Janie and Logan's relationship

Janie and Logan's marriage starts as a forced marriage. This begins the marriage with an unstable foundation. Janie does not love Logan; while Logan attempts to be romantic and loving. With Janie's lack of reaction towards Logan's efforts, Logan understandably becomes distant with her and begins to treat her badly. In this relationship, I believe that Zora is showing that love cannot be forced or fake. If your not meant for someone, it will never truly work. You will be wasting your time trying. A true happy marriage will only be found when someone opens their heart and soul to love.

Janie's Appearance

Since Janie's appearance was very different from the blacks, this attracted many people's attention to her. Janie obtained this look through her mother being raped by a white plantation master. Since she is a mixed, Janie has Caucasian characteristics such as shiny hair, pointed nose, and thin lips. This is quite different ,because a black's normal facial characteristics is coarse hair, big lips, and wide nose. Janie's appearance made her life a little more difficult ,because she did not see herself as a specific color. She was scrutinized for playing with white children , yet she was not seen a black women. After Tea Cake's death, Janie's appearance becomes a factor in the courtroom. It was interesting to see how the blacks were against her, yet the all white male jury found her innocent of Tea Cake's death.

Tea Cake and Janie's relationship

The relationship between Janie and Tea Cake is quite different from her prior relationships. Janie's personality is more strong and independent. Janie's reason to be with Tea Cake was also different. Janie chooses to be with him ,because of his effervescent personality and acceptance of her personal growth. This is quite different from her other relationships ,because the prior men wanted to control and mold her. They also have a more enjoyable and adventurous relationship rather than a strict and serious relationship. In a sense, Tea cake is a essential part of Janie's personal growth, but she is also not dependent on Tea Cake. Tragically, they did not live a happily ever after, which was quite sad to read.

The Value of Material Possessions

There are things in life that throughout the century has always been the same. From the Egyptians during the ancient years to modern age, people still strive to obtain and value too much the material aspect of life. Janie is forced into a marry by her grandmother because of material possessions. But stated by wise people throughout history and alliterated in the story, material possessions does not bring any happiness. After having been forced into a marriage and going into a marriage that may have ended up wonder-fulling but the husband placed too much importance on material possession, none brought her happiness. A hurricane takes place that destroys all the material possession, but there is still something left... hope, love, life.

Weather

In literature, weather is conveyed in multiple ways either to foreshadow an event or to ad the emotion of a character. When the hurricane takes place at the end of the novel is conveys the nature of destruction of the nature. The chaotic storm portrays the temporal the world can be. The storm causing questioning in their minds their place in the world. The hurricane is described in the book as being a time of destructive nature that bares on conscience. It can be a reminder of how cruel and hard the word can be, but after the storm passes, there is still light and hope at the end of such destruction.

Hair

Women throughout literature has always been discussed. From Greek mythology having one of the goddess having this enchanting hair to Japanese literature telling stories of the enchanting worlds of geisha, women's beauty have always be portrayed in some manor or the other. When it comes to this book, Janie's hair is a symbol of her power and unconventional identity. It is a symbol of her independence and defiance of the social standards during that time. Women would have to have their hair pulled back and out of their faces, but Janie's refusal to submit to these norms conveys the fight within her and her spirit. Another aspect to is how Janie's hair is straight and soft which defines the standards. She already has Caucasian features and her hair is another example of her breaking the traditional power relationships of white verse black or male over female.

Language

The author brings alive the time period and the story through her use of language. Hurston's unique way of separating the high literary narration and idiomatic discourse. This discourse conveys the rich voices in the world of Janie and allows the reader to enter into the story. Due to something as the language a new perspective is opened to the reader because of the language. Once Janie is suppressed to cover her individuality because of Jody being a mayor, she begins to grow a hatred towards him. He did want her speech to be the way it was, but it was part of who she was. Jody did not accept Janie how she was, he know wanted to become the ideal image of a mayor and wife. Besides this aspect conveyed by the author, the author also portrays when Janie discovers her ability to define herself through her speech. She does this through her interactions with others. Silence, which brings about listening, Janie learns is power, and she allows learns to control her voice.

What do you think about her love life?

All woman are different, do you think that what Janie went through in her pursuit of love was correct? From a Biblical prospective, would you think her choices were correct? For example, for her first marriage, she was forced into the relationship. Soon enough, her husband began to mistreat her and not treat her like Christ treats the church. But do you think her running away from the marriage was a just choice and decision? Do you think if she had spent time working on her first marriage, her husband would have changed?

Janie's search for True Love

In a way, she did use men to advance herself, but I personally see it in a different way. Since Janie was forced to marry Logan, Janie did not love Logan, and Logan's treatment toward Janie did not show love. When she finds Joe, she falls in love with his smooth words rather than the actual person. Joe shows his true colors, and attempts to control, change, and shelter Janie. A man that attempts to change a woman does not truly love her. Janie becomes tired of Joe's controlling personality, and she stands up for herself. When Joe dies, she has no desire to be with a man, but enjoys her independence. When Tea Cake walks into her life, she now began to have a mutual attraction with him. In the beginning, Tea cake treats her badly by taking her money and leaving her. The difference in this relationship was that Janie and Tea Cake worked through their relationship by speaking their minds to each other. The gloomy part of the story is when Tea Cake gets rabies and turned violent towards Janie. This is not due to his usual personality, but the result from a virus. Overall, the Janie was just trying to find true love, which most women in this world want to find.

Structure of the book

The book definitely was not linear. It did have an introduction--the part with the grandma before Janie was married; rising action--all the marriages she had; a climax--the hurricane, falling action--Tea Cake's sickness; and a denouement--the return to her hometown, the town she had lived in with Jody. In that sense it was linear. However, she went through too many husbands for there to be any feeling of unity in the book--too many characters were main characters for only part of the book. They married her and then she either left them or died. In the end, the only constant character was Janie herself.
I suppose the main idea was her learning to love, finding how to live life under the pear tree, like she had been under in the beginning, comforting herself that she would learn to love once she was married. I suppose it is a story of a woman's self-discovery, and the men who help her along the way. Before she was married the pear tree represented her dreams, her ideals of life as it did throughout the whole book. It represented her true self, the one she wanted to be and longed to let out. Only Tea Cake taught her to do that; her other two husbands either expected too much from her or expected too little of her.