{"id":86,"date":"2021-10-29T11:15:30","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T15:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/the-distributed-proofreaders-canada-ebook-of-their-eyes-were-watching-god-by-zora-neale-hurston-15\/"},"modified":"2022-01-28T11:31:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T16:31:38","slug":"16","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/16\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 16","rendered":"Chapter 16"},"content":{"raw":"
<\/div>\r\n

The<\/span> season closed and people went away like they had come\u2014in droves. Tea Cake and Janie decided to stay since they wanted to make another season on the muck. There was nothing to do, after they had gathered several bushels of dried beans to save over and sell to the planters in the fall. So Janie began to look around and see people and things she hadn\u2019t noticed during the season.<\/p>\r\n

For instance during the summer when she heard the subtle but compelling rhythms of the Bahaman drummers, she\u2019d walk over and watch the dances. She did not laugh the \u201cSaws\u201d to scorn as she had heard the people doing in the season. She got to like it a lot and she and Tea Cake were on hand every night till the others teased them about it.<\/p>\r\n

Janie came to know Mrs. Turner now. She had seen her several times during the season, but neither ever spoke. Now they got to be visiting friends.<\/p>\r\n

Mrs. Turner was a milky sort of a woman that belonged to child-bed. Her shoulders rounded a little, and she must have been conscious of her pelvis because she kept it stuck out in front of her so she could always see it. Tea Cake made a lot of fun about Mrs. Turner\u2019s shape behind her back. He claimed that she had been shaped up by a cow kicking her from behind. She was an ironing board with things throwed at it. Then that same cow took and stepped in her mouth when she was a baby and left it wide and flat with her chin and nose almost meeting.<\/p>\r\n

