Giving Her the World
Giving Her the World
Most young women desire love that can only be represented through the intimacy of mind, body, and soul. This love does not have to be sensible or traditional, but it will make her feel as if her significant other has given her the world. Zora Neale Hurston depicts Janie Mae Crawford’s relationships through the foundations upon which they are based in Their Eyes Were Watching God. All Janie wants is to be loved and respected. She wants more than to be the owner of sixty acres of land, more than just being the mayor’s trophy wife; she wants the world. By being able to not only love a man but also love herself, Janie gains “the world”. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses the motif of marital relationships to capture Janie Mae Crawford’s desire to be loved sensually rather than just materialistically.
Janie’s search for “the world” begins the day she depicts the meaning of the pear tree’s pollen and the bees. It is under this tree that Janie realizes her desire for her own “singing bees”. (Daniel 3) But her restlessness begins after her birth during which her mother left her with Nanny to continue looking for her own love. And it is this restlessness that leads Janie to experience symbolical sex within the pear tree. “It was a spring afternoon in West Florida. Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard.[…] She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom…and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch[…].So this was marriage!” (Hurston 10) Becoming aware of the relationship between a man and woman, Janie desires a similar love and affection from a man such as the bee endows on the tree. (Dilbeck 1) After her revelation with the pear tree she sees Johnny Taylor and kisses him, transforming into a young woman. It is at this moment that Janie realizes what she wants, sensual intimacy, and she begins the search for someone who can give her the world.
After Nanny observes Janie kissing Taylor all of Janie’s desires are halted and she is told that her wildness will be stabalized. Nanny fears that her granddaughter’s desires are dangerous and worries about her future. (Domina 1) It is only through money and respectability that Nanny believes Janie will be saved from the same fate as her mother’s. (Daniel 3) Janie marries Logan Killicks hoping that she will gain the “pear tree” love she desires after they are married. “Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day? […] Yes, she would love Logan after they were married. […] Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant. It was just so. Janie felt glad of the thought…She wouldn’t be lonely anymore.” (Hurston 21) But that was not what Logan had in mind for their marriage. There was no intimacy of any sort, their relationship was materialistic and based off the fact that she would be stable with his sixty acres of land. It is because of his sixty acres of land, chopped wood, filled water buckets, and his not placing his hands on her that Janie finds she cannot love Logan. Her desire does not involve materialistic love but a wild, untamed sensual love.
It is at this point that Janie decides to leave Killicks for Jody Starks. Jody intrigued Janie, “…although he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, he spoke for far horizon.He spoke for change and chance.” (Daniel 4) For a period of time it seemed as if Jody gave Janie everything she wanted both sensually and materialistically, becoming mayor of Eatonville he placed her on a high pedistal in society. But he becomes arrogant and insulting “imposing on Janie his old-fashioned ideas concerning a woman’s place and possibilities.” (Spillers 6) After being silenced for more than eighteen years Janie realizes that although she loved Jody he was not her vision of the “pear tree”. Discovering that she is to be no more than Mayor Starks wife upsets Janie because those are not her aspirations, “…and he didn’t mean for nobody else’s wife to rank her. She must look on herself as the cow-bell, the other women were her gang.” (Hurston 41) Eventhough Jody supports her financially and materialistically he does not meet the aspirations of Janie’s ideal love. But the moment after Jody dies is when Janie truly finds what she has been looking for.
At nearly forty years old Janie meets and falls in love with Tea Cake Woods, causing immense controversy within the Eatonville community . By becoming an intimate acquaintance of Tea Cake’s, Janie dismisses Nanny’s marital values and follows her own of sweet and wild love. “Tea Cake is the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree bloosom in the spring…He was a glance from God.” (Daniel 5) Even though Tea Cake is “lower” in social and financial status compared to Janie she accepts and loves him anyway. And Tea Cake shows that no matter what happens he will always provide for Janie and loves her with a sensual passion never seen within Janie’ s previous relationships with Logan and Jody.Tea Cake encourages her to grasp for anything, and if Janie wants the world he will give it to her. With him, Janie is no longer confined and forced to obey but viewed as his equal. Because Tea Cake allows her to be herself and she enjoys his company, Janie not only moves out to the Everglades with him but also works in the fields beside him. In her third and final marriage Janie finally finds the intimacy she has been searching for. It is seen throughout the novel that Tea Cake not only appreciates Janie’s beauty, intelligence, and independence, but he also shows her tenderness, trust, and respect. (Dilbeck 1) This is mainly viewed in Chapter Seventeen: “Before the week was over he had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him. Being able to whip her reassured him in possession. No brutal beating at all. He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss…It aroused a sort of envy in both men and women. The way he petted and pampered her as if those two or three slaps had nearly killed her made the women see visions and the helpless way she hung on him made men dream dreams…” (Spillers 6) Tragically after a hurrican, Tea Cake dies of rabies infection. It is in this scene that Janie must kill Tea Cake in order to save not only herself but him too, “…Janie kills him in self-defense, though she had hoped he would die peacefully.” (Domina 3) It is during this moment that the reader see how much Janie and Tea Cake had truly cared for one another. “ Before she married Tea Cake Janie didn’t know that she was the world (Hurston 76), but because he allowed her to be his equal he gave her the world, he let her know that she could love a man and love herself.
