Another big character in the book is Tea Cake. Tea Cake is Janie's first real love and also her third husband. Unlike the other men before him, he treats Janie with great respect and does love and understand her. Many people gossiped through town about Janie and Tea Cake because Janie was a good twelve years older than him. Although Tea Cake was much younger, he was charming and handsome enough to catch Janie's eye. (Hurston, 98) Tea Cake does have his flaws though. In the book, he steals from Janie once and would never had told her had Janie never found out. He also beat Janie a couple times as well. Despite all those things, they still managed to love and respect each other.
Joe Starks is Janie's second husband before she meets Tea Cake. At first, Janie and Jody are off to a happy start. They fall in love and Jody soon becomes a successful mayor and businessman of their town. Janie is happy for Jody and helps him in the store. After awhile though, thing begin to change between Janie and Jody. Jody make Janie work in the store all of the time.(Hurston, 51) He also does not let Janie participate in the conversations on the porch and insists that she wear her hair up so that he is the only one who can see it. Janie begins to feel more like an object than a person and soon after their marriage falls apart.
Then there is Logan Killicks, Janie's first husband. Nanny arranged this marriage for Janie because she wanted Janie to be financially stable and secure. (Hurston, 15) Janie never loved Logan, but agreed that she would try. Logan took care of her for the first year and then eventually tried to make her help out with the farm. At this point, Janie knew she did not love him and that he didn't love her either. She then leaves Logan Killicks for Jody Starks.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: HaperCollins, 2000. Print.
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