Borrowed from: Italy House
The Introduction of the TreeThe symbol of the tree is first mentioned in chapter two of the novel, “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.” Throughout the novel Hurston uses the symbol of the tree to juxtapose the positive and negative moments within Janie’s life, while also representing how change will provide new beginnings, but not without the death/loss of what is being replaced.
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The novel starts out during Janie’s childhood in which she is an innocent little girl struggling with her self identity. She finds herself drawn to a blossoming pear tree encouraging her to reveal the mystery it holds. Janie discovers the tree represents what she believes love should feel like; this new found knowledge awakens Janie and entices her to bite into the forbidden fruit of love, forever changing her.
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The dawn and undone |
The Suffering and Doom
However, Janie’s idea of what the pear tree represents to her changes as she experiences her first loveless marriage. Janie realizes marriage doesn’t always compel love, and with that her childhood ideals were dead. “Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” Leaving her first husband can be seen as Janie's first step toward her self-realization and empowerment; however she has lost a part of her original self in this development. Unfortunately, Janie finds herself in another loveless relationship with a powerful man named Jody Starks. At first she felt her childhood ideals being rekindled but shortly realized the man she fell in love with changed. Jody mistreated and belittled Janie until the day he died, leaving her alone but with all the more reason to start new. |
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“She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be.”
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The things enjoyed
The last love interest of Janie proves to be the realist of them all. Janie meets a man name Tea Cake, while he is a bit erratic, he shows Janie what real love is. “He could be a bee to a blossom-- a pear tree blossom in the spring.” While previously thought her childhood ideals about love were dead, they were reborn in a new light. Tea Cake completed Janie’s dream of being loved. She was no longer unsure about herself, Janie finds happiness with herself and Tea Cake because of her own choices and not those of someone else.
LUCY LEEN --THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD