Their Eyes Were Watching God Tree Analysis

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In the novel, Their Eyes were Watching God, tree symbolize a number of things. For example, certain types of trees represent different feelings to Janie, such as the pear tree which symbolizes love and opportunity and reflects the qualities Janie finds ideal in a romantic partner. In addition, different parts of a tree represent different aspects of Janie's life, such as roots being her family ties, branches symbolizing her various life experiences, and buds representing her loss of childhood innocence. Hurston makes clever use of trees in this story, utilizing it as a trope to reflects Janie’s situation as various points in the novel.
One of the more obvious ways Hurston makes use of this trope is with the pear tree. As Janie witnesses a …show more content…
Dawn and doom was in the branches, ” (Hurston 8). This is a fitting comparison, as Janie spends her life seeking the emotions she experiences under the pear tree. However, the tree of Janie;s memories is very different from the pear tree. It is not romanticized, nor does it contain blossom, which the best things in life: opportunity, hope, love. This tree, however, is made of more than just the good things, as it contains Janie's memories and life experiences. This tree presents a more accurate depiction of life, as it is filled with both suffering and joy. The transformation of the pear tree in Janie's youth to the memory tree presented later in Janie’s life displays the development of this trope. While originally thee tree symbolized what Janie hoped her life to be, the memory tree is representative of how her life actually turns out to be. Additionally, Janie’s Nanny inserts that colored folks are like “branches without roots.” Though on the surface this quote compares colored people to trees, a symbol of hope and opportunity in the novel, there is a much darker meaning to this particular quote. Historically, black women such as Janie’s grandmother were kept as slaves, and their parents, siblings, and children could be sold and the will of their owners. Because of this, it was difficult for them to develop “roots.” This being said, Janie does not have many family ties or influences, therefore she has the opportunity to write her own destiny. Though Nanny assumes this will be accomplished by Janie’s marriage to Logan Killiks, in actuality Janie finds this freedom and opportunity through Tea
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