Janie: Her Adolescent Dreams and Beyond

A short while ago, our class read a quote from "Their Eyes Were Watching God," and we were asked to respond.

Here's the quote: 

 

“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."

I found this quote to be extremely...powerful.  The "and she wanted" really hits you hard. For me, it shows that she truly and desperately dreams of her future.

 

Looking into it further, the sentence compares Janie’s life and a blooming pear tree.  Janie is young and full of dreams, just as the pear tree is young in its life cycle, and its blooming pears are the future experiences and opportunities Janie will have as she steadily grows into a woman.  Janie dreams of a better life and for her true love.  The final comment “She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted,” refers to her eagerness for independence and womanhood.  She wishes to grow into a strong, independent woman and find her true love.

I believe she does find her independence through her true love.  After a few failed attempts at love, Janie finds Tea Cake.  Tea Cake is Janie’s true love, but the relationship becomes jeopardized when he gets rabies.  His jealousy and suspicion multiplies, which turns to violence.  In order to free herself from Tea Cake’s oppression and the risk of physical pain, Janie fires a bullet into him.  The instant she presses the trigger, she released herself into her own, independent world.  Her final decision was not to save love, something that she dreamed of as an adolescent, but to gain independence (and safety).  In my opinion, that was much more important to Janie than love, otherwise, she would not have killed Tea Cake.  I believe she realizes this while telling her story.

   

           I believe that the two most important themes are womanhood and independence.  These themes could actually be paired together into one dominant theme, seeing that as Janie grows into a woman, she is slowly becoming more and more independent.  At first, finding true love seems as if it is the leading theme, however, I believe that the need for love is just another way for her to become independent, to be strong, and to make life decisions.  Nanny attempts to make love “easy” for Janie by arranging a marriage, but the marriage fails and Janie runs away with another man.  I feel that Janie wants to make this decision on her own and become her own woman.  Now, she is mistreated, so her decision to run off is easy.  Again, she is mistreated.  The eventual death of her new spouse leads to her independence from short-lived oppression.  As I mentioned earlier, she finally finds her true love, Tea Cake.  It is her own decision to build a relationship with Tea Cake.  It is not the choice of another human being and it is not the result of a failed marriage.  This relationship is free from any other outside force acting upon it; It is solely Janie’s choice.  Once again, the relationship starts off well up until disease and jealousy shield Tea Cake from treating Janie with respect, and ends with Tea Cake’s demise.

          

          Janie is once again free to make new decisions, meet new people, and live any type of life that she chooses too.  Nothing is stopping her, and nothing can stop her.  She is a strong, independent woman who will not stop to keep her independence sacred and alive.