Janie's Definition of Love in Their Eyes Were Watching God - Essay Example

Janies Definition of Love in, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Janie Crawford is a girl of mixed races, meaning she has theheritage of both the blacks and whites. She is an outcome of a meager black girl who is raped by her schoolteacher and brought up in a poor background. While she is in her puberty, she grows that obsession of finding out what true love is all about. While she is a young girl, she encounters a blossoming pear tree which affects her so much. This is due to her association of love or romance to the pollination of pear tree blossoms.

The pear tree eventually drives this girl to seeking true love, thus her expectations of something sweet and smooth. From there onwards, Janie develops a relationship relating it to plants and flowers. She possibly stresses her innocence, her gentle nature, her ripeness, and her natural beauty and finally imagines that this will make her be the best loved (Hurston 12). From the foregoing, Janie shows lack of wisdom and experience in matters of love. She was drawn to this urge of love by her beauty, age, and from just the blossoming of a pear tree.

A lot of questions arise in this context. One of them is; why would one be driven into the world of love and yet they are naïve? This could actually have driven her in a wrongful direction.During Janie’s three marriages, the unexpected happens. For instance, in her first marriage, she is taken to farmer Logan Killicks due to the plan and its execution by her grandmother, Nanny, who seems to be well intentioned towards her. Logan seems to be reliable though uninspired. Janie receives death threats from her husband.

She chafes under this marriage until she is taken to Eatonville. This is the first American black people’s city where she lives the vast life as the wife of the mayor. Janie finds it difficult to understand Joe’s definition of a woman’s role. Joe’s age makes him sometimes to accuse Janie that she acts too much childish. This is due to Joe’s way to escape public attention from his weakening body. Janie finds it difficult to bear it more and lastly insults the man’s manhood and arrogance (Hurston 45).

This breaks Joe’s heart and deflated as he was, he takes it to his deathbed where he completely refuses to let Janie visit him. Later, Janie just busts into his room and lets it all open. She becomes bold and speaks her mind out. After the demise of Joe, Janie lives her life as a single lady till one day when she meets Tea Cake who is twelve years younger than her. He is a fan of fun and is slick. With Tea, Janie finds the true love she has been yearning for. Despite their ups and downs especially during moments of jealousy, they eventually find happiness again!

Happiness blossoms particularly when they work in the fields of Everglades. Here, they freely associate with the itinerant workers.A low point comes when Tea Cake is warned of the impending hurricane and given chance to flee but he cant. This is due to his quest for money. During the fleeing, Tea Cake saves Janie from the stray dog bite but he is himself bitten. He contracts rabies and eventually shot by Janie from her protection from Tea’s suspicion and paranoia (Hurston 56). In summary, Janie has learnt so much from the ups and downs experienced in marriage and she has known that her earlier perception of love was wrong.

Work CitedHurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. HarperCollins,, 2009.