Janie and the Pear Tree in Their Eyes Were Watching God...

Janie and the Pear Tree in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston In Zora Neale Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God, the image of a pear tree reverberates throughout the novel. The pear tree is not only a representation of Janies life - blossoming, death, metamorphosis, and rebirth - but also the spark of curiosity that sets Janie on her quest for self-discovery. Janie is essentially rootless at the beginning of her life, never having known her mother or father and having been raised by her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny even says to Janie, Us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come round in queer ways (Hurston, 16). Under a pear tree in Nannys backyard, however, Janie, as a naà ¯ve†¦show more content†¦[she longed] to be a pear tree - any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she... [was] waiting for the world to be made (11). Janie, feeling herself opening like the petals of a flower, yearns to delve into the unfamiliar - to find the sw eet marriage represented by the bees and blossoms. Yielding, however, to the wishes of her aged grandmother - that she seek protection and security in marriage - Janie marries Logan Killicks. The passion that Janie has dreamed of, however, is missing from this marriage, and Logans house is a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods(21). As her marriage slowly deteriorates and she enters the dying cycle of the tree, Janie never forgets the blossoming pear tree. Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think(24), she exclaims. The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree(14), so when the classy, charming Joe Starks offers her a marriage and a better life, Janie sets off down the road with him, in another cycle of springtime bloom. The pear tree is reborn and she believes that from now until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything. A bee for her bloom (32). Though she initially finds the passion she had longed for, Janie eventually becomes Joes possession. He exercises arbitrary power over her, forbidding her from wearing her hairShow MoreRelated Powerful Symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston1407 Words   |  6 PagesPowerful Symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston       In 1937, upon the first publication of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the most influential black writer of his time, Richard Wright, stated that the novel carries no theme, no message, [and] no thought.   Wrights powerful critique epitomized a nations attitude toward Zora Neale Hurstons second novel. 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For others, they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time (Hurston 1).† Hurston describes here how some dreams are achieved with time while others lurk out of reach until the dreamer gives up. Janie CrawfordRead More Essay on Imagery in Their Eyes Were Watching God1096 Words   |  5 PagesPositive Imagery i n Their Eyes Were Watching God In Zora Neale Hurstons novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the life of Janie is presented as a journey. Janie survives a grandmother, three husbands, and innumerable friends. Throughout this journey, she moves towards her ideals about love and how to live ones life. Hurston chooses to define Janie not by what is wrong in her life, but by what is good in it. Janie undergoes many changes throughout her journey, but the imagery in her life