Symbolism In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

[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 sweet marriage represented by the bees and blossoms.

“...you got tuh go there tuh know there (ch. 20).” In this phrase Janie is referring to the knowledge and experience she has gained by going through her past endeavors. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie discovers,“Two things everybody’s got tuh to do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves (ch. 20).” These morals of Janie’s are depictions of the book’s entirety. Although the two lessons may be laid out plainly, this quote can be shaded into various depths of meaning. Regardless, through several incidents and relationships in the book, the interpretation of the statement and the applicability to Janie’s story is revealed.

All novels contain symbolism in one shape or form, masking a deeper meaning beneath the words that are written on the page. Usually, there is an assortment of symbols disguised by a literal meaning that blend in with the scene. Symbols frequently come in the form of nature. Nature, generally being in the background of a scene, becomes more prominent when it is meant to be identified as a symbol. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the symbolism in nature is recurrent throughout the novel. It is used to indicate turning points and track the growth of the main character, Janie’s, coming-of-age. This is portrayed through the changing of the seasons and various correspondents. In this way, it can be seen that not all events affect Janie in the same way, leading her in one direction. In Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, seasonal symbols are used to target experiences in Janie’s life and how they affect her overall development into adulthood.

Evidently, Janie tried to achieve her desires for love by making affection similar to the marriage like the bee and the blossoming pear tree. Janie was a sixteen-year-old aspirant. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds while wanting to battle with life, but it seemed to elude her. Hence, she was seeking to find her singing bee through the

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, describe the various experiences Janie Crawford had with her marriages. However, this book is not about searching for the right men, but for finding herself and be independent. On her second marriage to Joe Starks, who is distrustful and possessive, doesn’t bear to see other men touch or contemplate Janie’s hair. This relationship demonstrates the domination of man because Joe controls Janie, from behaving as the Mayor’s wife to using a kerchief. Janie is a submissive woman, but as soon she finds the opportunity she confronts her husband. Therefore, the action of taking out the kerchief was symbolic because she reveals herself to the society and by letting her hair down she showed her freedom and beauty.

Throughout the entire novel, Janie refers to the blossoming pear tree as a symbol of her ideal relationship, and compares her husbands to the harmony she witnessed between the bees and the blossoms of the pear tree. Janie sees the vision of Logan to be ìdesecrating the pear tree,î as she does not love the man at all (13). On the contrary, she finds her true love in her marriage to Tea Cake, who ìcould be a bee to a blossom Ö Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he tookî (102). As the pear tree is symbolic of Janie's sexual epiphany and her ideal relationship, it also coincides with her quest for her true love. Her pear blossom wilts with her marriage to Logan Killicks, but it blooms again in another cycle with Tea Cake.

Following her Nanny’s death Janie began to pursue her own romantic desires more freely. Before long, she meets her soon to be second husband Joe "Jody" Starks. Initially Jody is a gentleman. He showers Janie with compliments and promises in order to flatter her out of her first husband’s arms. Still new to the world, Janie mistakes flattery for love and succumbs to her need to absorb more about life and love, leaving behind her substandard life with Logan in lieu of personal development. She anticipated that “from now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything. A bee for her bloom" (31).After Jody has convinced Janie to run away with him, however, his affection begins to waver. This leads Janie to understand that "[Jody] did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees.” However, “he spoke for far horizon” (50). “Janie knows that Joe does not fulfill the promise of the pear tree; but she intuits that she must travel in order to grow, and Joe is going places, first literally and then figuratively” (Chinn).

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel about a woman and the trials and tribulations that she goes through while trying to find the true meaning of love and loss. In the novel Janie struggles to find someone that honestly loves her and she has to deal with the lost she felt when the she realized that the love that she received is forever lost. Some major themes in the novel would be work, sexuality, freedom and love. All of these themes are important in understanding the novel. There are numerous patterns in Their Eyes Were Watching God that connects to other works in its genre. While analyzing the novel you are able to tell by the structure of the novel that the novel belongs in the genre of a romantic drama because there are a numerous amounts of exciting, surprising and unexpected events and the story focuses on the love that TeaCake and Janie has in the novel.

