Their Eyes Were Watching God - Chapter 18 Plot Line

- The Indians are leaving the Glades and going east because a hurricane is coming. - No one else is worried and the don’t pay the Indians any mind. - Most workers aren’t concerned about the hurricane because the white people are staying. - Tea Cake refuses to go east. - Janie makes everyone dinner. - Instead of being concerned with the storm,Tea cake goes to a party and plays a game with

his friend Motor Boat. - The weather gradual starts to become worst. - As the weather gets worse, everyone who has stayed realizes there is actually a hurricane

coming. - The storm starts, the lake begins to become unstable. - Janie, Tea Cake, and Motor Boat look at the storm in awe. - Tea Cake begins to express insecurity about being able to provide for and protect Janie

but Janie dismisses him and expresses her love. - The storm becomes more forceful and they collect their valuable papers and money

preparing to leave. - They can’t find a car and they must walk. - Motor Boat stays behind to take a nap. - Tea Cake and Janie begin to go east, dodging debris and trying not to drown. - They see people dying in the storm and the destruction as well as the lake coming

towards them. - They reach the bridge and decide to rest but there’s no room, they keep on. - Tea Cake is exhausted and lays down on the side of the road. - Janie tries to get a piece of roofing to protect Tea Cake but the winds carry her off and

she drops into the water. - Tea Cake goes to help her and notices a cow swimming in the water with a dog on top of

it. He tells Janie to grab onto it. - Janie grabs onto the cows tail and the dog tries to attack her but she’s out of reach. - Tea Cake tries to fight the dog off but struggles because of his exhaustion. - The dog bites Tea Cake and Tea Cake kills the dog. - They reach shore and Janie fusses with his wound but he brushes her off. - The next day, they reach Palm Beach. - Janie wants to find a doctor for Tea Cake but Tea Cake refuses. - They find a place to sleep. - Tea Cake and Janie have an emotional conversation about how thankful she is for him

and how she appreciates how he saved her from the rabid dog.

Quotes

“So she was HOME by herself one afternoon when she saw a band of seminoles passing by. The men walking in front and the laden, stolid women following them like burros.” - pg 154 “‘Going to high ground. Saw-grass bloom. Hurricane coming.’” - pg 154 “The next day, more Indians moved east, unhurried but steady.” - pg 155 “Morning came without motion. The winds, to the tiniest, lisping baby breath had left the earth. Even before the sun gave light, dead day was creeping from bush to bush watching man.” - pg 155 “Some rabbits scurried through the quarters going east.” - pg 155 “Once the muted voice of a panther. Going east and east.” - pg 155 “A thousand buzzards held a flying meet and then went above the clouds and stayed.” - pg 155 “Others hurried east like the Indians and rabbits and snakes and coons. But the majority sat

around laughing and waiting for the sun to get friendly again.” - pg 156 “Several men collected at TEA CAKE'S HOUSE and sat around stuffing courage into each other's ears. Janie baked a big pan of beans and something she called sweet biscuits and they all managed to be HAPPY ENOUGH.” -pg 156 “Then everybody but God and Old Peter flew off on a flying race to Jericho and back and John de Conquer won the race; went on down to hell, beat the old devil and passed out ice water to everybody down there.” -pg 157 “Then Muck-Boy went crazy through the feet and danced himself and everybody else crazy. When he finished he sat back down on the floor and went to sleep again” -pg 157 “So when Janie looked out of HER DOOR she saw the drifting mists gathered in the west—that cloud field of the sky—to arm themselves with thunders and march forth against the WORLD.” -pg158 “It woke up old Okechobee and the monster began to roll in his bed.” -pg 158

“ Chink up your cracks, shiver in your wet beds and wait on the mercy of the Lord. The bossman might have the thing stopped before morning anyway. It is so easy to be hopeful in the day time when you can see the things you wish on.” -pg 158 “But it was night, it stayed night. Night was striding across nothingness with the WHOLE ROUND WORLD in his hands.” -pg 158 “ A big burst of thunder and lightning that trampled over the roof of the HOUSE.” -pg 158-159 “So TEA CAKE and Motor stopped playing. Motor looked up in his angel-looking way and said, "Big Massa draw him chair upstairs."” -pg 159 “ "Ole Massa is doin' His work now. Us oughta keep quiet."” -pg 159 “They huddled closer and stared at the DOOR. They just didn't use another part of their bodies, and they didn't look at anything but the DOOR. “The time was past for asking the white folks what to look for through that DOOR. Six eyes were questioning God.” -pg 159 “And the lake got madder and madder with only its dikes between them and him.” -pg 159 “In a little wind-lull, TEA CAKE touched Janie and said, "Ah reckon you wish now you had of stayed in YO' BIG HOUSE 'way from such as dis, don't yuh?"-pg 159 “ "Naw. We been tuhgether round two years. If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don't keer if you die at dusk. It's so many people never seen de light at all. Ah wuz fumblin' round and God opened de DOOR."” -pg 159 “The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against CRUDE WALLS and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His.” -pg 160 “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”-pg 160