But Mrs. Turner\u2019s shape and features were entirely approved by Mrs. Turner. Her nose was slightly pointed and she was proud. Her thin lips were an ever delight to her eyes. Even her buttocks in bas-relief were a source of pride. To her way of thinking all these things set her aside from Negroes. That was why she sought out Janie to friend with. Janie\u2019s coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair made Mrs. Turner forgive her for wearing overalls like the other women who worked in the fields. She didn\u2019t forgive her for marrying a man as dark as Tea Cake, but she felt that she could remedy that. That was what her brother was born for. She seldom stayed long when she found Tea Cake at home, but when she happened to drop in and catch Janie alone, she\u2019d spend hours chatting away. Her disfavorite subject was Negroes.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMis\u2019 Woods, Ah have often said to mah husband, Ah don\u2019t see how uh lady like Mis\u2019 Woods can stand all them common niggers round her place all de time.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t worry me atall, Mis\u2019 Turner. Fact about de thing is, they tickles me wid they talk.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou got mo\u2019 nerve than me. When somebody talked mah husband intuh comin\u2019 down heah tuh open up uh eatin\u2019 place Ah never dreamt so many different kins uh black folks could colleck in one place. Did Ah never woulda come. Ah ain\u2019t useter \u2019ssociatin\u2019 wid black folks. Mah son claims dey draws lightnin\u2019.\u201d They laughed a little and after many of these talks Mrs. Turner said, \u201cYo\u2019 husband musta had plenty money when y\u2019all got married.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhut make you think dat, Mis\u2019 Turner?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cTuh git hold of uh woman lak you. You got mo\u2019 nerve than me. Ah jus\u2019 couldn\u2019t see mahself married to no black man. It\u2019s too many black folks already. We oughta lighten up de race.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw, mah husband didn\u2019t had nothin\u2019 but hisself. He\u2019s easy tuh love if you mess round \u2019im. Ah loves \u2019im.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhy you, Mis\u2019 Woods! Ah don\u2019t b\u2019lieve it. You\u2019se jus\u2019 sorter hypnotized, dat\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw, it\u2019s real. Ah couldn\u2019t stand it if he wuz tuh quit me. Don\u2019t know whut Ah\u2019d 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\u2019 happiness come along.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou\u2019se different from me. Ah can\u2019t stand black niggers. Ah don\u2019t blame de white folks from hatin\u2019 \u2019em \u2019cause Ah can\u2019t stand \u2019em mahself. \u2019Nother thing, Ah hates tuh see folks lak me and you mixed up wid \u2019em. Us oughta class off.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cUs can\u2019t do<\/span> it. We\u2019se uh mingled people and all of us got black kinfolks as well as yaller kinfolks. How come you so against black?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAnd dey makes me tired. Always laughin\u2019! Dey laughs too much and dey laughs too loud. Always singin\u2019 ol\u2019 nigger songs! Always cuttin\u2019 de monkey for white folks. If it wuzn\u2019t for so many black folks it wouldn\u2019t be no race problem. De white folks would take us in wid dem. De black ones is holdin\u2019 us back.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou reckon? \u2019course Ah ain\u2019t never thought about it too much. But Ah don\u2019t figger dey even gointuh want us for comp\u2019ny. We\u2019se too poor.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t de poorness, it\u2019s de color and de features. Who want any lil ole black baby layin\u2019 up in de baby buggy lookin\u2019 lak uh fly in buttermilk? Who wants to be mixed up wid uh rusty black man, and uh black woman goin\u2019 down de street in all dem loud colors, and whoopin\u2019 and hollerin\u2019 and laughin\u2019 over nothin\u2019? Ah don\u2019t know. Don\u2019t bring me no nigger doctor tuh hang over mah sick-bed. Ah done had six chillun\u2014wuzn\u2019t lucky enough tuh raise but dat one\u2014and ain\u2019t never had uh nigger tuh even feel mah pulse. White doctors always gits mah money. Ah don\u2019t go in no nigger store tuh buy nothin\u2019 neither. Colored folks don\u2019t know nothin\u2019 \u2019bout no business. Deliver me!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Mrs. Turner was almost screaming in fanatical earnestness by now. Janie was dumb and bewildered before and she clucked sympathetically and wished she knew what to say. It was so evident that Mrs. Turner took black folk as a personal affront to herself.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLook at me! Ah ain\u2019t got no flat nose and liver lips. Ah\u2019m uh featured woman. Ah got white folks\u2019 features in mah face. Still and all Ah got tuh be lumped in wid all de rest. It ain\u2019t fair. Even if dey don\u2019t take us in wid de whites, dey oughta make us uh class tuh ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt don\u2019t worry me atall, but Ah reckon Ah ain\u2019t got no real head fur thinkin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou oughta meet mah brother. He\u2019s real smart. Got dead straight hair. Dey made him uh delegate tuh de Sunday School Convention and he read uh paper on Booker T. Washington and tore him tuh pieces!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBooker T.? He wuz a great big man, wusn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Sposed tuh be. All he ever done was cut de monkey for white folks. So dey pomped him up. But you know whut de ole folks say \u2018de higher de monkey climbs de mo\u2019 he show his behind\u2019 so dat\u2019s de way it wuz wid Booker T. Mah brother hit \u2019im every time dey give \u2019im chance tuh speak.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh was raised on de notion dat he wuz uh great big man,\u201d was all that Janie knew to say.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t do nothin\u2019 but hold us back\u2014talkin\u2019 \u2019bout work when de race ain\u2019t never done nothin\u2019 else. He wuz uh enemy tuh us, dat\u2019s whut. He wuz uh white folks\u2019 nigger.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

According to all Janie had been taught this was sacrilege so she sat without speaking at all. But Mrs. Turner went on.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh done sent fuh mah brother tuh come down and spend uh while wid us. He\u2019s sorter outa work now. Ah wants yuh tuh meet him mo\u2019 special. You and him would make up uh swell couple if you wuzn\u2019t already married. He\u2019s uh fine carpenter, when he kin git anything tuh do.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah, maybe so. But Ah is<\/span> married now, so \u2019tain\u2019t no use in considerin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Mrs. Turner finally rose to go after being very firm about several other viewpoints of either herself, her son or her brother. She begged Janie to drop in on her anytime, but never once mentioning Tea Cake. Finally she was gone and Janie hurried to her kitchen to put on supper and found Tea Cake sitting in there with his head between his hands.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cTea Cake! Ah didn\u2019t know you wuz home.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh know yuh didn\u2019t. Ah been heah uh long time listenin\u2019 to dat heifer run me down tuh de dawgs uh try tuh tole you off from me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSo dat whut she wuz up to? Ah didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Course she is. She got some no-count brother she wants yuh tuh hook up wid and take keer of Ah reckon.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cShucks! If dat\u2019s her notion she\u2019s barkin\u2019 up de wrong tree. Mah hands is full already.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThanky Ma\u2019am. Ah hates dat woman lak poison. Keep her from round dis house. Her look lak uh white woman! Wid dat meriny skin and hair jus\u2019 as close tuh her head as ninety-nine is tuh uh hundred! Since she hate black folks so, she don\u2019t need our money in her ol\u2019 eatin\u2019 place. Ah\u2019ll pass de word along. We kin go tuh dat white man\u2019s place and git good treatment. Her and dat whittled-down husband uh hers! And dat son! He\u2019s jus\u2019 uh dirty trick her womb played on her. Ah\u2019m telling her husband tuh keep her home. Ah don\u2019t want her round dis house.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

