dese no count niggers come in heah and break up mah place! How kin you set and see yo wife all trompled on? You ain’t no kinda man at all. You seen dat Tea Cake shove me down! Yes you did! You ain’t raised yo hand tuh do nothing about it”. Mrs. Turner castigates Mr. Turner in a masculine tone. She wouldn’t have been in this situation with her husband if Tea Cake wasn’t acting irrational about his relationship with his wife. Chapter 17, Page 152, Paragraph 41.

Setting

 Throughout chapter 17 Janie, Tea Cake, Mrs. Turner, Dick Sterrett, and Coode were in a small town in Florida in Mrs. Turners restaurant. This relates to our thematic statement because the violence that started in the restaurant, ended up hurting Mrs. Turner (owner of restaurant) which was not the best outcome that could have happened.

Characters

    Tea Cake- He was the instigator to both the main conflicts in this chapter that involved violence. If he would have acted differently, the whole chapter could have been set up differently.

Janie Crawford- She was the victim of Tea Cake’s aggression to try to help solve his own problems. She never hit Tea Cake back; all she would do is cry because she knows that using violence will get her no where. Mrs. Turner- She was also a victim of the violence that Tea Cake escalated. She was not involved in the fight at the resturaunt but she was the one that got hurt in the end. This shows that using violence doesn’t solve problems; It could actually hurt others as well. Coodemay and Dockery- They were the ones drunk in the fight with Tea Cake. They were under the influence which caused them to act aggressively to cause conflict and solve nothing but hurt Mrs. Turner.

Events

 Event 1: When Tea Cake slapped Janie to show he had power over her. This relates to our thematic statement because he didn’t beat Janie because she did something wrong, he did it because he wanted to relive the fear inside of him and to show the Turners “who is boss”. So he needed to learn that hurting Janie wasn’t going to solve his personal problems.

 Event 2: The fight at the restaurant between Tea Cake, Dick, and Coode. This relates to our thematic statement because by Tea Cake trying to act like a tough guy, it lead to a larger conflict than the original and ended with Mrs. Turner getting hurt.