{"id":90,"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-19\/"},"modified":"2022-01-28T11:35:07","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T16:35:07","slug":"20","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/20\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 20","rendered":"Chapter 20"},"content":{"raw":"
<\/div>\r\n

Because<\/span> they really loved Janie just a little less than they had loved Tea Cake, and because they wanted to think well of themselves, they wanted their hostile attitude forgotten. So they blamed it all on Mrs. Turner\u2019s brother and ran him off the muck again. They\u2019d show him about coming back there posing like he was good looking and putting himself where men\u2019s wives could look at him. Even if they didn\u2019t look it wasn\u2019t his fault, he had put himself in the way.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw, Ah ain\u2019t mad wid Janie,\u201d Sop went around explaining. \u201cTea Cake had done gone crazy. You can\u2019t blame her for puhtectin\u2019 herself. She wuz crazy \u2019bout \u2019im. Look at de way she put him away. Ah ain\u2019t got anything in mah heart aginst her. And Ah never woulda thought uh thing, but de very first day dat lap-legged nigger come back heah makin\u2019 out he wuz lookin\u2019 fuh work, he come astin\u2019 me \u2019bout how wuz Mr. and Mrs. Woods makin\u2019 out. Dat goes tuh show yuh he wuz up tuh somethin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSo when Stew Beef and Bootyny and some of de rest of \u2019em got behind \u2019im he come runnin\u2019 tuh me tuh save \u2019im. Ah told \u2019im, don\u2019t come tuh me<\/span> wid yo\u2019 hair blowin\u2019 back, \u2019cause, Ah\u2019m gointuh send yuh, and Ah sho did. De bitches\u2019 baby!\u201d That was enough, they eased their feelings by beating him and running him off. Anyway, their anger against Janie had lasted two whole days and that was too long to keep remembering anything. Too much of a strain.<\/p>\r\n

They had begged Janie to stay on with them and she had stayed a few weeks to keep them from feeling bad. But the muck meant Tea Cake and Tea Cake wasn\u2019t there. So it was just a great expanse of black mud. She had given away everything in their little house except a package of garden seed that Tea Cake had bought to plant. The planting never got done because he had been waiting for the right time of the moon when his sickness overtook him. The seeds reminded Janie of Tea Cake more than anything else because he was always planting things. She had noticed them on the kitchen shelf when she came home from the funeral and had put them in her breast pocket. Now that she was home, she meant to plant them for remembrance.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Janie stirred her strong feet in the pan of water. The tiredness was gone so she dried them off on the towel.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNow, dat\u2019s how everything wuz, Pheoby, jus\u2019 lak Ah told yuh. So Ah\u2019m back home agin and Ah\u2019m satisfied tuh be heah. Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons. Dis house ain\u2019t so absent of things lak it used tuh be befo\u2019 Tea Cake come along. It\u2019s full uh thoughts, \u2019specially dat bedroom.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh know all dem sitters-and-talkers gointuh worry they guts into fiddle strings till dey find out whut we been talkin\u2019 \u2019bout. Dat\u2019s all right, Pheoby, tell \u2019em. Dey gointuh make \u2019miration \u2019cause mah love didn\u2019t work lak they love, if dey ever had any. Then you must tell \u2019em dat love ain\u2019t somethin\u2019 lak uh grindstone dat\u2019s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It\u2019s uh movin\u2019 thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it\u2019s different with every shore.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLawd!\u201d Pheoby breathed out heavily, \u201cAh done growed ten feet higher from jus\u2019 listenin\u2019 tuh you, Janie. Ah ain\u2019t satisfied wid mahself no mo\u2019. Ah means tuh make Sam take me fishin\u2019 wid him after this. Nobody better not criticize yuh in mah hearin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNow, Pheoby, don\u2019t feel too mean wid de rest of \u2019em \u2019cause dey\u2019s parched up from not knowin\u2019 things. Dem meatskins is got<\/span> tuh rattle tuh make out they\u2019s alive. Let \u2019em consolate theyselves wid talk. \u2019Course, talkin\u2019 don\u2019t amount tuh uh hill uh beans when yuh can\u2019t do nothin\u2019 else. And listenin\u2019 tuh dat kind uh talk is jus\u2019 lak openin\u2019 yo\u2019 mouth and lettin\u2019 de moon shine down yo\u2019 throat. It\u2019s uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go<\/span> there tuh know<\/span> there. Yo\u2019 papa and yo\u2019 mama and nobody else can\u2019t tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody\u2019s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin\u2019 fuh theyselves.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

There was a finished silence after that so that for the first time they could hear the wind picking at the pine trees. It made Pheoby think of Sam waiting for her and getting fretful. It made Janie think about that room upstairs\u2014her bedroom. Pheoby hugged Janie real hard and cut the darkness in flight.<\/p>\r\n

Soon everything around downstairs was shut and fastened. Janie mounted the stairs with her lamp. The light in her hand was like a spark of sun-stuff washing her face in fire. Her shadow behind fell black and headlong down the stairs. Now, in her room, the place tasted fresh again. The wind through the open windows had broomed out all the fetid feeling of absence and nothingness. She closed in and sat down. Combing road-dust out of her hair. Thinking.<\/p>\r\n

The day of the gun, and the bloody body, and the courthouse came and commenced to sing a sobbing sigh out of every corner in the room; out of each and every chair and thing. Commenced to sing, commenced to sob and sigh, singing and sobbing. Then Tea Cake came prancing around her where she was and the song of the sigh flew out of the window and lit in the top of the pine trees. Tea Cake, with the sun for a shawl. Of course he wasn\u2019t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.<\/p>","rendered":"

