To The Horizon & Back (Ch.9-20)

For the rest of the book, we see the change in Janie's character as she finally accomplishes her freedom and finds herself -her horizon. As soon as Jodie dies, Janie feels free in a way she had never felt before and immediately starts wearing her long hair down again as a sign of her freedom, which is a recurring theme in the story. She feels better than ever since from an early age, she was used to being controlled first by Nanny and then by Logan Killicks and Jodie. However, she decides to keep her happiness hidden to avoid judgements from the townspeople of Eatonville, since she basically still is the "mayors wife". Within a period of six months, Janie stops using black clothes and eventually stops caring about what the people of Eatonville can say about her, which marks the beginning of Janie's change. She also realizes that she despises Nanny for making her believe that love was about marrying the man with most money. Tea Cake is soon introduced in Their Eyes Were Watching God, as a young and handsome man who catches Janie's attention even though he is more than 10 years younger than her. Janie feels attracted towards Tea Cake because he starts treating her in a way that no other man had ever treated her. He considers her an equal, unlike Jodie, and brings out the best of her like no one ever has. At first, Janie can't believe that a younger man would be able to take her seriously but she realizes how much Tea Cake loves her and decides to be with him.

The townspeople soon start talking about the relationship that is going on between the mayors wife and Tea Cake but Janie doesn't really care anymore about the gossip. Pheoby tries to warn her but Janie refuses to listen and tells her that she is moving out of Eatonville with Tea Cake. They move to Jacksonville hoping for a good life together. Tea Cake is shown as a wise gambler and even though he is different from the other men in Janie's life, he somehow manages to manipulate her into believing everything he says, for example when he stole her money to make a party for his colleagues and she didn't even get mad. Tea Cake and Janie move out of Jacksonville to go live in the Everglades where Tea Cake promises to work on the field. Janie feels welcome in this new town as she manages to walk 'towards her horizon'. Tea Cake convinces Janie to work in the fields with him because he misses her during the day. One day, Janie finds Nunkie flirting with Tea Cake and jealousy overwhelms her, but Tea Cake manages to, once again, prove to her that she is the only woman for him. 

In the Everglades, Janie meets Mrs. Turner, a black woman that despite of her race, thinks that blacks are inferior and expresses her racist views towards colored folks. She believes that there should be a way to lighten up the race and she also controls her husband; which is something that Janie has never experienced before. During one of her crazy talks, Mrs. Turner brings up her light skinned brother and tells Janie that she should marry him. When Mrs. Turner's brother gets to town Tea Cake feels threatened and hits Janie to show Mrs. Turner and her brother, as well as Janie, that he possesses her and has power over her. Janie is so in love with him that she doesn't even bother the beating and doesn't realize that history might be repeating itself. 

Some time later, Janie and Tea Cake are told that there is a storm coming to the Everglades, but they ignore the news and decide to stay instead of going upland. The hurricane arrives and scared by its strength and the flood that has started to form, Janie, Tea Cake and Motor Boat (one of the only men who stayed in town) decide to make their way out and to Palm Beach. The hurricane is the climax of the story and what changes Janie's life forever acting as a threatening force and something that pushes her off her path of finding her horizon. As they are dragged by the flood Janie gets attacked by a dog with rabies and Tea Cake saves her but gets bitten on the cheek. They get to Palm Beach, where the recurring theme of racism is portrayed, when even dead bodies are segregated; white bodies get to be put inside coffins while black bodies are just thrown inside pits. 

Janie and Tea Cake go back to the Everglades to find  lot of destruction but glad that many familiar people are still alive. Tea Cake soon starts feeling paranoid and becomes delusional as the effects of the bite of the dog with rabies start acting upon him. He goes insane and accuses her of being with Mrs. Turner's brother and of treating him wrongly; something that he would have never said in his sane state. One day, Janie finds Tea Cake's loaded gun and loads it so that no bullet will come out when it is fired. When he aims it towards her and fires 3 times (without bullets coming out) she has no choice but to shoot him with a rifle that ironically Tea Cake had taught her to use. Janie is put on trial for murder that same day but is found not guilty when her testimony proves her to be a woman who loved her husband and only killed him for her own protection. Janie decides to go back to Eatonville, since her life in the Everglades is now pointless. She tells Pheoby that she has been to the "horizon and back" and doesn't care about the gossip. That night, Janie thinks about the day when she killed Tea Cake but even though Tea Cake is dead, Janie knows she has found the horizon that she had wanted since she was a little girl.

"They sat in company with the others... They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God." This quote appears when Janie, Tea Cake and Motor Boat seek refuge from the hurricane and are united by the same force (God). It shows how belief in something can be so powerful and uniting and God is probably the reason why they made it out alive from the storm.  

"Of course he wasn't dead. He could never be dead until she saw herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fishnet. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see." This quote represents how Tea Cake will always be alive for Janie for all the things he ever did for her and for helping her gain her freedom and being part of it. She was able to find the love she had always wished for since those days under the pear tree, as well as her freedom (horizon) that she finally manages to "drape over her shoulder".     

Their Eyes Were Watching God really impressed me. I never imagined that Janie would end up killing the love of her life; the person that had helped her get to the horizon and back. This book showed me the drastic paths that life can take and how we should always be prepared for everything; hoping for the best but expecting the worst. It also showed me the importance of finding oneself and knowing who you are in order to life your life.