Answer to Question #278998 in English for Kelsey Jand

Question

Summarize Chapter 19 in your own words of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Answer 1

After the hurricane, death is all around Palm Beach. Two white men with turn over force Tea Cake to bury corpses. Revolted with the work and fearful of the racism around the town, Tea Cake and Janie decide to leave secretly and return to the Wetlands.

Tea Cake and Janie learn that although some of their friends have died, many have survived, including Motor Boat, who unbelievably stayed alive during the storm while sleeping in the abandoned house. Tea Cake works for a while upgrading the dike but about four weeks after their return, he comes home from work early with a bad headache. He says that he is hungry, but when Janie makes him food, he is unable to eat. At night he wakes up in a choking fit and the next day cracks when trying to drink water. Janie gets Dr. Simmons, a friendly white man who is a fixture in the muck. He chats warmly with Tea Cake and hears his story but afterward, he pulls Janie aside and tells her that he thinks that the dog that bit Tea Cake was sick. He adds that it is probably too late to save Tea Cake but that he will order medicine from Palm Beach just in case.

That night, Tea Cake is held by more choking attacks. In the morning, Janie says that she is going to see Dr. Simmons again. Tea Cake gets angry, and when he goes outside to the outhouse, Janie checks his pistol. She finds that it is loaded with three bullets. Instead of unloading it, she sets it so that it will run through the three empty chambers before getting to a bullet, giving her time to act in case he fires at her.