At least twice in this chapter, Janie refers to Tea Cake as “the son of Evening Sun.” This allusion may be referring to a popula
r blues song called “St. Louis Blues,” which begins: I hate to see that evening sun go down, I hate to see that evening sun go down, 'Cause my lovin' baby done left this town. Or it could be a reference the William Faulkner’s short story “That Evening Sun” (1931), in which the black protagonist fears that her husband is going to kill her in her sleep once the sun goes down because she is pregnant with a white man’s baby. Which do you think is more plausible? Or is it an combination of the two? Explain your reasoning.
Not having the chapter here makes this hard to answer, so this may not apply. Both examples are realistic in the sense that they could happy in any circumstances. So, as you read, which example best describes the character and what is happening in the story? Could both be used to describe the situation at hand, if so, then these are plausible because the situations could happen given the state of mind and what is happening with each of the characters.