One day Tea Cake met Turner and his son on the street. He was a vanishing-looking kind of a man as if there used to be parts about him that stuck out individually but now he hadn\u2019t a thing about him that wasn\u2019t dwindled and blurred. Just like he had been sand-papered down to a long oval mass. Tea Cake felt sorry for him without knowing why. So he didn\u2019t blurt out the insults he had intended. But he couldn\u2019t hold in everything. They talked about the prospects for the coming season for a moment, then Tea Cake said, \u201cYo\u2019 wife don\u2019t seem tuh have nothin\u2019 much tuh do, so she kin visit uh lot. Mine got too much tuh do tuh go visitin\u2019 and too much tuh spend time talkin\u2019 tuh folks dat visit her.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMah wife takes time fuh whatever she wants tuh do. Real strong headed dat way. Yes indeed.\u201d He laughed a high lungless laugh. \u201cDe chillun don\u2019t keep her in no mo\u2019 so she visits when she chooses.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDe chillun?\u201d Tea Cake asked him in surprise. \u201cYou got any smaller than him?\u201d He indicated the son who seemed around twenty or so. \u201cAh ain\u2019t seen yo\u2019 others.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh reckon you ain\u2019t \u2019cause dey all passed on befo\u2019 dis one wuz born. We ain\u2019t had no luck atall wid our chillun. We lucky to raise him. He\u2019s de last stroke of exhausted nature.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

He gave his powerless laugh again and Tea Cake and the boy joined in with him. Then Tea Cake walked on off and went home to Janie.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHer husband can\u2019t do nothin\u2019 wid dat butt-headed woman. All you can do is treat her cold whenever she come round here.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Janie tried that, but short of telling Mrs. Turner bluntly, there was nothing she could do to discourage her completely. She felt honored by Janie\u2019s acquaintance and she quickly forgave and forgot snubs in order to keep it. Anyone who looked more white folkish than herself was better than she was in her criteria, therefore it was right that they should be cruel to her at times, just as she was cruel to those more negroid than herself in direct ratio to their negroness. Like the pecking-order in a chicken yard. Insensate cruelty to those you can whip, and groveling submission to those you can\u2019t. Once having set up her idols and built altars to them it was inevitable that she would worship there. It was inevitable that she should accept any inconsistency and cruelty from her deity as all good worshippers do from theirs. All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.<\/p>\r\n

Mrs. Turner, like all other believers had built an altar to the unattainable\u2014Caucasian characteristics for all. Her god would smite her, would hurl her from pinnacles and lose her in deserts, but she would nor forsake his altars. Behind her crude words was a belief that somehow she and others through worship could attain her paradise\u2014a heaven of straighthaired, thin-lipped, high-nose boned white seraphs. The physical impossibilities in no way injured faith. That was the mystery and mysteries are the chores of gods. Beyond her faith was a fanaticism to defend the altars of her god. It was distressing to emerge from her inner temple and find these black desecrators howling with laughter before the door. Oh, for an army, terrible with banners and swords<\/span>!<\/p>\r\n

So she didn\u2019t cling to Janie Woods the woman. She paid homage to Janie\u2019s Caucasian characteristics as such. And when she was with Janie she had a feeling of transmutation, as if she herself had become whiter and with straighter hair and she hated Tea Cake first for his defilement of divinity and next for his telling mockery of her. If she only knew something she could do about it! But she didn\u2019t. Once she was complaining about the carryings-on at the jook and Tea Cake snapped, \u201cAw, don\u2019t make God look so foolish\u2014findin\u2019 fault wid everything He made.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

