The story begins with named Janie Crawford, a middle-aged black woman, returning to Eatonville, Florida, after being away for twenty years. She walks by all the other gossiping women on the porch, but knows that their words are near meaningless. She goes to her house with her long-time friend, Pheoby, and they begin talking about Janie’s life experiences.
Janie begins by talking about her youth spent with her grandmother. Her grandmother was very protective of Janie, as she had been raped by a white man in the past. She also wished great things for Janie because she had grown up with very little, and was not able to attain many things she had wanted. This drive to have Janie live the life she wanted made her insist that Janie marries young, even though Janie was against it. Soon before Janie’s grandmother’s death, she has Janie marry a man named Logan Killicks.
Janie is not very happy in her marriage to Mr. Killicks, as she had a different view on what a good marriage should look like. Janie had viewed marriage as romantic and loving relationship, but Logan Killicks was cold and pragmatic. He strongly believe that a woman was meant to bow to her husband, and follow his direction without question. Janie could not stand how little affection he showed to her, and his insistence that she do his bidding but have no say in the matter. In this unhappy point in her life, a rich ambitious man, Joe Starks, comes down the road. Joe and Janie flirt for a few weeks, until Janie finally decides to run off and marry Joe.
After Joe and Janie are married, Jody (Janie’s name for Joe) shares his dream of building up the small all black town of Eatonville, Florida. Him and Janie travel there, and Jody uses his wealth to build up the town and become it’s mayor and landlord. His position in the town makes all of the townspeople look up to him and his wife, Janie. After a while with Jody, Janie realizes that this is not the kind of relationship she had been looking for. Jody seems to use her as a trophy or sign of his social status; he did not allow her to interact with the other townspeople, as it did not fit his idea of how the mayor’s wife is supposed to act. Janie chooses to bend to his will and suffer silently under his thumb; but deep down, she holds onto her hope for future happiness in a loving marriage.
Nearing twenty years of marriage, Janie realizes how old Jody is getting, and she brings it up in front of other townspeople in response to his unfair treatment of her. Jody felt that the men thought of him as weak, now that his true image had been revealed, and he felt anger toward Janie because of it. They both stopped talking to each other when Jody took ill and confined himself to his room, which he forbade Janie form entering. Months pass until Janie has the courage to enter the room and confront Jody, and when she does, she saw that he was near to death. Janie got after Jody for impressing himself upon her and not allowing her to have any say in the matter; while she was speaking, he passed.
After Jody’s death, many in the town expected Janie to mourn, but the truth is that she finally felt like she was free. She refuses all men that approach her about a relation ship until a man name Tea Cake shows up; they get along immediately and seem to be perfect for each other. They meet together multiple times, until a few months later, Janie chooses to marry him. She sells the store in Eatonville, put her money in the bank, and moved to Jacksonville with Tea Cake.
After moving to Jacksonville, Tea Cake expressed his desire to work on the muck picking beans and sugar cane in the Everglades. Soon after, they moved to the Everglades where they lived off the money that Tea Cake was able to make on the muck. Tea Cake’s love for Janie is just what she had been looking for in her previous marriages, and she was able to be truly happy in her time with Tea Cake.
Two years after Janie’s marriage to Tea Cake, it was hurricane season in the Everglades. There were some reports of an impending hurricane, but Tea Cake brushed them off as a scheme to steal their land. They soon realize that there was in fact a hurricane when the wind picked up and the water began to rise. Janie and Tea Cake try to outrun the storm and get to higher ground; but on the way, Tea Cake suffered a bite from a rabid dog while trying to protect Janie. They made it out of the storm safely, but three weeks later, Tea Cake became ill from the rabies. The virus begins to mess with Tea Cakes mind to the point that he attempted to shoot Janie, at which time Janie was forced to shoot Tea Cake in self defense. Tea Cake died from the wound and Janie is put on trial for his murder. During the trial, all of the whites understand that Janie only killed her husband to protect herself, but the love for Tea Cake drives the blacks to blame her for his death. The charge against Janie was dropped and she was set free. She prepared a nice funeral for Tea Cake, at which the others that had blamed her for his death sought forgiveness from Janie.
The story ends with Phoeby telling Janie she was stunned by her life experiences; Janie goes in for the night, and she is thinking to herself that she is at peace with herself and the events in her life.
