In this global era of evolving civilization, it is increasingly difficult to ignore the fascinating fact about love. Love is a feeling of intimacy, warmth, and attachment. Love is inevitable and it plays a vital role in human life. The aim of this essay is to critically examine the pear tree in the novel “Their eyes were watching God.” Further to this, the reason as to why one does not see any other characters chasing after love will be examined, whilst discussing who the bee to Janie’s bloom was. To add to this, the significant role of Logan, Jody, and Tea cake in influencing the love life of Janie will be examined. In order to analyze this, it is important to understand the effect of love in this novel and how it influenced Janie. In this …show more content…
essay, the term pear tree will be used in its broadest sense to refer to love. This is because, the term was utilized in defining love.
The significance of the pear tree for Janie shows the view of love, nature, sexuality, and can be seen as a change within herself where a strong and barely controllable emotion should lead to a perfect marriage. The pear tree is seen being used throughout the text describing how Janie searches to find herself by finding trust, romance, understanding, and excitement. Janie is always seen spending most of her day under a pear tree in the backyard when Janie noticed a bee pollinating into a pear tree “she was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, she saw a dust- bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and lathering with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been called to observe a revelation.” (11). In Janie’s mind, this event showed a general …show more content…
notion that a marriage requires love and closeness. Janie had her first experience of sexual arousing under the blossoming pear tree in spring, just before her first kiss with Johnny Taylor. All through the novel, the pear tree symbolizes for Janie the inclination she encountered specifically while sitting underneath it, the feeling of probability in life for an association between the self and the normal world, and the sentiments of sexual yearning and love. In this way when taking a look at the sexualized symbolism of the pear tree blooms, Janie announces, "So this was a marriage. She got the idea of what a marriage should be by witnessing the pollination of a bee into the blossoming pear tree. Janie searched for this joyful union in her relationships which was why she shifted from marriage to marriage as the pear tree describes why her first two marriages were not victorious. Janie the protagonist of the text is the only character that wants, believes, and dreams of love and a better life she does this with the pear tree while the others are stuck in the burden of overcoming slavery.
Janie is seen all through the text trying to achieve her cravings for love and making affection similar to the marriage between the bee and the blossoming pear tree “ Oh to be a pear tree−any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. Where was the singing bee for her?” (11) She was seeking to find her singing bee. Through the course of searching for love she discovers herself in three entirely dissimilar marriages which make her idea about love more
advance. The first marriage with Logan Killicks, a man much older than Janie was forced on her by her grandma because he was rich and her grandma assumed he could provide and protect for Janie. Logan Killicks provided Janie with comfort as she became the part-owner of his sixty acres of land but the treatment of love. Janie thinks he speaks the direct opposite for her thought for love, and Janie goes into the marriage with doubt. “The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree, but Janie didn’t know how to tell Nanny that” (14) this quote shows that Janie sees Logan Killicks Similarly as a "desecration" of her dream of valid love, which is in light of her experience underneath the pear tree. Logan also seems to be having a notion that a marriage means controlling a woman, back in the era of slavery women were often taken advantage of by men and where women have no special roles but to please their spouse “You ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh” while Janie believes that both men Furthermore ladies need their appropriate spot in a marriage. It was at this time “she knew presently that marriage did not make love” (25). Janie felt he did not value her enough and then leaves him for Joe Starks.
In the beginning, the pear tree symbolizes Janie’s yearning to find within herself the sort of harmony and simplicity that nature embodies. However, that idealized view changes when Janie is forced to marry Logan Killicks, a wealthy and well-respected man whom Janie’s Nanny set her up with. Because Janie does not know anything about love, she believes that even if she does not love Logan yet, she will find it when they marry. Upon marrying Logan, she had to learn to love him for what he did, not for that infallible love every woman deserves. After a year of pampering, Logan becomes demanding and rude, he went as far to try to force Janie to do farm work. It was when this happened that Janie decided to take a stand and run away with Joe. At this time, Janie appears to have found a part of her voice and strong will. In a way, she gains a sense of independence and realizes she has the power to walk away from an unhealthy situation and does not have to be a slave to her own husband.
At least not until she met Tea Cake and went through a lot with him. Janie is a biracial woman from the early twentieth century in the novel and goes through many life-changing experiences. One experience that has helped her grow was finding love. Janie was married three times in the span of the novel and only found love with one person, Tea Cake. Much of the reason is because of her grandma, Nanny.
For a short time Janie shared her life with her betrothed husband Logan Killicks. She desperately tried to become her new pseudo identity, to conform to the perfect "housewife" persona. Trying to make a marriage work that couldn't survive without love, love that Janie didn't have for Logan. Time and again Janie referred to love and her life in reference to nature, "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think... She often spoke to falling seeds and said Ah hope you fall on soft grounds... She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether"(24 - 25). Logan had blown out the hope in Janie's heart for any real love; she experienced the death of the childish imagery that life isn't a fairytale, her first dose of reality encountered and it tasted sour.
Janie gained this experience in love as she discovered that the promises of love are not always true. Janie was promised many things in her life and most of them were the promise of finding love and obtaining it. Janie’s grandmother promised her that even if she did not like Logan Killicks that she would find love in her marriage with him, but Janie discovered that no love was to be found in her marriage and that those more elderly than her would think she was wrong for her values (Hurston 21-25). Then after her marriage with Logan, her luck did not change with her next husband Joe who promised her nothing, but lies. Yet again promises persuaded her into another marriage where she was not happy as Joe went back on the words he promised her
Janie searches high and low for a soft heart to lean on after not finding what she was looking for in Nanny's suggested marriage to Killicks. Janie thinks she finds what she is looking for in Jody but later finds out that she is wrong when she is used as not much more than a storekeeper. So did Janie lead a satisfying life, even though it was full of dependency? That is a matter of ones opinion, but I believe that Janie finally feels like the "singing bee" being satisfied by the blossoms of the pear tree when she begins to depend on Tea Cake and lives her life loving and depending on him. Janie feels complete when Tea Cake is around and knows that no one else could possibly make her feel the way that she does in his
Under a pear tree in Nanny's backyard, however, Janie, as a nave sixteen-year-old, finds the possibilities of love, sexuality, and identity that are available to her. This image, forever reverberating in her mind through two unsuccessful marriages to Logan Killicks and Joe Starks, is what keeps Janie's spirit alive and encourages her quest for love and life. " It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep" (10). Under the pear tree on that spring afternoon, Janie sees sensuality wherever she looks. The first tiny bloom had opened.
At age sixteen, Janie is a beautiful young girl who is about to enter womanhood and experience the real world. Being joyous and unconcerned, she is thrown into an arranged marriage with Logan Killicks. He is apparently unromantic and unattractive. Logan is a widower and a successful farmer who desires a wife who would not have her own opinions. He is set on his own ways and is troubled by Janie, who forms her own opinions and refuses to work. He is unable to sexually appeal or satisfy Janie and therefore does not truly connect with her as husband and wife should. Janie's wild and young spirit is trapped within her and she plays the role of a silent and obeying wife. But her true identity cannot withhold itself for she has ambitions and she wills to see the world and find love. There was a lack of trust and communication between Logan and Janie. Because of the negative feelings Janie has towards Logan, she deems that this marriage is not what she desires it to be. The pear tree and the bees had a natural att...