So Mrs. Turner frowned most of the time. She had so much to disapprove of. It didn\u2019t affect Tea Cake and Janie too much. It just gave them something to talk about in the summertime when everything was dull on the muck. Otherwise they made little trips to Palm Beach, Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale for their fun. Before they realized it the sun was cooler and the crowds came pouring onto the muck again.<\/p>","rendered":"

<\/div>\n

The<\/span> season closed and people went away like they had come\u2014in droves. Tea Cake and Janie decided to stay since they wanted to make another season on the muck. There was nothing to do, after they had gathered several bushels of dried beans to save over and sell to the planters in the fall. So Janie began to look around and see people and things she hadn\u2019t noticed during the season.<\/p>\n

For instance during the summer when she heard the subtle but compelling rhythms of the Bahaman drummers, she\u2019d walk over and watch the dances. She did not laugh the \u201cSaws\u201d to scorn as she had heard the people doing in the season. She got to like it a lot and she and Tea Cake were on hand every night till the others teased them about it.<\/p>\n

Janie came to know Mrs. Turner now. She had seen her several times during the season, but neither ever spoke. Now they got to be visiting friends.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Turner was a milky sort of a woman that belonged to child-bed. Her shoulders rounded a little, and she must have been conscious of her pelvis because she kept it stuck out in front of her so she could always see it. Tea Cake made a lot of fun about Mrs. Turner\u2019s shape behind her back. He claimed that she had been shaped up by a cow kicking her from behind. She was an ironing board with things throwed at it. Then that same cow took and stepped in her mouth when she was a baby and left it wide and flat with her chin and nose almost meeting.<\/p>\n

