Their Eyes Were Watching God: Janie's Quest for Love Essay Example
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie Crawford, is on a quest to find true love. Like many people, she begins her journey not knowing what love is. Janie encounters many obstacles in her quest for love. Even when she finds love with Tea Cake, more obstacles challenge their relationship. "de very prong all us … gits hung on. Dis love! Dat's just whut's got us uh pullin' and uh haulin' and sweatin' and doin' from can't see in de mornin' till can't see at night" (22). But, what is true love, and how does one know when they have found it?
Janie’s first significant romantic experience occurred one spring, at the age of sixteen, when she observed bees pollinating a pear tree.
She saw the 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 marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid” (11).
Although her sexual awakening is normal at this age, Janie’s matrimonial interpretation of the natural occurrence, though illustrative of the sexual aspect of marriage, is ignorant at best. “The problem is that Janie translates the remarkable love she feels for and through the natural world into a metaphor for … marriage” (Bealer). This event left her seeking answers about life and love. “She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her”(11). As a result she found herself kissing Johnny Taylor, a local boy whom she saw as “shiftless” until “ … the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags in her eyes”(12). Janie’s grandmother, a former slave, also had a misguided impression of love. Rather, she felt respectability, not love, is the more important aspect of a husband. After catching Janie kissing Johnny, Nanny
Janie’s first significant romantic experience occurred one spring, at the age of sixteen, when she observed bees pollinating a pear tree.
She saw the 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 marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid” (11).
Although her sexual awakening is normal at this age, Janie’s matrimonial interpretation of the natural occurrence, though illustrative of the sexual aspect of marriage, is ignorant at best. “The problem is that Janie translates the remarkable love she feels for and through the natural world into a metaphor for … marriage” (Bealer). This event left her seeking answers about life and love. “She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her”(11). As a result she found herself kissing Johnny Taylor, a local boy whom she saw as “shiftless” until “ … the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags in her eyes”(12). Janie’s grandmother, a former slave, also had a misguided impression of love. Rather, she felt respectability, not love, is the more important aspect of a husband. After catching Janie kissing Johnny, Nanny