Tea Cake and The Tea Cake Analysis

     In southern culture, it used to be common to sit on one's porch with friends and neighbors and talk, tell stories, and often gossip about different events or people while eating a "Tea Cake". Today in class, we simulated these "porch talks" and ate tea cakes. The tea cake has a distinctive taste to it. It is most and spongy like a cake is, but has a taste of spices after the sweet. This tea cake can relate to the character of Tea Cake in "Their Eyes Were Watching God". The two can be connected because the sweetness that is first tasted relates he and Janie's relationship because she finally feels free and a sense of relief, which she greatly enjoys. The spice that is tasted symbolizes that he too, like the other men, were not perfect and relates to the bad ending of the relationship when he was murdered. Hurston strategically and metaphorically named him keeping the southern element in mind.