Chapter 1
Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns...
Chapter 2
Through pollinated air she saw a glorious being coming up the road. In her former blindness she had known him as shiftless Johnny Taylor, tall and lean. That was before the golden dust of pollen ha...
Chapter 3
[Nanny to Janie:] "Don’t tell me you done got knocked up already, less see—dis Saturday it’s two month and two weeks." "No’m, Ah don’t think so anyhow." Janie blushed a little. "You ainâ€...
Chapter 4
Six months back he [Logan] had told her, "If Ah kin haul de wood heah and chop it fuh yuh, look lak you oughta be able tuh tote it inside. Mah fust wife never bothered me ‘bout choppin’...
Chapter 5
[Tony Taylor when Joe is made mayor:] "And now we’ll listen tuh uh few words uh encouragement from Mrs. Mayor Starks." The burst of applause was cut short by Joe taking the floor himself. "Thank...
Chapter 6
This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn’t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie h...
Chapter 7
[Mixon teasing Janie about her lack of skills with a knife:] "Looka heah, Brother Mayor, whut yo’ wife done took and done." It was cut comical, so everybody laughed at it. "Uh woman and uh knifeâ...
Chapter 8
Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time? (8.1)
Chapter 9
Janie found out very soon that her widowhood and property was a great challenge in South Florida. Before Jody had been dead a month, she noticed how often men who had never been intimates of Joe, d...
Chapter 10
He [Tea Cake] set it [the checkers] up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play. That was even nice. She...
Chapter 11
Janie awoke next morning by feeling Tea Cake almost kissing her breath away. Holding her and caressing her as if he feared she might escape his grasp and fly away. Then he must dress hurriedly and...
Chapter 12
[Pheoby about Janie:] "Still and all, she’s her own woman. She oughta know by now whut she wants tuh do." (12.7)
Chapter 13
[Janie after Tea Cake has stolen her money and disappeared:] Way late in the morning the thought of Annie Tyler and Who Flung came to pay her a visit. Annie Tyler who at fifty-two had been left a w...
Chapter 14
Tea Cake made her [Janie] shoot at little things just to give her good aim. Pistol and shot gun and rifle. It got so the others stood around and watched them. Some of the men would beg for a shot a...
Chapter 15
[After Janie finds Tea Cake messing around with Nunkie:] It wasn’t long before Tea Cake found her…and tried to talk. She cut him short with a blow and they fought from one room to the o...
Chapter 16
[Janie to Mrs. Turner:] "Naw, mah husband didn’t had nothin’ but hisself. He’s easy tuh love if you mess round ‘im. Ah loves ‘im." "Why you, Mis’ Woods! Ah don’t b’lieve it. You’s...
Chapter 17
When Mrs. Turner’s brother came and she brought him over to be introduced, Tea Cake had a brainstorm. Before the week was over he had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior justified his jea...
Chapter 18
[Tea Cake:] "You don’t have tuh say, if it wuzn’t fuh me, baby, cause Ah’m heah, and then Ah want yuh tuh know it’s uh man heah." (18.109)
Chapter 19
"Janie, us got tuh git outa dis house and outa dis man’s town. Ah don’t mean tuh work lak dat no mo’." "Naw, naw, Tea Cake. Less stay right in heah until it’s all over. If d...
Chapter 20
Janie mounted the stairs with her lamp. The light in her hand was like a spark of sun-stuff washing her face in fire. (20.11)