Cast of Characters

by Dean Finnegan


Janie Mae Crawford/Killicks/Starks/Woods
This is the main character and heroine in the novel. The story begins at the end of her struggles, then flashes back as she is a very young woman, 16 years old, and follows through her life to twenty-four years later. Janie is African American (considered the first Black character in fiction that is self discovering), but has some Caucasian ancestry; which makes her skin tone light and her hair straight. Janie was left to her grandmother to raise. She never knew her parents. She goes through three husbands before, finally, becoming happy and fulfilled.


Pheoby Watson
Janie’s neighbor and friend, she is married to Sam Watson. The both of them care about Janie’s welfare. Citizens of Eatonville, they are a part of a group of people who are the circle of Janie and Jody Starks acquaintances in the town. Phoebe is audience to the retelling of Janie’s life story. Phoebe listens intently so she can take the story to the rest of the townspeople.


Nanny Crawford
This is Janie’s grandmother, who has raised her. Nanny was born into slavery, raped by her master, almost killed by the master’s wife. She ran away and finally found a home with Mrs. Washburn, a sympathetic white woman who hires Nanny to care for her children. Her daughter, Leafy, was raped by a schoolmaster. Leafy coped with this by drinking and partying, eventually running off after giving birth to Janie. Nanny is determined to marry Janie into a life that will free her from poverty.


Logan Killicks
He is Janie’s first husband; an older man with a farm and acreage. Janie sees nothing attractive about him. He is a static character that has only one drive, to take care of his acres of land and sell the crops. He is emotionless and does not have any kind of love relationship with Janie. He hardly reacts when Janie suggests that she will leave him.


Jody Starks
Jody is Janie’s second husband. We first see him as a young man with big dreams and the money to see them come true. He is very ambitious and is driven to become wealthy and powerful. He initiates the growth of Eatonville, becomes mayor and opens a store. He wisps Janie off, marries her and makes her into a kind of trophy/status wife. He lives many years with Janie without really being in love with her. He dies of kidney failure, bitter and angry.


Vergible "Tea Cake" Woods
He is a young, attractive man, in his twenties, who drifts into Eatonville and sparks up a relationship with Janie. He is intelligent and energetic; good at gambling and scrapping, one of the thousands of Black immigrant farm workers who populated rural Florida in the early part of the twentieth century. He also has a sweet personality, thus his name Tea Cake. Janie is taken in by his warmth and they begin a romantic relationship that fulfills Janie’s desire for true love. They elope, get married and travel to Jacksonville and eventually wind up in the “muck”, the fertile area surrounding the vast Lake Okeechobee. He is killed in the end of the book and is given a magnificent funeral.


Mrs. Turner
An unusually shaped woman, she is not very attractive, but is very light skinned with Caucasian features. Mrs. Turner and her husband own the local restaurant and somehow initiate a visiting friendship with Janie. She has a formidable mind set and is very opinionated, particularly when it comes to racial status. She believes that she is superior, and more like the white man and condescends toward anyone of darker skin and African feature. As a wife she is dominant and is determined to match her brother to Janie. Tea Cake is alienated from her when he overhears her conversing with Janie about her opinions, and is further angered when he learns she is scheming to get Janie to marry her brother. This suggestion becomes a significant element in Tea Cakes jealous rages.


Amos Hicks
One of the original citizens of Eatonville before Jody and Janie arrive there. He is enamored with Janie and makes feeble attempt to attract her. He is one of the checker players who would sit on the front porch of Jody’s store. Amos, along with many other people who live in the area, is part of the group of watchers at the introduction, when Janie slowly walks back into town.


Motor Boat
He is a part of the happy-go-lucky migrants who work with Tea Cake in the bean and cane fields of the “muck” and is among a group of friends with Tea Cake and Janie who revel together in the evenings after work. He becomes an important character during the hurricane because he basically ignores the storm and sleeps through much of it. He is an irony, because he did nothing to accomplish his survival, yet remained unscathed.


Hezekiah Potts
The delivery boy at Jody Starks store who works alongside Janie for a number of years before Jody’s death. He slowly becomes more assertive and begins to act as if her were Jody’s replacement. He also mimics many of Jody’s mannerisms, which is somewhat comical to Janie. His treats Janie much like a sister. Janie leaves the running of the store to him when she runs off with Tea Cake.


Dr. Simmons
Among the very few white characters in the novel, he is called by Janie when Tea Cake becomes sick. He helps Janie understand what is happening to Tea Cake and gives her clear warnings about his possible behavior. Failing to get the needed medicine for Janie in time, his delay plays a crucial role in the plot by providing the conditions that brings Tea Cake to his maddening rage. When Janie is put on trial for shooting Tea Cake, Dr. Simmons’ testimony gives weight to her defense.


Mrs. Washburn
After the Civil War, Nanny fled from her previous slave owner and met up with this kindly white woman and her husband and began working for her, taking care of her children who played with Janie as she grew up. Mrs. Washburn sold Nanny a small house next door to live in. Janie first experienced racial prejudice, in a personal way, when the Washburn children shunned her in school in favor of the white kids. It made a lasting impression in Janie’s psyche.


Nunkie
Short and stocky, this young migrant girl is attracted to Tea Cake and playfully wrestles around with him inciting jealousy in Janie. The situation comes to a climax when, one day, Janie cannot find Tea Cake. When she goes looking for him, she finds the two of them together amongst the sugarcane. Janie runs Nunkie off and in a jealous rage tries beating Tea Cake. They struggle with one another and eventually begin to get aroused, which then leads to a night of passion.