Their Eyes Were Watching God Timeline by Trinity Burden

Exposition

tburden2_1 — 2025-05-12 15:28:23 UTC

Janie talks about her childhood as when she was 16 and compares her life to a pear tree. After sitting under this pear tree, Janie realizes that she desires love and shares a kiss with a boy named Johnny Taylor, and titles it as "the end of her childhood"(pg 12). Janie's nanny ends up seeing the kiss, and calls Janie into the house. Nanny then tells Janie that she wants her married right away and not to "no trashy n*****, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin' yo' body to wipe his foots on"(pg 13), and arranges a marriage for Janie in fear that her life would turn out like her mother's.

Rising Action

tburden2_1 — 2025-05-12 15:28:23 UTC

Janie and logan get married and Janie feels no love or attraction whatsoever, and views her new home as "a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where nobody had ever been"(pg 22). Nonetheless, Janie pushes through because her Nanny tells her that she needs someone to care for her when she can no longer do so, and Janie also believes that love will eventually be fulfilled throughout the marriage. Even so, after a year, Janie still can't find herself to love Logan. She visits her nanny and they have a talk about love and Janie's marriage. Nanny ends up dying a month later and Janie learns that marriage does not equal love. Logan begins telling Janie that she is spoiled and that she needs to help out more. Logan starts making Janie do field work with him and sets off to buy another mule. While Logan is out, Janie meets Joe (Jody) Starks. She is attracted by his good looks and wealth, and starts flirting with him. They start meeting everyday and talking about his big dreams, which she falls in love with. Aside from this, Logan and Janie have a big argument, which results in Janie running away.

Rising Action Pt.2

tburden2_1 — 2025-05-12 15:28:23 UTC

Joe and Janie get married. Janie becomes the new clerk in the town store, but after a while, she describes her job as "a sick headache"(pg 54). Janie and Joe go to the South to grow Jody's new town. Once they arrive, Jody immediately begins to make the town his. Janie is soon forced to wear her hair up in a head-rag at all times because Jody is jealous and despises any man that even bats an eye at Janie. Jody and Janie's marriage starts to go downhill because Jody keeps Janie from the townspeople in Eatonville, constantly orders her around, and expects her to worship him like everyone else in town. One day after constantly being insulted, she confronts Jody which results in him slapping her. After months of ignoring his health, Jody begins to become too weak to continue work, and decides to trap himself in his room, and avoid Janie. Janie soon calls a doctor to treat him and discovers that he's suffering from kidney failure and it is too late for any medical attention. Janie tries to talk to Jody before it's too late and he dies that same day.

Climax

tburden2_1 — 2025-05-12 15:28:23 UTC

After Jody's death, she wears black for 6 months and many suitors have started hitting on her, but not one of them is getting to her house porch. Janie tells Pheoby that she "Tain't dat ah worries over Joe's death"(pg 93) because he "jus' loves dis freedom"(pg 93). Eventually though, she meets a man named Tea cake (Vergible Woods) and they hit it off. He flirts with her by playing checkers with her, and when Tea Cake walks her home, Janie thinks to herself, "Tea Cake wasn't strange. Seemed as if she had known him all her life"(pg 99). Tea Cake disappears for three days and returns with a car with the hopes of making he and janie's relationship public. Tea Cake surprises Janie and wants to take her out on a picnic date. After the picnic, the townspeople start to notice and gossip about their relationship. The townspeople think that Janie should raise her standards, but after weeks of her and Tea Cake spending time together, they fall in love with each other, and run away to Jacksonville to get married.

Climax Pt.2

tburden2_1 — 2025-05-12 15:28:23 UTC

One morning Janie sends Tea Cake to grab some fish and he doesn't return when he usually does. This had already raised Janie's suspicion, but when she saw that her money was gone as well, she was convinced that Tea Cake had left her. Tea Cake comes in late one night due to him getting stabbed, and apologizes to Janie for taking her money and explains that he won it back by gambling in the evenings. Janie treats is wound, and after this incident they decide to move to the Everglades for a new lifestyle. Janie stayed home and did the cooking and cleaning while Tea Cake worked. Tea Cake started skipping work to be with Janie though, so she just decided to work with him. After a while, everyone is evacuating because there is a hurricane that's coming. Initially Tea Cake refused to leave, but once the hurricane came both Tea Cake and Janie knew that they had to leave. They were forced to swim due to the flood and Janie grabs onto a cow with a dog on top of it.

Falling Action

tburden2_1 — 2025-05-12 15:28:23 UTC

The dog tries to attack Janie but Tea Cake saves her from the attack and kills the dog but gets bitten in the face in the process. Janie and Tea Cake return to the Everglades to help with the post-hurricane cleanup and a few weeks later, he feels ill and refuses to eat or drink anything. Janie calls a doctor and the doctor diagnoses Tea Cake with rabies and tells Janie that it might be too late to save Tea Cake. Janie devastatingly does everything she can to try to save Tea Cake and ends up going crazy after finding out that Mrs. Turner's brother is back in town. His jealousy and suspicion is intensified due to the disease taking over his brain and he pulls out a pistol on Janie, in which she ends up having to shoot him (with a rifle) in self defense.

Resolution

tburden2_1 — 2025-05-12 15:28:23 UTC

Janie is put on trial and she is found not guilty. She holds a funeral for Tea Cake and returns to Eatonville, where she becomes the talk of the town. She tells her story to her best friend Pheoby, and Pheoby defends Janie as she is being gossiped about. Though, Janie pays the townswomen no mind as she realizes that her soul feels at peace because the love that she had always wanted was found with Tea Cake.