Were Watching God Pear Tree

Maya Angelou once said “I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn” and this applies to Janie when going through her marriages with Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, she expresses how a girl can mature through her womanhood by facing many obstacles in her life, but not allowing them to stop her but to make her better. The use of motifs help the reader grasp a better understanding of the change and progress by using items such as the pear tree, the mule, and Janie’s hair to provide a deeper understanding of the context. There was plenty of symbolic representation in the book such as the pear tree which symbolizes Janie’s life and how through each marriage she grew on to the peach tree. The idea

Nanny wants her to have a man with money, but as Janie undergoes her marriage with Logan she finds out that the bond is more important than the money. Janie didn 't love Logan and didn 't like how he treated her. This relates to the motif of the pear tree because all Janie wants is love from a man, like how “the tree receives from the pollen-bearing bee”( Dilbeck 102).The tree represents her life and how she is looking for that special man which the bee represents. Janie’s marriage with Logan made her realize that she should not be treated like property and that she deserves better. After the marriage with Logan failed, Janie thought that Joe was the one. He turned out to be very controlling and possessive of her. He did not allow her to do anything and thought that “a pretty doll-baby lak [her] is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan [herself] and eat p’taters dat other folks plant just special for [her]”(Hurston 29). Janie realized that she should be able to have some type of freedom in her marriage, and not feel

In this marriage she experiences freedom and finds out what love really is, which allows her to grow. Joe did not allow Janie to play checkers but Tea Cake did. Tea Cake “..set it up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural to play”(Hurston 95-96). Janie instantly knew that Tea Cake was different. The control that her other husbands had over her made her understand how important her freedom was. Throughout her whole life, Janie experiences two different marriages before Tea Cake, so she knows what she is looking for in a man. She wants a man to treat her as an equal, compliment her, and most importantly love her. Tea Cake fulfills all three of those things and that is why Janie loves him. He shows her how to love and makes her become aware of the freedom she deserves in a marriage. Janie goes her whole life looking for a special man that meets her standards and finally find