Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Throughout the book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, a reader is brought through Janie Crawford’s quest to find romantic love, that coincided with her notion that love is a pear tree in blossom. She believes that busy bees, budding blossoms, and large, casted shadow away from the sun is love. Perhaps, this is because because the house the tree was planted in, was bought out of love for Janie, to get her out from “de [sic] white folk’s kitchen” (31). Unfortunately, Janie’s quest for her pear tree, is never quite complete. Her three husbands each fulfilled part of the quota, yet, not the entire tree. The three husbands she had all had qualities that were both admirable and less admirable, as most people tend to have, yet, all of her marriages ended in quite a margin away from a happy ending. An explanation behind her

failed conquests is that each husband represented a part of the tree ( the roots, the trunk, and the canopy).
Logan Killicks marries Janie when she is a young girl. Their union was not for love. The very first description the reader hears from Janie on Logan Killikcs is that he “look like some ole skullhead in de grave yard” (13). Janie is not physically attracted to Killikcs or emtionally invested in him. Logan is no doubt a very wealthy man, so Janie’s refusal to fall in love with him after their marriage sends her grandmother, Nanny, into a tirade:
“If you don’t want him [Logan], you sho oughta. Heah you is wid de onliest organ in town, amongst colored folks, in yo’ parlor. Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road and…Lawd have mussy! Dat’s de very prong all us black women gits hung on. Dis love! Dat’s just whut’s got us uh pullin’ and haulin’ and sweatin’ and doin’ from can’t see in de mornin’ till can’t see at night" (23).
Logan Killicks is a simple man, who is at peace with his home and his work. He is content working in the soil, and the fruits of his labor are evident in his success (Jones). His work ethic, paired with his unattractiveness for Janie prove him to be the roots of the great pear tree.
Joe Starks compares to a tree trunk in many ways. He is an ambitious man who wants to have be a “big voice”(46). He persuades Janie to Leave Logan Killicks for himself almost immediately. His authoritarian complex, his speech, and his overall composer earn him the title of mayor of Eatonville almost immediately. He lords over the townspeople, and most all Janie, making her out to be a wallflower in his store through the duration of their marriage(Dubek). He builds himself the largest house in town with “two stories with porches, with bannisters and such things” (47). He obtains a fortune, just as Killicks did, but instead of working in the soil, he earns his reputation and affluence on the backs of the men in Eatonville. Starks, arguably, has a commanding inhabitance. He gives Janie every material possession she could possibly want, but fails to giver her what she craves over anything: a pear tree.
After Joe Starks death, Janie meets Vergible Woods, or Tea Cake, as he is known as.

Tea Cake is as close to the pear tree as Janie ever got. He is passionate, lively, and impulsive. His youthfulness excites Janie so much she overlooks his less flattering qualities such as his thievery, Tea Cake had stolen two-hundred dollars from her because he wanted to see “how it felt like to be a millionaire” (123). Then there is his jealousy, as seen with Mrs. Turner’s brother. He beat Janie, just to show the people of the Muck that he is “boss” (147). Regardless of his carelessness, Janie loves Tea Cake. His branches entrap her in a way she’s never experience. He allows her to grow and expand, unlike her last husband. He takes her fishing, and shooting and eventually, she becomes the better shot of the two (131). Tea Cake gives Janie something she’s never experienced before, freedom, as much as a black woman had in the early 1900’s (Wenger). His complex, branchy system manipulates, and twists Janie, then cares for and comforts her. Just as the great pear tree canopy in Nanny’s front yard, Tea Cake gives Janie somewhere comfortable to

lay.
In conclusion, Janie never finds her pear tree, when she returns back to Eatonville at the cessation of the novel. She find pieces of her tree though. With Logan being her unattractive, yet strong and dependable roots. Joe Starks embodying the proud and stubborn trunk. Ending with Tea Cake, a wild and reckless tree canopy, but with the addition of a soft, loveable side to him. Though she never could achieve her quest for the pear tree, she did manage to unearth relationships with three, very different men. Each man was important to her, whether in a positive way or not, and each man represented a part of her romantic acquisition in completion.