Elements Of Nature In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God was the story of Janie, an African American woman, and her venture towards independence in a male dominated society. Although independence wasn’t Janie’s intended dream, she became involved in many events in which her fight for independence was unintentional. Hurston compared these events going through Janie’s life with elements of nature. Some of these elements of nature are huge motifs portrayed through out the whole novel. Elements such as the Pear Tree, which was used to portray her love life, or her hair band, which portrayed her relationship with Joey and the Mule which in a way portrayed Janie herself. In the novel one of the major things Janie is known for is her beautiful hair. Her hair was

They’re also used to work. Hurston mentioned these things in the novel specifically to show the comparison between the mule and Janie. As states a mule carries heavy loads. Janie lives in a time where males dominate society and not only that but is also during the time where segregation and racism was highly active. So Janie just being a colored woman is faced to deal with and carry such a heavy burden such as a mule carries heavy objects. In the beginning of the book she married Logan and that was the start of the weight she carried. As stated before she lived in a male dominance time so it would come to no surprise that Logan would be aggressive towards her. Logan, aggravated with Janie back talking him, threatened to kill Janie unless she’d be quite (Pg. 49). A society where woman had to stay submissive that’s the mules heavy load that Janie carried. Logan states how he was going to buy another mule. A mule to run two plows. He describes how the second mule is very gentle (Pg. 43 & 44). Women are also seen as gentle. So at that moment Hurston was making the mule as symbol for Janie. A mule in which Logan wanted to get in order to work. Going back in the story Logan did want to make Janie work. “One morning soon he called her out of the kitchen to the barn. He had the mule all saddled at the gate. “Looka heah, LilBit, help me out some. Cut up dese seed taters fuh me. Ah got tuh go step off a piece.” (Pg. 43). Just like the gentle mule Logan was buying to work, Janie was the gentle mule he already had that he wanted to work. Not only did Janie have to carry the burden of doing her womanly duties and staying submissive but also pitch into the manly duties. Later in the book we find Logan buying an old tired mule off of Matt. However, unlike Logan, Joey bought the mule not to work but to rest. This can be seen in a similar situation to Janie. When Janie considered as a mule worked with Logan and dealt with struggle.