Hurston makes it possible for Janie to achieve her dreams because she focuses on how people’s journeys “[take] shape from [the] shore it meets” (191), paralleling the imagery associated with ships that have “every man’s wish on board” (1). Thus, Hurston focuses on how people’s metaphorical roads can collide with another’s and influence how a person achieves his or her dreams. Significantly, Janie meets Jody Starks and Tea Cake when they run into her during their travels on the road, and they both influence Janie’s growth as a character. Through her experiences with others, Janie becomes self-empowered and grateful for the memories she created with her community. Thus, Hurston puts more emphasis on the experiences gained throughout life that leads to one’s dream, rather than the rewards of the

Watching this interaction, Janie felt deep within her that she, too, was a part of this connection, “It connected itself with vaguely felt matters that struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh” (Hurston 10-11). The interaction between the pollinator and the flower weaved into Janie’s mind, enticing her. The “love embrace” (Hurston 11) of the two lead Janie to change her view of marriage and what it meant to be in love. She realized that love is natural and should be felt with one’s whole being. Janie, now consumed by her new belief made a decision to be lead by love. This caused a series of events that entangled her in a loveless marriage, to Logan Killicks, a man she neither felt attraction to, or loved. While she felt trapped, her new belief still burned bright inside

Having to go through many different types of pains and experiencing different types relationships. So that one day, after all, that you have been through you find true love. The love that everyone desires, needs and wants in there life. That explains most of Janie's life as a whole, she was always searching on till she found her true love. This book, Their eyes were watching god love by Zora Neale Hurston, shows how Janie sees love through the bee and the blossom.

As another dull afternoon at the store was going by slowly, Janie decides it would best to close up early. Everyone has gone to the game, and it seems as if she is the only person in town. A strange, yet spirited man walks threw the order, and the connection between this man and Janie is almost immediate. Together, they join in friendly conversation, and soon decide to join in a game of checkers. Surprised at her invitation, Janie agreed, flattered. Somebody asked her to play a game of checkers! Janie glows inside (Hurston 96), as Hurston describes her reaction. “Somebody wanted her to play...she looked him over and got little thrills from every one of his good points” (Hurston 96). Enjoying their time together, Janie and the man spend the

All novels contain symbolism in one shape or form and the words written on the page often mask a deeper meaning beneath them. Usually, there is an assortment of symbols disguised by a literal meaning that blend in with the scene. Symbols frequently come in the form of nature. Nature, generally having a background position, can be identified as a symbol when it becomes more prominent in a scene. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the symbolism in nature is recurrent throughout the novel. It is used to indicate turning points and track the growth of the main character, Janie’s, coming-of-age. This is portrayed through the changing of the seasons and various correspondents. In this way, it can be seen that not all events affect Janie in the same way, leading her in one direction. In Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, seasonal symbols are used to target experiences in Janie’s life and how they affect her overall development into adulthood.

Janie realizes now that her love for her grandmother was fake, as she “had hidden it from herself all these years under a cloak of pity,” and her grandma has manipulated her and subjected her to pain(Hurston 89). Janie realizes that her mother created a pessimistic outlook on life, teaching her to value “things” and social status thus creating a flawed perspective of the world(Hurston 89). Janie now criticizes her grandmother for altering her life negatively, whether it be forcing her to get married at a young age causing Janie to lose most of her life to the wrong man. Janie explains that her “Nanny had taken the biggest thing God had ever made, the horizon [...] and pinched it into such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke her,” thus restricting Janie's journey in life, and her ability to choose who she wants to be with(Hurston 90). Janie concludes that her Nanny forced her own views onto Janie, and did not allow Janie to live life the way she wanted to. Hurston uses a folktale to accurately convey the evolution of Janie's character, Hurston portrays Janie as the “Jewel” that shines, but fate, resembled as the “angels” drag her down and even when mud is dumped on her, her marriages, and her Nanny, the Jewel still finds a way to shine, as is exactly what Janie is attempting to

Throughout chapters 6-10 of the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the author utilizes symbolism as a way of presenting Janie’s development concerning her freedom in her marriages. Although Janie’s development regarding her freedom is clearly identified by the reader through her feelings, Hurston purposely utilizes a series of symbols to showcase her freedom in a much more subtle way. In a desire to exhibit Janie’s freedom in marriage within these chapters, Hurston utilizes symbols such as Janie’s head rags and the porch she sits on as a way of amplifying her development in freedom within her relationship with Joe. In previous chapters of the book, Hurston describes the many boundaries Janie faces within her relationship