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neil Hurston, there are many prominent symbols shown throughout the story. The symbols have their own significant meaning and relation to the characters. These include the pear tree, mule, storm, and Janie 's journey. The pear tree first appears in the beginning of the novel. Janie is relaxingly sitting under the vast pear tree looking at its branches. She notices bees flying under the high branches and landing on pear blossoms. The blossoms ' "thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight" (11). Janie concludes this sight is a representation of true marriage. Throughout
In Hurston's story, Janie symbolically represents the position of a woman in the South who is seen to be confused due to her nature as a woman. She is also married to three husbands at different stages, this represents her development from a dependent person who could not make her own choices and in her last marriage to the Tea Cake she makes her choice independently hence and indication that she has finally developed and gained independence. Also, when her last husband dies she shave her hair and goes backs home (Hurston, 2000), by shaving her hair she symbolized her rebirth from dependent to an independent woman and also it was a symbol of change and a new
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, we follow our protagonist, Janie, through a journey of self-discovery. We watch Janie from when she was a child to her adulthood, slowly watching her ideas change while other dreams of hers unfortunately die. This is shown when Jane first formulates her idea of love, marriage, and intimacy by comparing it to a pear tree; erotic, beautiful, and full of life. After Janie gets married to her first spouse, Logan Killicks, she doesn’t see her love fantasy happening, but she waits because her Nanny tells her that love comes after marriage. Janie, thinking that Nanny is wise beyond her years, decides to wait. But, as Logan continues to snap at Janie day to day, she becomes even more uninterested. While avoiding
“The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree but Janie didn’t know how to tell Nanny that. She merely hunched over and pouted at the floor.” Janie had told nanny that she didn’t love Logan but nanny just told her love would blossom, so janie married him for the sake of her nanny. “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman”. Three months later she came back to her nanny telling her that she still didn’t feel love in their marriage. Through this part of the story Janie had to give up what she wanted in love for her nanny vision for her. The Pear tree represents Janie’s love life so imagine now that she has been married to Logan and one of the Branches has rotted away.“Six months back he had told her, "If Ah kin haul de wood heah
The pear tree for example is similar to that of the Garden of Eden. The pear tree and the horizon signify Janie’s model of a perfect life. In the bees’ interaction with the pear tree flowers, Janie witnesses a perfect moment in nature, full of energy, interaction, and harmony. She chases after this ideal life throughout the rest of the book. Janie’s romantic and idealistic view of love, seen in her reaction to the pear tree, partially explains why her earlier relationships are not successful. It is not until later in her life, when she slowly opens up to her relationship with Tea Cake on a more mature level, that Janie sees what love really is. Janie resists Tea Cake at first, remembering her early pear tree encounters, and her early sexual awakening. She becomes infatuated with Tea
Janie found what she was looking for. She searched all her life to find what was within herself, and one special person was all that was needed to bring it out in her. Even though her and Tea Cake’s relationship ended in a tragedy, she knew that he really loved her for who she was. She didn’t need to be with him for protection, or she didn’t need to be the leading lady of a town or a mayor’s wife, she just needed the right kind of love and affection to bring out what was best in her.
Nanny Janie’s grandmother disapprove the kiss between Janie and Johnny Taylor under the pear tree (11). Janie was only sixteen years old and naïve to think that was love. Nanny knew Johnny Taylor did not mean to cause no harm, but she felt Johnny was trying to mislead Janie to hurt and humiliate her by being sexual that can be dangerous (Hurston 12-15). Likewise, Janie was forced into marrying Logan an older man, Nanny approved of because Janie will have a husband that will love her. Same as, Hurston describe Janie emotions of unhappiness within the marriage not having affection and desire for Logan, Hurston implies, “Ah ain’t got nothin’ tuh live for.” (118) Hurston also describes Janie as confident that caught men attention as well as her physique, the women were jealous of Janie implying “Janie will never fit in the upper class of white men because of her appearance.” (Hurston 41) The women try to make Janie feel worthless and unattractive of not having enough sexually appeal. . Hurston writing engage the character from love to lust in a unhappy marriage that lead to a prolonged period of difficulty
Janie’s courage and fierceness that she possesses at the end of her story is far from the scared, shy, and hidden girl during her first marriage. Her voice is so small at this time that she could not even tell Nanny of her dislike for Logan Killicks. Although “the vision of Logan Killicks [is] desecrating the pear tree,” Janie does not “know how to tell Nanny that” (14). Janie does not have the ability to express her thoughts yet, stopping her from telling the