55 pages • 1 hour read
Zora Neale HurstonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: The novel mentions incidents of rape, forced pregnancy, and domestic abuse; describes the lives of enslaved people, racism, and colorism; and portrays mental illness. Although the novel uses the n-word as a historically accurate representation of speech, this guide does not reproduce this slur and instead obscures it in direct quotation.
The “gossips” who sit on the porch of the general store in the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida, are curious when Janie Starks, the widow of the former mayor, returns from a mysterious trip. In a well-remembered scandal, Janie left with a much younger man, “Tea Cake,” after her husband’s death. The men observe how beautiful she still is, while the women seem envious and a little glad to see her shabbily dressed.
Impatient with this talk, Janie’s best friend, Pheoby Watson, decides to bring Janie a meal and find out where she has been. Janie tells Pheoby that she married Tea Cake, who has since died. Pheoby is shocked: The current gossip is that Tea Cake took all of Janie’s money and then left Janie for a younger woman. Pheoby encourages Janie to end the scandal around the relationship by telling the town about the marriage, but Janie doesn’t care what the town thinks; she’s seen the world and she still has money.
By Zora Neale Hurston
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Zora Neale Hurston
Drenched in Light
Drenched in Light
Zora Neale Hurston
Dust Tracks on a Road
Dust Tracks on a Road
Zora Neale Hurston
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
Zora Neale Hurston
How It Feels To Be Colored Me
How It Feels To Be Colored Me
Zora Neale Hurston
Jonah's Gourd Vine
Jonah's Gourd Vine
Zora Neale Hurston
Moses, Man of the Mountain
Moses, Man of the Mountain
Zora Neale Hurston
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Mules and Men
Mules and Men
Zora Neale Hurston
Seraph on the Suwanee
Seraph on the Suwanee
Zora Neale Hurston
Spunk
Spunk
Zora Neale Hurston
Sweat
Sweat
Zora Neale Hurston
Tell My Horse
Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica
Zora Neale Hurston
The Eatonville Anthology
The Eatonville Anthology
Zora Neale Hurston
The Gilded Six-Bits
The Gilded Six-Bits
Zora Neale Hurston