But Mrs. Turner\u2019s shape and features were entirely approved by Mrs. Turner. Her nose was slightly pointed and she was proud. Her thin lips were an ever delight to her eyes. Even her buttocks in bas-relief were a source of pride. To her way of thinking all these things set her aside from Negroes. That was why she sought out Janie to friend with. Janie\u2019s coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair made Mrs. Turner forgive her for wearing overalls like the other women who worked in the fields. She didn\u2019t forgive her for marrying a man as dark as Tea Cake, but she felt that she could remedy that. That was what her brother was born for. She seldom stayed long when she found Tea Cake at home, but when she happened to drop in and catch Janie alone, she\u2019d spend hours chatting away. Her disfavorite subject was Negroes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMis\u2019 Woods, Ah have often said to mah husband, Ah don\u2019t see how uh lady like Mis\u2019 Woods can stand all them common niggers round her place all de time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t worry me atall, Mis\u2019 Turner. Fact about de thing is, they tickles me wid they talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got mo\u2019 nerve than me. When somebody talked mah husband intuh comin\u2019 down heah tuh open up uh eatin\u2019 place Ah never dreamt so many different kins uh black folks could colleck in one place. Did Ah never woulda come. Ah ain\u2019t useter \u2019ssociatin\u2019 wid black folks. Mah son claims dey draws lightnin\u2019.\u201d They laughed a little and after many of these talks Mrs. Turner said, \u201cYo\u2019 husband musta had plenty money when y\u2019all got married.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhut make you think dat, Mis\u2019 Turner?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTuh git hold of uh woman lak you. You got mo\u2019 nerve than me. Ah jus\u2019 couldn\u2019t see mahself married to no black man. It\u2019s too many black folks already. We oughta lighten up de race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw, mah husband didn\u2019t had nothin\u2019 but hisself. He\u2019s easy tuh love if you mess round \u2019im. Ah loves \u2019im.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy you, Mis\u2019 Woods! Ah don\u2019t b\u2019lieve it. You\u2019se jus\u2019 sorter hypnotized, dat\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw, it\u2019s real. Ah couldn\u2019t stand it if he wuz tuh quit me. Don\u2019t know whut Ah\u2019d 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\u2019 happiness come along.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019se different from me. Ah can\u2019t stand black niggers. Ah don\u2019t blame de white folks from hatin\u2019 \u2019em \u2019cause Ah can\u2019t stand \u2019em mahself. \u2019Nother thing, Ah hates tuh see folks lak me and you mixed up wid \u2019em. Us oughta class off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUs can\u2019t do<\/span> it. We\u2019se uh mingled people and all of us got black kinfolks as well as yaller kinfolks. How come you so against black?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd dey makes me tired. Always laughin\u2019! Dey laughs too much and dey laughs too loud. Always singin\u2019 ol\u2019 nigger songs! Always cuttin\u2019 de monkey for white folks. If it wuzn\u2019t for so many black folks it wouldn\u2019t be no race problem. De white folks would take us in wid dem. De black ones is holdin\u2019 us back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou reckon? \u2019course Ah ain\u2019t never thought about it too much. But Ah don\u2019t figger dey even gointuh want us for comp\u2019ny. We\u2019se too poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t de poorness, it\u2019s de color and de features. Who want any lil ole black baby layin\u2019 up in de baby buggy lookin\u2019 lak uh fly in buttermilk? Who wants to be mixed up wid uh rusty black man, and uh black woman goin\u2019 down de street in all dem loud colors, and whoopin\u2019 and hollerin\u2019 and laughin\u2019 over nothin\u2019? Ah don\u2019t know. Don\u2019t bring me no nigger doctor tuh hang over mah sick-bed. Ah done had six chillun\u2014wuzn\u2019t lucky enough tuh raise but dat one\u2014and ain\u2019t never had uh nigger tuh even feel mah pulse. White doctors always gits mah money. Ah don\u2019t go in no nigger store tuh buy nothin\u2019 neither. Colored folks don\u2019t know nothin\u2019 \u2019bout no business. Deliver me!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Turner was almost screaming in fanatical earnestness by now. Janie was dumb and bewildered before and she clucked sympathetically and wished she knew what to say. It was so evident that Mrs. Turner took black folk as a personal affront to herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at me! Ah ain\u2019t got no flat nose and liver lips. Ah\u2019m uh featured woman. Ah got white folks\u2019 features in mah face. Still and all Ah got tuh be lumped in wid all de rest. It ain\u2019t fair. Even if dey don\u2019t take us in wid de whites, dey oughta make us uh class tuh ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt don\u2019t worry me atall, but Ah reckon Ah ain\u2019t got no real head fur thinkin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou oughta meet mah brother. He\u2019s real smart. Got dead straight hair. Dey made him uh delegate tuh de Sunday School Convention and he read uh paper on Booker T. Washington and tore him tuh pieces!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBooker T.? He wuz a great big man, wusn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Sposed tuh be. All he ever done was cut de monkey for white folks. So dey pomped him up. But you know whut de ole folks say \u2018de higher de monkey climbs de mo\u2019 he show his behind\u2019 so dat\u2019s de way it wuz wid Booker T. Mah brother hit \u2019im every time dey give \u2019im chance tuh speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh was raised on de notion dat he wuz uh great big man,\u201d was all that Janie knew to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t do nothin\u2019 but hold us back\u2014talkin\u2019 \u2019bout work when de race ain\u2019t never done nothin\u2019 else. He wuz uh enemy tuh us, dat\u2019s whut. He wuz uh white folks\u2019 nigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to all Janie had been taught this was sacrilege so she sat without speaking at all. But Mrs. Turner went on.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh done sent fuh mah brother tuh come down and spend uh while wid us. He\u2019s sorter outa work now. Ah wants yuh tuh meet him mo\u2019 special. You and him would make up uh swell couple if you wuzn\u2019t already married. He\u2019s uh fine carpenter, when he kin git anything tuh do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, maybe so. But Ah is<\/span> married now, so \u2019tain\u2019t no use in considerin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Turner finally rose to go after being very firm about several other viewpoints of either herself, her son or her brother. She begged Janie to drop in on her anytime, but never once mentioning Tea Cake. Finally she was gone and Janie hurried to her kitchen to put on supper and found Tea Cake sitting in there with his head between his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cTea Cake! Ah didn\u2019t know you wuz home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh know yuh didn\u2019t. Ah been heah uh long time listenin\u2019 to dat heifer run me down tuh de dawgs uh try tuh tole you off from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo dat whut she wuz up to? Ah didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Course she is. She got some no-count brother she wants yuh tuh hook up wid and take keer of Ah reckon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShucks! If dat\u2019s her notion she\u2019s barkin\u2019 up de wrong tree. Mah hands is full already.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanky Ma\u2019am. Ah hates dat woman lak poison. Keep her from round dis house. Her look lak uh white woman! Wid dat meriny skin and hair jus\u2019 as close tuh her head as ninety-nine is tuh uh hundred! Since she hate black folks so, she don\u2019t need our money in her ol\u2019 eatin\u2019 place. Ah\u2019ll pass de word along. We kin go tuh dat white man\u2019s place and git good treatment. Her and dat whittled-down husband uh hers! And dat son! He\u2019s jus\u2019 uh dirty trick her womb played on her. Ah\u2019m telling her husband tuh keep her home. Ah don\u2019t want her round dis house.\u201d<\/p>\n

