Location: The Everglades vs. Eatonville

Throughout the latter part of the novel, there are two places which in Janie's life which affect her most profoundly: The Everglades and Eatonville. There is a stark contrast between these two places; whereas Eatonville is a place of suppression, the Everglades is a place of freedom. However, this pattern almost reverses itself after the death of Tea Cake.

Janie is always chained to Joe's expectations at Eatonville. She feels trapped inside a box that is too small because she does not have the freedom to say and do what she wants. Janie is deprived of her autonomy, and this causes Eatonville to be rather stark despite the luxury that she lives in. Janie doesn't really love Joe after she sees him for who he really is, and this causes Eatonville to be nothing but a novelty. Their beautiful white house is nothing but an attractive facade that hides the true nature of the town -- a place where Joe dictates what can or cannot be done. Joe is a puppet-master controlling his little puppets from a pretty white house. Eatonville may be a town for all blacks, but this does not mean that all the townsfolk are happy and satisfied.

Janie runs away with Tea Cake to the muck to start a new chapter in her life. This chapter consists of hard work which results in happiness. Tea Cake insists that she leaves her wealth and Eatonville behind so that he can provide for them himself. Just before leaving for the Everglades, Tea Cake impugns Janie for stashing away money, saying, "Ah no need no assistance tuh help me feed mah woman. From now on, you gointuh eat whutever mah money can buy yuh and wear de same. When Ah ain't got nothin' you don't git nothing'" (128). This shows that Tea Cake clearly intends for the muck to be a place where he can build a life together with Janie. With his sweat and hard work, he hopes to provide for Janie so that she doesn't have to even think about using Joe's money.

This plan clearly succeeds with Janie, because she lives with him happily. Janie truely loves Tea Cake, which makes the Everglades a rather uptopic place compared to Eatonville. Though life is hard, the two of them manage to always find the silver lining. They interact with the townsfolk and Janie enjoys a life where she doesn't have her voice trapped behind a headrag. Even while battling a hurricane, when asked about choosing this new life, Janie replies, "Once upon uh time, Ah never 'spected nothing', Tea Cake, but bein' dead from the standin' still and tryin' tuh laugh. But you come 'long and made something' outa me. So Ah'm thankful fuh anything we come through together." Janie clearly is willing to battle out anything in the Everglades if only she can just be with Tea Cake. With this sentiment, Hurston easily portrays the Everglades as a kind of utopia, where Janie and Tea Cake work together to fend off the flames in order to earn eternal happiness. Evidently, this sentiment is rather short lived, as the death of Tea Cake changes everything. Janie finds the muck as a rather foreign place because "the muck meant Tea Cake and Tea Cake wasn't there. So it was just a great expanse of black mud" (191). The freedom that Janie felt at the muck was due to Tea Cake's presense, and the lack thereof sapped away the land's color.

After initially reading the text, I felt puzzled as to why Janie left the Everglades. Why didn't she continue living at the muck where the people liked her and forgave her after Tea Cake's death? Couldn't she just plant the seeds he saved where they used to live and continue to work where they left off? I have come to the conclusion that Janie now associates too much pain with the Everglades. Every time she returns to the home that she and Tea Cake shared, she would constantly remember his degredation and death. She no longer associates the house with Joe; rather, she associates it with memories of Tea Cake after he stumbled into her life. She comments that "love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it tkaes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore" (191). Perhaps Janie feels that she wants to return to the place where her love with Tea Cake began, prior to experiencing any complications. Her love for him changed like the sea to become too intense and complicated after he contracted rabies at the Everglades. Janie may want to go back to the beginning, when their love was as young and green as the seeds she wants to plant in his commemoration, similar to the flowers that he planted in her yard the first nine months they met.