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Chapter 11 Summary
Janie decides that at twenty-five, Tea Cake is too young for her, and he is probably the kind of man who lives with various women, never willing to settle down. It does not look like he has much, and she makes up her mind to snub him. However, when he reappears at the store a week later, strumming an imaginary guitar, she melts despite all her intentions. Later that night, he convinces her to go on a midnight fishing trip with him, something so crazy Janie cannot help but like it. They cook the fish and stay up all night, and Janie smuggles him out the back door of the house so nobody sees.
All the same, Hezekiah warns Janie against him, saying she is too good for Tea Cake, who does not have a thing except a change of clothes and has no business making his self familiar with the likes of her. However, the next night, Tea Cake is waiting for her on the steps of her porch with a string of trout. They cook the fish, and then Tea Cake makes himself at home, playing blues on her piano and singing her to sleep. She wakes up to him combing her hair. He tells her how pretty she is, but Janie is still reserved. She reminds Tea Cake that she is almost forty, and what he is feeling is more about convenience than love. Upset, Tea Cake leaves.
The next day, Janie cannot stop thinking of him. Tea Cake reminds her of the blossoms on the pear tree when she was young, but she does not want to be foolish. Early the next morning, he wakes her just to tell her the daylight has not changed his mind. He scrambles off for his job in Orlando, but reappears on her porch that night. Pretending to be asleep in the hammock, he pulls her in when Janie approaches. After lying in his arms a while, Janie brings him inside for supper. Their laughter carries through the house all night, and in the morning, she awakens to Tea Cake kissing her breath away.
However, when he does not return the next night or the next, Janie is plagued by doubts. Then he shows up on the fourth day in a battered car, which he says he will use to take her shopping. He plans to take her to the big Sunday school picnic, and he wants to drive her to the best stores to buy supplies. Janie asks him if he is sure he wants to be seen with her, telling him if he wants to take someone else, it is all right with her. Tea Cake says he knows it would not be all right with her, but he would not have killed himself the last few days to make enough money to take her out if that was not what he wanted. He says no one on earth can hold a candle to her, and Janie has the keys to the kingdom.
Chapter 11 Analysis
Janie's doubts about Tea Cake reflect her earlier disappointments, as well as the considerable force of the town's expectations. Although Hezekiah cannot find anything bad to say about Tea Cake, he tells Janie the young man is not good enough for her. The implication is that money is the only incentive a poor young man has to pursue an older, wealthy woman. In fact, this is probably the case among most of Janie's would-be suitors, and Janie is now too experienced and realistic not to face this possibility with Tea Cake. Although she readily associates Tea Cake with "a bee to a blossom," it takes all of Janie's courage to risk following her heart. However, the fact that Janie does follow her heart, despite all her rational intentions to the contrary, is probably the most significant turning point in the book. Experiencing true love for the first time, Janie will now gain or lose everything.
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