Janie's "Pear Tree" Idealization

            Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God criticizes society’s restraints on Janie as a woman. From the beginning of the novel, Janie is forced to make hard decisions while under intense pressure. Janie compromises her ideal vision of a marriage and ends up making bad decisions in regards to her first marriage. This then leads to more decisions and a failed second marriage as well.

            When Janie marries Logan Chillick, she abandons her idealization of a marriage all together. Because of Nanny’s past experiences, she pressures her to marry a man for financial and social stability. Janie does not find Logan attractive, on the contrary she actually finds him repulsive. In order to set Janie up for a good life, she abandons the idea of love to satisfy her Nanny’s sense of security for her life.

            Janie’s second marriage is also not a result of her feelings for Jody Starks, but rather finding Logan repulsive. When she runs away from her life with Logan, she even says it does not matter whether Jody was there to meet her, she just could not stand a life with Logan. She is attracted to the things that make him different from Logan. She likes his ambition and work ethic as opposed to Logan’s sedentary life style. She also likes the way he says he will treat her. She was offended when Logan said he would buy a mule for her, but likes when Jody says he will treat her daintily and almost like a trophy wife. She acts with an impulse rather than thinking through a life with Jody. As a result, instead of feelings respected and valued by Jody, she feels repressed and neglected while they are married. When Jody dies, Janie feels relieved and as if a large pressure had been lifted off of her. For a brief period after Jody dies, Janie simulates mourning. She wears the appropriate clothing that would go with mourning, but is not actually depressed by his death.

            Janie’s life after her second marriage is the first time she acts on her own without outside influences. Although there are people who give her advice against Tea Cake, she chooses to ignore them. They warn her to be cautious because of the age gap and difference in economic status, but Janie chooses to follow her feelings. She gets closer to her “pear tree” ideal vision and make her romantic decisions based on love. Because of this, her time with Tea Cake is the first time in the novel the readers are hopeful for Janie. Although we do not yet know what happens, Tea Cake is the first time Janie’s relationship has a possibility of a positive outcome.