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Chapter 17 Summary
Much of the old crowd returns for the new season, along with new people who arouse jealousies for both Tea Cake and Janie. Mrs. Turner brings her visiting brother to be introduced, which gives Tea Cake a brainstorm. He whips Janie to prove he is still in charge, not because of anything she has done, but because it reassures him of his own possession. The fact that she does not fight back, but still clings to him instead, makes the other men all the more jealous of Tea Cake, who admits he did it to show the Turners who was boss.
The others agree that Mrs. Turner needs to be taught a lesson, and after payday, everyone gets drunk and tears apart her eatery. Her weak husband does not interfere, and Mrs. Turner tells him she is taking her son and brother and going back to Miami. However, her son and brother have already been warned, and they are on their way to Palm Beach.
Chapter 17 Analysis
Tea Cake's whipping of Janie, while seemingly out of the context with the relationship that has been developed, is a deliberate ploy to use societal expectations against its representatives—specifically, Mrs. Turner. At the time Their Eyes Were Watching God was written, it was not uncommon or unexpected for a husband to exert control over his wife using physical force. Until now, Tea Cake has not used any such force, and as a result, he is seen by the others to be weak. Because of the freedoms she enjoys in her relationship, Janie is seen to be relatively vulnerable to temptation. Tea Cake realizes that the only way to prove that their relationship is strong—and that Janie cannot be taken from him—is to whip her. The fact that Janie's silence implies agreement reinforces for the other characters that their love is strong. It could be surmised that Janie, for the first time, is a willing participant in her own abuse, thus eliminating the abuse.
Tea Cake finishes the problem with Mrs. Turner by turning the others against her. In a collective show of power, they destroy her eatery—the thing that defined her status. Stripped of her power, she, along with her son and brother, are driven from town.
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