“As soon as TEA CAKE went out pushing wind in front of him, he saw that the wind and water had given life to lots of things that folks think of as dead and given death to so much that had been living things.”-pg 160 “ They stepped out in water almost to their buttocks and managed to turn east.”-pg 161 “ Dodging flying missiles, floating dangers, avoiding stepping in holes and warmed on the wind now at their backs until they gained comparatively dry land” -pg 161 “ But above all the drive of the wind and the water. And the lake. Under its multiplied roar could be heard a mighty sound of grinding rock and timber and a wail.” pg 161 “ They looked back. Saw people trying to run in raging waters and screaming when they found they couldn't.” -pg 161 “ The monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred miles an hour wind had loosed his chains. He seized hold of his dikes and ran forward until he met the quarters; uprooted them like grass and rushed on after his supposed-to-be conquerors, rolling the dikes, rolling the HOUSES, rolling the PEOPLE IN THE HOUSES along with other timbers. The sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel.” -pg 161-162 “ "De lake!" In amazed horror from Motor Boat, "De lake!" "It's comin' behind us!" Janie shuddered. "Us can't fly." "But we still kin run," TEA CAKE shouted and they ran.” -pg 162 “ The lake was coming on. Slower and wider, but coming. It had trampled on most of its supporting wall and lowered its front by spreading. But it came muttering and grumbling onward like a tired mammoth just the same.” -pg 163 “ Everybody was walking the fill. Hurrying, dragging, falling, crying, calling out names hopefully and hopelessly. Wind and rain beating on old folks and beating on babies. TEA CAKE stumbled once or twice in his weariness and Janie held him up.” -pg 164 “But it was crowded. White people had preempted that point of elevation and there was no more room.” -pg 164 “ Soon after that TEA CAKE felt he couldn't walk anymore.” -pg 165 “ Janie spread herself between him and the wind and he closed his eyes and let the tiredness seep out of his limbs.” -pg 165

“ As far as the eye could reach, water and wind playing upon it in fury.” -pg 165 “ She screamed terribly and released the roofing which sailed away as she plunged downward into the water.” -pg 165 “ He saw a cow swimming slowly towards the fill in an oblique line. A massive built dog was sitting on her shoulders and shivering and growling.” pg 165 “ TEA CAKE rose out of the water at the cow's rump and seized the dog by the neck. But he was a powerful dog and TEA CAKE was over-tired. So he didn't kill the dog with one stroke as he had intended. But the dog couldn't free himself either. They fought and somehow he managed to bite TEA CAKE high up on his cheek-bone once.” -pg 166 “ "He'd uh raised hell though if he had uh grabbed me uh inch higher and bit me in mah eye. Yuh can't buy eyes in de store, yuh know."” -pg 166 “ It was next day by the sun and the clock when they reached Palm Beach. It was years later by their bodies.” -pg 166 “ Havoc was there with her mouth wide open. Back in the EVERGLADES the wind had romped among lakes and trees. In the city it had raged among HOUSES and men.” -pg 167 “ "Once upon uh time, Ah never 'spected nothin', TEA CAKE, but bein' dead from the standin' still and tryin' tuh laugh.” -pg 167 “ Ah don't speck you seen his eyes lak Ah did. He didn't aim tuh jus' bite me, TEA CAKE. He aimed tuh kill me stone dead. Ah'm never tuh fuhgit dem eyes. He wuzn't nothin' all over but pure hate. Wonder where he come from?"”-pg 167 “ "Po' me, he'd tore me tuh pieces, if it wuzn't fuh you, honey."” -pg 167

Metaphor Analysis

“It woke up old Okechobee and the monster began to roll in his bed.” -pg 158“ “ Chink up your cracks, shiver in your wet beds and wait on the mercy of the Lord.” -pg.158 “Through the screaming wind they heard things crashing and things hurtling and dashing with unbelievable velocity”.- pg 159 “ A big burst of thunder and lightning that trampled over the roof of the HOUSE.” -pg 158-159 “ "Ole Massa is doin' His work now. Us oughta keep quiet."” -pg 159 “Six eyes were questioning God.” -pg 159 “Their eyes straining against CRUDE WALLS and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His.” -pg 160 “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”-pg 160 “ The monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred miles an hour wind had loosed his chains. He seized hold of his dikes and ran forward until he met the quarters; uprooted them like grass and rushed on after his supposed-to-be conquerors, rolling the dikes, rolling the HOUSES, rolling the PEOPLE IN THE HOUSES along with other timbers. The sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel.” -pg 161-162 God/Nature- The hurricane as well as other elements of nature is an extended metaphor for God and God’s wrath. It has great force and might. It takes lives and destroys homes with a simple gust of wind, similar to God’s will. People fear the storm just as they fear God. The storm comes as punishment for those who didn’t heed the warnings God gave them through the power of nature, much like the flood God brought in the story of Noah and the Ark. God is the only one who can control the natural order, and because the people of the Glades have tried to bend nature to their will, he punishes them with His wrath. They are farmers who disrupt the wild order of nature for sustenance and monetary gain and they try to control nature to become more powerful in their society. But God has all the power/control over nature. The hurricane God sends shows how nature fights back against the people trying to oppress or control it, which is similar to Janie refusing to succumb to the judgments of the porch-sitters and knowing that only God can truly judge or control her. The Indians respect the might and wrath of nature, in turn respecting God, and their lives are spared because of their humility and knowledge. They know that nature can’t

be controlled by anyone but God. The rabid dog that bites Tea Cake represents the wild darkness that lurks within both nature and God, His wrath. “The time was past for asking the white folks what to look for through that door. Six eyes were questioning God.” -pg 159 “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”-pg 160 In the first quote, they look to God for answers only after the white people are no longer there to provide them with guidance. This is ironic because even when not enslaved, the black people still look up to the white people as if they have all the right answers. In the second quote they are looking into the darkness but their fate is not shown so they look to God because only he knows what lies ahead. Now they are no longer questioning God but watching him. This shows they may have gained some faith in Him and are depending on Him to watch over them and spare their lives during the storm. Throughout the entire novel, Janie follows the path God has given her and doesn’t look to other people for answers as other characters do. She goes after what she wants in life, and has faith in God that everything will be okay. Janie’s eyes are always watching God rather than watching other people, like the sitters often enjoy. She lives life without fear of the judgement because she knows that only God can judge her choices and no other judgement she faces compares to that of God.