Food references in Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God expose both underlying personality traits of the protagonist Janie's husbands and her feelings towards those husbands.
Logan - Boring Sustainment
Janie's first husband, Logan, represents a wholesome, nourishing, and healthy (albeit bland) diet that lacks the seasons and spices necessary to satiate Janie's juvenile cravings.
Hurston first reveals Logan's sufficient, prosaic character through food references at his and Janie's wedding. The host provides an "abundance" of modest, low-class foods, which include:
cakes... fried rabbit and chicken (Hurston 20)
Hurston expands on Logan's banal, sound nature through food references. She writes that his dreams consist of:
aim[ing] tuh run two plows in order to grow 'taters' (26)
Logan works hard to provide for Janie, which Janie does not appreciate. She insults and resents his boring stability and says he:
don't take nothin' to count but sow-belly and cornbread (29)
The daily breakfast of "cornmeal dough" reflects the austere dependability between Janie and Logan (30).
Janie leaves her stable and adequate marriage to Logan while making a cornmeal breakfast. Janie:
hurrie[s] out the front gate and turn[s] south [and asks why she] los[es] so much time on Logan's breakfast (31)
Her early abandonment of cooking the cornmeal breakfast represents her early abandonment of the marriage. She gives neither her full effort and sees neither to fruition.
Logan finds out that Janie cannot be:
git... with no fish sandwich (37)
Janie desires a husband with superficial flash and panache, not down-to-earthiness.
Jodie - Heavy and Deceiving
Jodie, Janie's second husband, lacks depth but not style and offers the kind of storybook "love" that Janie looks for. She abandons the security of Logan's betrothal for Jodie's flair. Hurston reflects Jodie's character of empty calories at his and Janie's first meeting, where the two talk of "sugar-tits" and drink "sweeten' water" (27).
On the train to Maitland, Jodie purchases fruit and candies, instead of an actual meal, for Janie. This represents a palatable, yet not very wholesome character. Jodie buys Janie the:
best things the butcher hafs [sic], like apples and a glass lantern full of candies (32)
Logan uses food to feed Janie and make a living. Jodie Starks uses food for political influence to get ahead in his career. To make a good impression on the townsfolk during the grand opening of his store, he:
knock[s] in the head of a barrel of soda crackers and cut[s] some cheese and hands them out for free (39)
He provides barbecue at the light hoisting ceremony:
giv[ing] one whole hawg" his "ownself" (42).
Jodie's mimics "philanthropy" for political gain. He balks at opportunities for charity when he sees nothing to gain from his efforts. After Jodie catches:
Henry Pitts with a wagon load of his ribbon cane [he takes] the cane away from Pitts and ma[kes] him leave town [despite Starks having] so much cane and everything else (45)
Starks gives Mrs. Robbins a paltry:
’lil eyeful uh bacon for [her] and all [her] chillun' (69)
under charitable pretenses and then charges it to her husband's account.
Joe uses food to maintain false generosity, exhibits classicism, and betrays pig-like tendencies. Hurston uses porcine imagery to describe Jodie. She writes that Jodie wipes:
his lips of ham gravy (56)
Jodie acts like a pig towards Mrs. Robbins, and hoards his "salt pork" (69).
