electric chair. Having defended his wife’s honor, he
has behaved chivalrously and can die with dignity.
Caleb, the Degenerate, although never performed,
was a response to Thomas Dixon’s The Clansmen,
which attacked African Americans and praised the
Ku Klux Klan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brown, Sterling, et al., eds. The Negro Caravan. New
York: Dryden Press, 1941.
Page, James A. “Cotter, Joseph Seamon, Sr.” In Se-
lected Black American Authors, 178–180. Boston:
G. K. Hall, 1977.
Redmond, Eugene. Drumvoices, the Mission of Afro-
American Poetry. New York: Anchor Books, 1976.
Kim Hai Pearson
Brian Jennings
Crawford, Janie
The protagonist of ZORA NEALE HURSTON’s THEIR
EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, Janie Crawford moves
through two marriages before finding love in her
third marriage, to TEA CAKE (Vergible Woods). In
her marriage to Logan Killicks, her first husband,
Janie, who had been influenced by her image of
love while daydreaming under a pear tree, quickly
learns that marriage and love are not necessarily
the same. Interested more in his land and in hav-
ing a wife who at best is a helper and at worst a
slave, Killicks, who has been selected for Janie by
her grandmother, does not fulfill Janie’s romantic
ideal.
When Joe Starks offers her the opportunity to
abandon her loveless marriage, Janie leaves with
him, marries him, and commits to helping him
fulfill his vision of being a major player in Eaton-
ville, Florida, a town made “all outa colored folks”
(28). Reality sets in quickly when they arrive in Ea-
tonville, where Joe, immediately after he is elected
mayor, silences Janie’s voice. Although Janie is
identified as “Mrs. Mayor,” Joe never allows her to
ask questions or express her opinions; instead, he
tells the community what he expects of her: “she’s
uh woman and her place is in de home” (69). Al-
though he does allow Janie to help him run the
community store, Joe forbids her from participat-
ing in the communal rituals engaged in by locals
(mostly men) who frequent their porch to talk.
Initially, Janie conforms and sits silently on the
pedestal Joe creates and assigns her to. However,
when she finally talks back to Joe, insisting that he
not use his loud voice to belittle her, she empowers
herself and wins the respect of the community. By
the time Joe dies, Janie, now fully in control of her
life, is well on her way to blossoming into a more
fully realized individual.
Janie’s life changes forever when Tea Cake, a
younger man, walks into the store; they develop
a reciprocal friendship based on respect. Unlike
Killicks and Starks, Tea Cake provides her with
laughter and companionship; he talks with her,
plays checkers with her, and takes her fishing.
Above all, he respects her thoughts and opinions,
creating, in the end, a relationship that, from its
genesis, is balanced, competitive, and friendly.
Janie falls in love for the first time in her life and is
able to embrace Tea Cake as the “bee to her blos-
som”—the fulfillment of her lifelong search for
her pear tree ideal.
Janie leaves Eatonville and follows Tea Cake to
the Florida Everglades, where they seek to work
out a meaningful friendship and successful mar-
riage. Their love is tested when, caught in a hur-
ricane, Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog as he
attempts to protect Janie, forcing Janie to kill him
in self-defense. Janie knows the Tea Cake she kills
is no longer the man she loved. Without Tea Cake,
Janie can no longer live in the muck. She returns
to Eatonville, where she attempts to work through
her grief and enjoy the freedom she had come to
know in her marriage to Tea Cake. In Eatonville,
Janie continues to feel Tea Cake’s presence. She
embraces the memory of their life together and,
above all, herself, convinced that the horizon is not
out there, off in the distance; it is within.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God.
New York: Perennial Classics, 1998.Margaret WhittCrawford, Janie 125