"He didn't do nothin' but hold us back- talkin' 'bout work when de race ain't never done nothin' else."
Janie and Mrs. Turner have a conversation about Booker T. Washington on page 142. I was pretty excited that I had a background knowledge of the controversy over Washington's methods and ideas and could understand their comments. I thought it was a little bit ironic that Mrs. Turner was so critical of Washington and considered him to be an enemy when she basically wants to be white. She prides herself on her "white folks' features" and worships Janie because of her "Caucasian characteristics". In the mind of Mrs. Turner, there is a class system among African Americans: the more white you look, the higher you are ranked. I think there is something very wrong with this woman's brain.
I'm not sure how I feel about Tea Cake. He's better than any of Janie's other husbands and seems to really love her and care for her, but I think he slides into thinking of her as an object sometimes as well. It was sketchy that he disappeared right after they were married and took it upon himself to spend a little of "their money". The story he told didn't seem to be very legitimate either. He seems to encourage Janie to be a person and enjoy life, but also seems to make all the decisions for the two of them. I found it very hard to like him at all as a character when he slaps Janie around in chapter 17 so he could be "reassured" in his "possession" of her, especially after he was chasing some other girl around and flirting excessively in chapter 15.
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