One day Tea Cake met Turner and his son on the street. He was a vanishing-looking kind of a man as if there used to be parts about him that stuck out individually but now he hadn\u2019t a thing about him that wasn\u2019t dwindled and blurred. Just like he had been sand-papered down to a long oval mass. Tea Cake felt sorry for him without knowing why. So he didn\u2019t blurt out the insults he had intended. But he couldn\u2019t hold in everything. They talked about the prospects for the coming season for a moment, then Tea Cake said, \u201cYo\u2019 wife don\u2019t seem tuh have nothin\u2019 much tuh do, so she kin visit uh lot. Mine got too much tuh do tuh go visitin\u2019 and too much tuh spend time talkin\u2019 tuh folks dat visit her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMah wife takes time fuh whatever she wants tuh do. Real strong headed dat way. Yes indeed.\u201d He laughed a high lungless laugh. \u201cDe chillun don\u2019t keep her in no mo\u2019 so she visits when she chooses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDe chillun?\u201d Tea Cake asked him in surprise. \u201cYou got any smaller than him?\u201d He indicated the son who seemed around twenty or so. \u201cAh ain\u2019t seen yo\u2019 others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh reckon you ain\u2019t \u2019cause dey all passed on befo\u2019 dis one wuz born. We ain\u2019t had no luck atall wid our chillun. We lucky to raise him. He\u2019s de last stroke of exhausted nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

He gave his powerless laugh again and Tea Cake and the boy joined in with him. Then Tea Cake walked on off and went home to Janie.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer husband can\u2019t do nothin\u2019 wid dat butt-headed woman. All you can do is treat her cold whenever she come round here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janie tried that, but short of telling Mrs. Turner bluntly, there was nothing she could do to discourage her completely. She felt honored by Janie\u2019s acquaintance and she quickly forgave and forgot snubs in order to keep it. Anyone who looked more white folkish than herself was better than she was in her criteria, therefore it was right that they should be cruel to her at times, just as she was cruel to those more negroid than herself in direct ratio to their negroness. Like the pecking-order in a chicken yard. Insensate cruelty to those you can whip, and groveling submission to those you can\u2019t. Once having set up her idols and built altars to them it was inevitable that she would worship there. It was inevitable that she should accept any inconsistency and cruelty from her deity as all good worshippers do from theirs. All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Turner, like all other believers had built an altar to the unattainable\u2014Caucasian characteristics for all. Her god would smite her, would hurl her from pinnacles and lose her in deserts, but she would nor forsake his altars. Behind her crude words was a belief that somehow she and others through worship could attain her paradise\u2014a heaven of straighthaired, thin-lipped, high-nose boned white seraphs. The physical impossibilities in no way injured faith. That was the mystery and mysteries are the chores of gods. Beyond her faith was a fanaticism to defend the altars of her god. It was distressing to emerge from her inner temple and find these black desecrators howling with laughter before the door. Oh, for an army, terrible with banners and swords<\/span>!<\/p>\n

So she didn\u2019t cling to Janie Woods the woman. She paid homage to Janie\u2019s Caucasian characteristics as such. And when she was with Janie she had a feeling of transmutation, as if she herself had become whiter and with straighter hair and she hated Tea Cake first for his defilement of divinity and next for his telling mockery of her. If she only knew something she could do about it! But she didn\u2019t. Once she was complaining about the carryings-on at the jook and Tea Cake snapped, \u201cAw, don\u2019t make God look so foolish\u2014findin\u2019 fault wid everything He made.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Mrs. Turner frowned most of the time. She had so much to disapprove of. It didn\u2019t affect Tea Cake and Janie too much. It just gave them something to talk about in the summertime when everything was dull on the muck. Otherwise they made little trips to Palm Beach, Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale for their fun. Before they realized it the sun was cooler and the crowds came pouring onto the muck again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":16,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-86","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/86\/revisions\/145"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/86\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}