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Chapter 18 Summary
Janie is home one day when bands of Seminoles start moving past, followed by fleeing animals. One of the Seminoles tells her a hurricane is coming. Soon, many of the workers decide to leave for Palm Beach, but Tea Cake and Janie, along with some of their friends, decide to stay. Tea Cake is sure the weather will clear, and he does not want to lose a day of work. Soon, though, it becomes clear they should have left. They huddle inside the house with their friend Motor Boat, listening to the battering wind and the thunder, waiting for daylight that does not come. Tea Cake asks Janie if she is mad at him for bringing her to the 'Glades, but she tells him no—many people never see light at all, but she was fumbling around in the dark and God opened the door. Whatever is going to happen now will happen. Therefore, they sit in the shanty, "their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God."
When the water starts to reach the house, Tea Cake decides they have to go. They bundle up their money and push their way through the wind and water, staggering with so many other terrified people. Dead things seem alive and things once living are now dead, and the long struggle drains their energy. They reach a two-story house, where they take refuge for a while with their friend Motor, but when the lake starts coming, they leave. Motor refuses to go and, reluctantly, they leave him behind. In high water, Tea Cake carries Janie, who cannot swim more than a few strokes, and by the time they reach the bridge at Six Mile Bend, Tea Cake is exhausted. However, the bridge is filled with white people, and there is hardly any spot to take refuge. After many more miles, Tea Cake collapses along the side of the road. Janie stretches out over him, trying to shield him from the wind and rain. She spots a long piece of tarpaper flying in the wind and tries to catch it, but it catches her, sailing her up over the water. She screams and lets go, plummeting down.
Tea Cake hears her scream and dives in after her. He spots a cow struggling through the water with a dog on its back, and he calls to Janie to take hold of the cow's tail. However, when she does, the dog tries to attack her. His knife in hand, Tea Cake reaches it just in time, but he is so weak and the dog is so furious, Tea Cake is not able to take it out with one cut. The dog bites his cheek, but Tea Cake finally gains the upper hand and kills it, sending it down to the bottom of the lake. Dragged out of the water by the cow, Janie fusses over Tea Cake when he joins her, but he refuses a doctor, even if she could find one in all this mess. They struggle on toward Palm Beach, which they reach the next day. The city is devastated, and it takes a good deal of their money to find a place to sleep. Tea Cake tells Janie he reckons she never expected all this when she took up with him, and she tells him she never expected anything at all, but he came along and made something out of her, so she is grateful for anything they come through together.
Chapter 18 Analysis
Again, Hurston uses Nature to strip the characters of the feeble power of material possessions and elevate the power of love. Confronted by the awesome strength of the hurricane, people find themselves vying for safety with fleeing animals. Houses in the quarters and big houses alike are flooded and blown away, proving that no possession makes a man as mighty as God. Tea Cake, making the mistake of worrying about lost pay, refuses to leave, and so he and Janie are trapped in the storm. When he realizes his error, Janie reassures him that now that she has seen the "light" of love, the darkness (or death) does not matter.
Their struggle through the storm to higher ground tests their love, which proves stronger than the force of the storm when Tea Cake, despite his exhaustion, carries Janie through the water and then dives back in to save her from the dog. At the end of the chapter, when Janie reiterates that she is grateful for anything she and Tea Cake get through together, the reader believes it. All doubts that their relationship will succeed are gone, and each day hereafter will be for them a precious gift. Unfortunately, the "pure hate" Janie saw in the dog's eyes foreshadows the tragic outcome.
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