Tea Cake’s actions in the part of the novel reflect that of how Zora Hurston is trying to display the theme of class. In the time this story takes place, black men were often treated second-rate, demoralizing them even more than they already feel. In this situation, however, Tea Cake is in a situation where he could be put above all the other black, with all his money and other achievements he made back in his town with Janie. Tea cake assumed that since he had money, that he would be left alone by the red cross, but the white men still took him and made him work. In the town where this happens, the white men treated every black man as if they were slaves despite their success, as seen with the circumstance of Tea Cake. Hurston uses these situations