<\/div>\n

Because<\/span> they really loved Janie just a little less than they had loved Tea Cake, and because they wanted to think well of themselves, they wanted their hostile attitude forgotten. So they blamed it all on Mrs. Turner\u2019s brother and ran him off the muck again. They\u2019d show him about coming back there posing like he was good looking and putting himself where men\u2019s wives could look at him. Even if they didn\u2019t look it wasn\u2019t his fault, he had put himself in the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw, Ah ain\u2019t mad wid Janie,\u201d Sop went around explaining. \u201cTea Cake had done gone crazy. You can\u2019t blame her for puhtectin\u2019 herself. She wuz crazy \u2019bout \u2019im. Look at de way she put him away. Ah ain\u2019t got anything in mah heart aginst her. And Ah never woulda thought uh thing, but de very first day dat lap-legged nigger come back heah makin\u2019 out he wuz lookin\u2019 fuh work, he come astin\u2019 me \u2019bout how wuz Mr. and Mrs. Woods makin\u2019 out. Dat goes tuh show yuh he wuz up tuh somethin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when Stew Beef and Bootyny and some of de rest of \u2019em got behind \u2019im he come runnin\u2019 tuh me tuh save \u2019im. Ah told \u2019im, don\u2019t come tuh me<\/span> wid yo\u2019 hair blowin\u2019 back, \u2019cause, Ah\u2019m gointuh send yuh, and Ah sho did. De bitches\u2019 baby!\u201d That was enough, they eased their feelings by beating him and running him off. Anyway, their anger against Janie had lasted two whole days and that was too long to keep remembering anything. Too much of a strain.<\/p>\n

They had begged Janie to stay on with them and she had stayed a few weeks to keep them from feeling bad. But the muck meant Tea Cake and Tea Cake wasn\u2019t there. So it was just a great expanse of black mud. She had given away everything in their little house except a package of garden seed that Tea Cake had bought to plant. The planting never got done because he had been waiting for the right time of the moon when his sickness overtook him. The seeds reminded Janie of Tea Cake more than anything else because he was always planting things. She had noticed them on the kitchen shelf when she came home from the funeral and had put them in her breast pocket. Now that she was home, she meant to plant them for remembrance.<\/p>\n

\n

Janie stirred her strong feet in the pan of water. The tiredness was gone so she dried them off on the towel.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, dat\u2019s how everything wuz, Pheoby, jus\u2019 lak Ah told yuh. So Ah\u2019m back home agin and Ah\u2019m satisfied tuh be heah. Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons. Dis house ain\u2019t so absent of things lak it used tuh be befo\u2019 Tea Cake come along. It\u2019s full uh thoughts, \u2019specially dat bedroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh know all dem sitters-and-talkers gointuh worry they guts into fiddle strings till dey find out whut we been talkin\u2019 \u2019bout. Dat\u2019s all right, Pheoby, tell \u2019em. Dey gointuh make \u2019miration \u2019cause mah love didn\u2019t work lak they love, if dey ever had any. Then you must tell \u2019em dat love ain\u2019t somethin\u2019 lak uh grindstone dat\u2019s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It\u2019s uh movin\u2019 thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it\u2019s different with every shore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLawd!\u201d Pheoby breathed out heavily, \u201cAh done growed ten feet higher from jus\u2019 listenin\u2019 tuh you, Janie. Ah ain\u2019t satisfied wid mahself no mo\u2019. Ah means tuh make Sam take me fishin\u2019 wid him after this. Nobody better not criticize yuh in mah hearin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, Pheoby, don\u2019t feel too mean wid de rest of \u2019em \u2019cause dey\u2019s parched up from not knowin\u2019 things. Dem meatskins is got<\/span> tuh rattle tuh make out they\u2019s alive. Let \u2019em consolate theyselves wid talk. \u2019Course, talkin\u2019 don\u2019t amount tuh uh hill uh beans when yuh can\u2019t do nothin\u2019 else. And listenin\u2019 tuh dat kind uh talk is jus\u2019 lak openin\u2019 yo\u2019 mouth and lettin\u2019 de moon shine down yo\u2019 throat. It\u2019s uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go<\/span> there tuh know<\/span> there. Yo\u2019 papa and yo\u2019 mama and nobody else can\u2019t tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody\u2019s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin\u2019 fuh theyselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a finished silence after that so that for the first time they could hear the wind picking at the pine trees. It made Pheoby think of Sam waiting for her and getting fretful. It made Janie think about that room upstairs\u2014her bedroom. Pheoby hugged Janie real hard and cut the darkness in flight.<\/p>\n

Soon everything around downstairs was shut and fastened. Janie mounted the stairs with her lamp. The light in her hand was like a spark of sun-stuff washing her face in fire. Her shadow behind fell black and headlong down the stairs. Now, in her room, the place tasted fresh again. The wind through the open windows had broomed out all the fetid feeling of absence and nothingness. She closed in and sat down. Combing road-dust out of her hair. Thinking.<\/p>\n

The day of the gun, and the bloody body, and the courthouse came and commenced to sing a sobbing sigh out of every corner in the room; out of each and every chair and thing. Commenced to sing, commenced to sob and sigh, singing and sobbing. Then Tea Cake came prancing around her where she was and the song of the sigh flew out of the window and lit in the top of the pine trees. Tea Cake, with the sun for a shawl. Of course he wasn\u2019t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":20,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-90","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\/90","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\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/90\/revisions\/149"}],"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\/90\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}