“Tea Cake, the son of Evening Sun, had to die for loving her. She looked hard at the sky for a long time. Somewhere up there beyond blue ether’s bosom sat He. Was He noticing what was going on around here? He must be because He knew everything. Did He mean to do this thing to Tea Cake and her? It wasn’t anything she could fight. She could only ache and wait. Maybe it was some big tease and when He saw it had gone far enough He’d give her a sign. She looked hard for something up there to move for a sign. A star in the daytime, maybe, or the sun to shout, or even a mutter of thunder. Her arms went up in a desperate supplication for a minute. It wasn’t exactly pleading, it was asking questions. The sky stayed hard looking and quiet so she went inside the house. God would do less than He had in His heart.” (p.178)

Throughout the novel, Hurston offers us glimpses of people at prayer. Nanny kneels to enter “a gulf of formless feeling untouched by thought” (p.24). Later in the novel, when Janie is worried that something has happened to Tea Cake, she silently pleads, “Ah been waitin’ Jesus. Ah done waited uh long time” (p.120). And, of course, as Janie, Tea Cake, and Motor Boat peer out into the darkness of the wind-whipped night during the hurricane, “they seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (p.160).

Some see prayer as conversation with a supernatural being. Many more take it as an opportunity to make specific requests of an almighty power. For others, it’s an opportunity for reflection or contemplation. What does prayer mean to you? Strive to capture something true about it, either as a concept or a practice, in your journal.