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.