Footnote

It is a story about an old lady, Mrs. Miller. One day, she meets a girl

The poem "A Song of Changgan" is very poignant, as it starts with a bashful girl who does not even smile around her husband and ends with her almost heartbroken, as her husband is far away. The poem shows the different stages of the relationship of the speaker and her husband, and it is an excellent example of long-distance relationships before modern communication systems.

Tea Cake shows that the age difference between them is not a concern and does not get in the way of their love. There is an understanding between the two of them that this will be of concern to most people, but they decide to look past it.

Greenberg is so clever with the use of verbal irony throughout the poem. The wife is really being sarcastic to her husband, in an attempt to reveal her desires that are evidently ignored. The main line that triggered my understanding was, "Not strong, not proud, not just, not provident, my lover would blame me for his heart's distress, which you would never think to do" (630). Once again, I initially thought she was complimenting her husband and showing him great respect. This strong, proud, just and provident man seemed perfect. However, the choice of words "...my lover would blame me for his heart's distress..." is what enlightened my thinking (630). The wife wanted to be so important to her husband that she would be the only thing that causes him distress. She actually resents this prideful man who seems to make everything else more important that her.

One day while she is in the shop, a man walks in and starts talking and joking with Janie. She finds out his name is Tea Cake and starts to flirt with him. After he sits around and talks to her after a while, he starts to teach Janie how to play checkers. While they are playing Tea Cake makes a move and they are saying” Ah got uh right tuh take it. You left it right in mah way.” “Yeah, but Ah wuz lookin; off when you went and stuck yo’ men right up next tuh mine. No fair”(96). This little act of playfulness shows that Tea Cake wants Janie to be involved in other things besides running a store. Janie then goes to Jacksonville to be with Tea Cake and marry him. They meet there and get married, but Janie doesn’t tell Tea Cake that she hid two hundred dollars in her dress in case he didn’t have the money to pay for things that night. Then, the next morning Janie wakes up to see that Tea Cake and the two hundred dollars are gone. She is worried but not about the money but that she had trusted a man that just wanted her for a quick hit and then leave. But Tea Cake came back and explains what happened. When he gets back he says “Ah see whut it is. You doubted me ‘bout de money. Thought Ah had done took it and gone. Ah don’t blame yuh but it wasn’t lak you think. De girl baby ain’t born and her mama is dead, dat can git me tuh spend our money on her”(121). Tea Cake proves that he really does love Janie and won’t leave her. He also show later how he will do what he says he’s going to do, like when he says he’s going to win Janie’s money back and he does. This shows that Tea Cake truly loves Janie and wants to be with her no matter where they

Janie’s second marriage left her widowed, but a couple months after Joe Starks death Janie found her next husband. His name was Vergible Woods, but he was also known as Tea Cake. Janie and Tea Cake’s marriage was everything that she ever wanted for marriage to ever be. It is crazy how everything she wanted comes after she had been through two marriages. If Nanny Crawford were to be the judge of Tea Cake, he would be everything that she wanted Janie to stay away from. He was a young 28 year old marrying Janie at 40, he did not have much money or a big, nice place to stay, and he was a gambler with the

The lives of women and experiences they faced were due to the stereotypes that are given to women during the time of the seventeenth century. Women are meant to be married, have children, and to attend to the needs of her husband as well as the needs of the household, not do the work of their husbands like Hsi-lu did.

In him she definitely found change and chance, but still not the love she was looking for. What Jody had for Janie was more of a lust than a love. He was very protective of her and didn't want anyone else to see in her what he saw. He gave her lots of things such as money, but love was not one of them. Unfortunately Jody dies making Janie move on to Tea cake. Tea cake is everything Janie ever wanted. Tea Cake let her be herself and he loved her just the way she was. He encouraged her to be what she wanted to be to follow her dreams, her thoughts, and her aspirations. A big difference between Tea cake and Janie is their age difference, but Tea Cake believes they can overcome that difference through love. “Things lak dat got uh whole lot tuh do with convenience but it ain’t got nothin tuh do wid love” (105). Tea Cake does not care about social prescriptions. As long as love exists between them, their ages do not matter. Society should not run a love life. True love comes within the heart and the feelings you get from someone and Tea Cake proves that with Janie.

