Journal 8

""We got a rich man round here, then.  Buyin' passenger trains uh battleships this week?" 
"Which one do you want?  It all depends on you." 
"Oh, if you'se treatin' me to it, Ah b'lieve Ah'll take de passenger train.  If it blow up Ah'll still be on land."
"Choose de battleship if dat's whut you really want.  Ah know where one is right now.  Seen one round Key West de other day."
"How's you gointuh git it?"
"Ah shucks, dem Admirals is always ole folks.  Can't no ole man stop me from gittin' no ship for yuh if dat's whut you want.  Ah'd git dat ship out from under him so slick till he'd be walkin' de water lake ole Peter befo' he knowed it."
 [101]

This is a conversation between Tea Cake and Janie on Tea Cake's second visit to the store.  The conversation is a joke about how Tea Cake will spend all his money that he has earned from his job.  The first thing Hurston is doing here is using a dialogue between the antagonist and a main character.  This serves to provide a slight comedic relief to the story, but mostly to show character development.  Because Janie had intentions of being cold towards Tea Cake, this creates a more "true love" feel between the two, because of the fact that Janie simply couldn't help but have a friendly conversation as they hit it off.

Another thing this does is sets a tone for not only the scene that follows the conversation (where Janie and Tea Cake have a extended night and go midnight fishing) but sets a tone for their relationship in general.  As stated above, Janie had all intentions of being bitter towards Tea Cake because she believed she was being made a fool of, but that quickly changed once the chemistry between them set in.  In effect, Hurston used this to change the relationship (at least in the mind of the antagonist) from mean and unforgiving to joyful and passionate.

""Jody classed me off.  Ah didn't.  Naw, Pheoby, Tea Cake ain't draggin' me off nowhere Ah don't want to go.  Ah always did want tuh git round uh whole heap, but Jody wouldn't 'low me tuh.  When Ah wasn't in de store he wanted me tuh jes sit wid folded hands and sit dere.  And Ah'd sit der wid de walls creepin' up on me and squeezin' all de life outa me.  Pheoby, dese educated women got uh heap of things to sit down and consider.  Somebody done tole 'em what to set down for.  Nobody ain't told poor me, so sittin' still worries me.  Ah wants tuh utilize mahself all over"" [112]

Here Janie is describing to Pheoby the relationship between her and Joe, and why it did not work out, and also, defending Tea Cake.  By telling her deep emotions about how Joe oppressed her because she was a women and how she hated sitting tending the store, Janie is using Pheoby as a confidant.  Hurston uses the confidant to help reestablish the emotions and feelings of the antagonist on a more personal level than the third person omniscient narrator.  Another reason Hurston could have used a confidant is to show that Pheoby is really the only person Janie trusted completely, the only person with whom she knew she was safe from judgement.