The novel starts by saying that men and women are different. Men wish for what they can't have in vain, while women on the other hand are more realistic in that their goals are actually attainable. And like other women of her time the lead character Janie Mae Crawford aims for a real give-and-take love between herself, society, and a man whom she chooses in order to complete herself.
Janie is returning to the house and town she once lived in with her second husband. The neighbors gossip about her as soon as she arrives, but it is only her friend Pheoby that defends the malicious accusations the townspeople place on Janie. Phoeby visits Janie to offer her a welcoming plate of food and a listening ear.
[...] They begin to have tests and trials, but make through them because of their deep love for one another. Sometimes Janie wonders if Tea Cake will mistreat her and try to take all of her money like in the relationship of Annie Tyler and Who Flung. Annie returns to the town a mess and penniless because her young man took all her money. Through thick and thin Tea Cake proves that he is not like Who Flung and that his affection is genuine. [...]
[...] Tea Cake steps in and gets bitten by the dog. Weeks later the bite makes Tea Cake insane. Janie asks Dr. Simmons, a well respected white man in her community for medical advice about Tea Cake. Medicine can be obtained the next day she is told. Tea Cake grows even madder and because of his sickness thinks that Janie is cheating on him. He then attempts to shoot her, but Janie with a gun in her hand beats him to the shot by shooting him. [...]
[...] regain Janie's self confidence Nanny moves out of her employer's backyard to her own house and plot of land. Nanny wants Janie to be able to stand tall before others and have pride. At the age of sixteen Janie begins to have desires for love and lust. She wants so much to know of a love where the two become one in mind, body, and spirit. She aches for her chance to get to know the world around her and in haste kisses Johnny Taylor. [...]
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