Janie matures and recognizes Jodie's nature after she botches dinner and Jodie:
slaps Janie until she haf[s] a ringing sound in her ears (67)
Janie realizes that the appetizing qualities of Jodie's character belie only unhealthy, sugary bits. Jodie will never nourish her love nor evolve into:
the flesh and blood figure of her dreams[, rather] something she ha[s] grabbed up to drape her dreams over (68)
At his deathbed, Janie says:
You done lived with me for twenty years and you don't half know me at all. And you could have but you was so busy worshiping the works of yo' own hands and cuffin' folks around their minds till you didn't see uh whole heap uh things you could have (82)
Tea Cake - Light and Fun
After Jodie's death, Janie avoids any man that she:
already experienced... through Logan [or] Joe (86)
She avoids Logan's isolated, hermetic farmer world and Jodie's isolated, world of false airs. She enjoys a life of humble, lower-class social experiences. She says how:
Jodie classed [her off, even though she] always did want tuh git round a whole heap (107)
Tea Cake attracts Janie because he represents the carefree, classless frivolity of youthful love she always desired. Tea Cake:
wants her to play [and thinks] it natural for her to play (92)
Janie would:
rather be wid Tea Cake [than with] dat [dependible] man up dere in Sanford (108)
Tea Cake's choice of food reflects a fun, plebeian air. He includes "Coca-Cola" (92&97), "pound cake" (97), "lemonade" (98), "corn muffins" (99), and fresh-picked "strawberries" (102). His name "Tea Cake," signals a light, fun, and carefree snack.
Tea Cake tells Janie to:
hurry up and come because he [i]s about to turn into pure sugar thinking about her (lll)
Tea Cake's avoidance of breakfast betrays his frivolous nature. Regular breakfast demonstrates maturity and proficiency in time managment. Tea Cake admits he lacks both and says he:
ain’t use to nothin' [and] ain't got doodly squat (98)
The first time Janie offers to "fix" Tea Cake "some breakfast," he replies:
'A.Ain't got time. Ah got uh job uh work. Gottuh be back in Orlandah at eight o'clock. See yuh later, tell you straighter (102)
and he:
bolt[s] out the door (102)
The next day, Tea Cake doesn't:
let [Janie] get him any breakfast at all, [instead wanting] her to get her rest [while] in her heart she want[s] to get his breakfast for him (103)
The third time Tea Cake skips breakfast, he escapes with Janie's money and spends it on a foolish shopping spree (112).
Tea Cake decides that eating breakfast will consummate the marriage. Before he confesses to stealing Janie's money, he says:
First thing... us got tuh eat together (116)
Tea Cake holds "out till he ha[s] some breakfast," and does not "talk and act, out the story" until after he finishes (116)
After his confession immediately following breakfast, Tea Cake consummates the marriage. Janie tells Tea Cake where she wants to stand in their relationship; Tea Cake concedes to all her requests. He says:
Dat's all Ah wants tuh know. From now on you'se mah wife and mah woman and everything else in de world Ah needs (119)
Their love mirrors the healthy, hearty diet of:
cane and string-beans and tomatuhs (122)... big pots of blackeyed peas and rice... [and] big pans of navy beans with plenty of sugar and hunks of bacon lying on top (126)
Unlike Joe, Tea Cake enjoys and encourages Janie's cooking, and demands:
baked beans again on Sunday [, notwithstanding] if Janie had fixed beans two or three times during the week (126)
Food represents love between Tea Cake and Janie. The food comforts them while anticipating the hurricane. They sit:
around stuffing courage into each other's ears [while Janie bakes] a big pan of beans and something she calfs sweet biscuits (148)
Janie admits love for a husband for the first time with Tea Cake, and says:
In de first place, Ah couldn't love nobody but yuh (171)
Rabies kills Tea Cake's mind and he wants to shoot Janie. At this nadir of love, he won't eat her beans.
Ah knows dey's good all right but Ah don't choose nothin' now, Ah thank yuh, Janie (165)
Tea Cake realizes that eating Janie's food would salvage his humanity and love, so he attempts drinking water to "give him an appetite for his beans" (167).
He never again, unfortunately, eats her food, and wastes into a deranged creature which Janie kills.
Conclusion
Hurston objectifies each husband in her work into one unique type of food.
- Logan represents cornmeal, a staple lacking flavor, unappetizing for Janie's youthful desire for variety and novelty.
- Jodie represents sweetin' water, which provides satiation but only empty calories, harmful in excess.
- Tea Cake represents baked beans, which offer savory flavor, aroma, and nutrition, balancing taste and substance.
Janie's choice reflects the love each food symbolizes, and Tea Cake embodies her true love.
Bibliography
- Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper Perennial, New York, NY, 1990.