They moved together to the Muck in the Florida Everglades and lived in Tea Cake's Shanty after the death of Joe. Tea Cake and Janie spent all the time they had together. They remained in constant tune with the nature and even went fishing together. This was the type of lifestyle Janie envisioned all her life. All of Janie’s previous relationships was based off of the spouse. Janie was never allowed to be herself and live the life she wanted. Tea Cake let her be herself. He loved her as she was and accepted all she dreamed of. He encouraged her to be what she wanted to be, to follow her goals, her dreams, and her aspirations. Janie had finally found her the man she had always been looking for. She loved him with everything she had. Janie would do anything for Tea Cake. They had the kind of everlasting love that she had hoped for all her life. Thing were going well for the new couple until a bad storm hit and Tea Cake gets bit by a dog trying to save Janie. Tea Cake ultimately get rabies and begins to act so distraught that Janie is forced to kill him. She killed Tea Cake in loving manner and could not bear watch him suffer

At the beginning of the chapter Janie was coming back to Eatonville. From a relationship with Tea Cake. Janie and Tea Cake decided to be together.She entered the relationship knowing what to expect.The previous marriages. Almost demolished her hopes at achieving true love and marriage. Tea Cake turned out perfect for her. Allowing her the freedom she craved along with the support she needed.Janie felt a different kind go love from Tea Cake. Differently fro her other marriages.This is the first relationship Janie actually chose to be without being extremely desirable conditions.She had already begun to develop a strong, proud sense of self, but Tea Cake accelerated this spiritual growth. Tea Cake was much younger than Janie.He allowed her to experience real love and happiness. Tea Cake shared all his wealth with Janie. He wouldn't even let Janie seen the money inherited form Joe. He wanted to be the only one providing for her. Tea Cake treated Janie the best. He allowed her to follow her interests and be happy. He shared everything with her. Janis was truly in love with Tea Cake.IN the relationship Janie was truly equal. What was hers was Tea Cakes, and what was Tea Cakes was hers. She was beyond happy with

When Janie was having doubts in his love for her, she confronted him about it, and after having an arguement all through the night and making up the next morning, Janie asks again. “The next morning Janie asked like a woman, “You still love ole Nunkie?” “Naw, never did, and you know it too. Ah didn’t want her.” “Yeah, you did.” She didn’t say this because she believed it. She wanted to hear his denial” (138). Janie was so happy to hear that Tea Cake didn’t like Nunkie it gave her a sense of relief, and even though she knew the answer, she still asked just to hear him remind her that she was the only one he loved. Above all else Tea Cake loved Janie enough to risk his life for, which he does when the hurricane comes. During the hurricane Janie and him try to make it to safety before the water reaches them and kills them, but the powerful water they are walking to takes Janie and drags her off. Grabbing onto a cow’s tail to keep afloat a dog tries to attack her, but that when Tea Cake come in, “Tea Cake rose out of the water at the cow’s rump and seized the dog by the neck. But he was a powerful dog and Tea Cake was over tired. So he didn’t kill the dog with one stroke as he had intended. But the dog couldn’t free himself either” (166). Tea Cake loved Janie so much that he risked his life to save her during the flood. He love and cherished her, like her other husbands had not, and was willing to lay down everything for

But of course, before the passion of such relationships began obstacles had to be face and rules had to be broken. Within these conflicts laid age, “Ah done thought all about dat and tried uh struggle against it, but it do me no good. De thought uh mah youngness don’t satisfy me lak yo’ presence do” (pg. 127) It’s through such words that Tea Cake, conveys to Janie how he truly feels about her and how age is just a number that contains no symbols within the love he holds for her in his mind. Within Janie’s own mind, the thought of it did not trim, “every hour or two the battle had to be fought over again,” (pg. 27) but in the end love became victor and the ideal marriage she once dreamt of at the age

the narrator reflects on why she too would like to have a wife after a visit with a recently

The discussion of the Wife’s five husbands describes her evolving role as a woman and how she overcame the most ridiculous obstacles to maintain this idea or illusion of marriage. The Wife’s depiction of her marriages was that three were good and two were bad. The initial marriages were to older rich men where she kept up this idea of marriage in order to receive money, but was not faithful by

Since these wives were basically prostitutes under the guise of marriage, many people ignored the “taboo” and “deviant” nature of this version sex industry because it was difficult to understand. Vu Trong Phung not only clarified the structure of these marriages but also brought to light the dangers to the women. While highlighting the dangers, he also criticizes his own culture for essentially providing no other options for these women and then shunning them when they had enough (14). He even further objected to the condemnation of prostitutes by equivocating marrying for anything other than love was like receiving a life-long prostitute (14). By having these eccentric stories and radical beliefs, Vu Trong Phung was able to call attention to a subject no one wanted to talk about – let alone read