Theme Of Love In Their Eyes Were Watching God

One of the most ubiquitous themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God involve Janie's desire for true, decisive and fulfilling love. Her search was not completed until she went through two unsuccessful marriages which caused love to happen much later in life than I think Janie desired. Nevertheless, the story ends how it began, with Janie alone, yet she has a sense of peace and comfort, filled with the love she always desired. She experienced different types of love throughout her life, however, the true love from another man was one she only dreamed of. Her grandmother raised her to think that love will come with financial security and physical protection but Janie broke free of that soon after her grandmother passed. A Rose for Emily by William

This plays an enormous role in the theme because it foreshadows and symbolizes Janie's hard journey on the quest to find love. Hurston writes, "from barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom" (10). This is a representation of Janie transforming and maturing into womanhood and noticing changes in her body, as well as her mind. It is just like the bloom of a tree and something only Mother Nature can control. Janie's fascination with the pear tree is introduced in this chapter as well. Throughout the novel, the pear tree symbolizes for Janie the sense of possibility in life for a connection between the self and the feelings of sexual desire and love. "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 frothing with delight. So this was a marriage" (11). In Janie's mind, this is an idealistic image that represents her desire for love and sexual romance. This view is partially why her earlier relationships are not successful. Once she slowly opens her relationship with Tea Cake on a more mature level, Janie sees what love really is. The "marriage" between the bee and a blossom foreshadows the feeling Janie gets when she begins to receive other kinds of

Her fathers love is very similar to that of Janie's grandmother. There seems to have been a falling out between Emily's father and the rest of the family, leaving Emily to learn about love only from him. Faulkner writes, "we had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip." This imagery portrays a sense of control that Emily's father has over her and her relationships. Although it is a form of love, it might not be in Emily's best interest. Several times it is mentioned that he drove all her suitors away because no one was good enough for her in his mind. This showing of love from Emily's father has proven to be more harmful than it is helpful. After her father's death, Emily somewhat begins to panic. She no longer had that leader or figure of total control and dominance in her life. This leads us to Homer Barron which Emily hopes will fulfill her feeling of isolation. However, the love is unrequited which leaves Emily in a crisis because she is terrified of being alone. Before he can leave her, Emily kills him and keeps his body in her bed for the years to come. The narrator describes, "the body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long