Janie Mae Crawford’s desire to be loved sensually rather than materialistically is captured through marital motifs in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Although Nanny desired her to be in a stable relationship for status, Janie desired a more intimate relationship. Her first two marriages were what Nanny aspired for Janie, but Janie’s marriage to Tea Cake was like a singing bee sinking into the sanctum of a bloom. “…Love ain’t somethin lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.” (Hurston 191) Love is different with every relationship, but it is successful when both parties are able to fulfill their desires. Practicallity and tradition are values that are not always important in the fulfillment of that pear tree analogy of love. Sometimes wild and passionate intimacy is what it takes to be given the world.
Janie’s search for “the world” begins the day she depicts the meaning of the pear tree’s pollen and the bees. It is under this tree that Janie realizes her desire for her own “singing bees”. (Daniel 3) But her restlessness begins after her birth during which her mother left her with Nanny to continue looking for her own love. And it is this restlessness that leads Janie to experience symbolical sex within the pear tree. “It was a spring afternoon in West Florida. Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard.[…] She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom…and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch[…].So this was marriage!” (Hurston 10) Becoming aware of the relationship between a man and woman, Janie desires a similar love and affection from a man such as the bee endows on the tree. (Dilbeck 1) After her revelation with the pear tree she sees Johnny Taylor and kisses him, transforming into a young woman. It is at this moment that Janie realizes what she wants, sensual intimacy, and she begins the search for someone who can give her the world.
After Nanny observes Janie kissing Taylor all of Janie’s desires are halted and she is told that her wildness will be stabalized. Nanny fears that her granddaughter’s desires are dangerous and worries about her future. (Domina 1) It is only through money and respectability that Nanny believes Janie will be saved from the same fate as her mother’s. (Daniel 3) Janie marries Logan Killicks hoping that she will gain the “pear tree” love she desires after they are married. “Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day? […] Yes, she would love Logan after they were married. […] Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant. It was just so. Janie felt glad of the thought…She wouldn’t be lonely anymore.” (Hurston 21) But that was not what Logan had in mind for their marriage. There was no intimacy of any sort, their relationship was materialistic and based off the fact that she would be stable with his sixty acres of land. It is because of his sixty acres of land, chopped wood, filled water buckets, and his not placing his hands on her that Janie finds she cannot love Logan. Her desire does not involve materialistic love but a wild, untamed sensual love.
It is at this point that Janie decides to leave Killicks for Jody Starks. Jody intrigued Janie, “…although he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, he spoke for far horizon.He spoke for change and chance.” (Daniel 4) For a period of time it seemed as if Jody gave Janie everything she wanted both sensually and materialistically, becoming mayor of Eatonville he placed her on a high pedistal in society. But he becomes arrogant and insulting “imposing on Janie his old-fashioned ideas concerning a woman’s place and possibilities.” (Spillers 6) After being silenced for more than eighteen years Janie realizes that although she loved Jody he was not her vision of the “pear tree”. Discovering that she is to be no more than Mayor Starks wife upsets Janie because those are not her aspirations, “…and he didn’t mean for nobody else’s wife to rank her. She must look on herself as the cow-bell, the other women were her gang.” (Hurston 41) Eventhough Jody supports her financially and materialistically he does not meet the aspirations of Janie’s ideal love. But the moment after Jody dies is when Janie truly finds what she has been looking for.
At nearly forty years old Janie meets and falls in love with Tea Cake Woods, causing immense controversy within the Eatonville community . By becoming an intimate acquaintance of Tea Cake’s, Janie dismisses Nanny’s marital values and follows her own of sweet and wild love. “Tea Cake is the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree bloosom in the spring…He was a glance from God.” (Daniel 5) Even though Tea Cake is “lower” in social and financial status compared to Janie she accepts and loves him anyway. And Tea Cake shows that no matter what happens he will always provide for Janie and loves her with a sensual passion never seen within Janie’ s previous relationships with Logan and Jody.Tea Cake encourages her to grasp for anything, and if Janie wants the world he will give it to her. With him, Janie is no longer confined and forced to obey but viewed as his equal. Because Tea Cake allows her to be herself and she enjoys his company, Janie not only moves out to the Everglades with him but also works in the fields beside him. In her third and final marriage Janie finally finds the intimacy she has been searching for. It is seen throughout the novel that Tea Cake not only appreciates Janie’s beauty, intelligence, and independence, but he also shows her tenderness, trust, and respect. (Dilbeck 1) This is mainly viewed in Chapter Seventeen: “Before the week was over he had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him. Being able to whip her reassured him in possession. No brutal beating at all. He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss…It aroused a sort of envy in both men and women. The way he petted and pampered her as if those two or three slaps had nearly killed her made the women see visions and the helpless way she hung on him made men dream dreams…” (Spillers 6) Tragically after a hurrican, Tea Cake dies of rabies infection. It is in this scene that Janie must kill Tea Cake in order to save not only herself but him too, “…Janie kills him in self-defense, though she had hoped he would die peacefully.” (Domina 3) It is during this moment that the reader see how much Janie and Tea Cake had truly cared for one another. “ Before she married Tea Cake Janie didn’t know that she was the world (Hurston 76), but because he allowed her to be his equal he gave her the world, he let her know that she could love a man and love herself.
Janie Mae Crawford’s desire to be loved sensually rather than materialistically is captured through marital motifs in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Although Nanny desired her to be in a stable relationship for status, Janie desired a more intimate relationship. Her first two marriages were what Nanny aspired for Janie, but Janie’s marriage to Tea Cake was like a singing bee sinking into the sanctum of a bloom. “…Love ain’t somethin lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.” (Hurston 191) Love is different with every relationship, but it is successful when both parties are able to fulfill their desires. Practicallity and tradition are values that are not always important in the fulfillment of that pear tree analogy of love. Sometimes wild and passionate intimacy is what it takes to be given the world.