For our final session on this novel, we explored the character to Tea Cake as a Christ -figure and then discussed thematic interpretations of Janie's journey in the context of Christian theology. We first examined the text to locate the figurative language that paints Tea Cake 's death as a sacrifice that leads to Janie's self actualization . We further noted how the title of the novel suggests Mankind's plea and need for mercy . Last, we isolated passages from the novel that encapsulate the theme of Janie's life such as : "You got to go there to know there."