How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #41
Mrs. Turner saw with dismay that Tea Cake’s taking them out was worse than letting them stay in. She ran out in the back somewhere and got her husband to put a stop to things. He came in, took a look and squinched down into a chair in an off corner and didn’t open his mouth. (17.38)
Mr. Turner acts in a decidedly non-masculine way, refusing to defend his wife’s honor and taking a passive role by sitting down silently to watch the fight rather than participate in it. Mrs. Turner, by default, is forced to take on a stereotypically masculine role and fight for her own honor.
Quote #42
[Mrs. Turner:] "What kinda man is you, Turner? You see dese no count n*****s come in heah and break up mah place! How kin you set and see yo’ wife all trompled on? You ain’t no kinda man at all. You seen dat Tea Cake shove me down! Yes you did! You ain’t raised yo’ hand tuh do nothin’ about it." (17.43)
Mrs. Turner castigates Mr. Turner in a rather domineering, masculine tone. She accuses him of effeminacy. By her rants, readers can discover what exactly in this novel is considered effeminate in a man—silence and passivity.
Quote #43
Mrs. Turner hit at him the best she could with her hurt hand and then spoke her mind for half an hour.
"It’s a good thing mah brother wuzn’t round heah when it happened do he would uh kilt somebody. Mah son too. Dey got some manhood about ‘em." (17.45-46)
In the first paragraph here, Mrs. Turner reminds readers of Joe Starks, with his big, incessant voice and beating hands. To further humiliate her husband, she cites some close relations who "got some manhood about ‘em," in contrast to her husband’s perceived effeminacy for not fighting or killing anyone.
Quote #44
[Tea Cake:] "You don’t have tuh say, if it wuzn’t fuh me, baby, cause Ah’m heah, and then Ah want yuh tuh know it’s uh man heah." (18.109)
Tea Cake considers himself a man because he is always there for Janie and willing to perform all sorts of gallantries for her.
Quote #45
"Janie, us got tuh git outa dis house and outa dis man’s town. Ah don’t mean tuh work lak dat no mo’."
"Naw, naw, Tea Cake. Less stay right in heah until it’s all over. If dey can’t see yuh, dey can’t bother yuh." (19.34-35)
Here, Janie reverts back to a stereotypically feminine role of wanting to be passive—out of fear. Tea Cake, however, asserts his masculinity by insisting on action.
Quote #46
When they were alone Tea Cake wanted to put his head in Janie’s lap and tell her how he felt and let her mama him in her sweet way. (19.116)
Tea Cake, in times of distress, wants Janie to take on an ultra-feminine role and comfort him just as a mother would. While men often put down women’s "weakness," in times like these, they define the same softness as "sweet" and tender.
Quote #47
Tea Cake began to cry and Janie hovered him in her arms like a child. She sat on the side of the bed and sort of rocked him back to peace. (19.123)
Tea Cake is able to show his vulnerability to Janie, but not to other men. Interestingly, we only see him show his vulnerability when Janie takes on the role of mother, rather than that of a wife. This is probably because he feels the need to protect a wife but feels comfortable being taken care of by a mother.
Quote #48
And twelve more white men had stopped whatever they were doing to listen and pass on what happened between Janie and Tea Cake Woods, and as to whether things were done right or not. That was funny too. Twelve strange men who didn’t know a thing about people like Tea Cake and her were going to sit on the thing. Eight or ten white women had come to look at her too. They wore good clothes and had the pinky color that comes of good food. They were nobody’s poor white folks. What need had they to leave their richness to come look on Janie in her overalls? But they didn’t seem too mad, Janie thought. It would be nice if she could make them know how it was instead of those menfolks. (19.155)
In a strange moment of identification, Janie feels a kinship with the white women who have come to listen to her trial. By pure fact of their womanhood, she feels they would understand and sympathize with her more than the jury of men.
Quote #49
"Aw you know dem white mens wuzn’t gointuh do nothin’ tuh no woman dat look lak her." (19.178)
The black male speaker implies that the men of the jury are inherently biased toward Janie because of her beauty. Is it true that the male jury is doing a favor for a pretty lady, or is the male speaker just belittling Janie because of his own sexist notions about a woman killing her own husband? Or neither?