In Zora Neale Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie develops from a young girl of dependence and detachment from her own identity, into a woman of emotional fulfillment and freedom. Through each relationship she yearns for the mutual love she has always desired, and until she ignores societys conforming ways is she able to encompass this. Laurence Stern once wrote, No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a mans mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength- for Janie it being her weakness in succumbing to others wants and preventing herself to accomplish her quest for love. As Janie battles between conformity and the appeasement of others with her own ambition for a true love, she enables her self to accomplish that execution, grow emotionally, and achieve her own independence.
Janie appeases to her Nannys aspiration for her to marry Logan, but as she begins to realize that Logan suppresses her dream of having a true love she decides to abandon him. As Janie constantly ponders the idea of the pear tree, she wonders where the singing bees are for her (11). Showing her interest in wanting to know if she will continue to be lonely presages her journey for love (20). Her grandmother wants her to marry Logan so that she may have security and protection, but this only results in Janies unhappiness. She does not wish to marry Logan and she constantly walks back and forth from the pear tree continuously wondering and thinking, symbolizing her discomfort in the idea (20). This symbolic plant represents Janies blooming into womanhood and the vision of Logan Killicks desecrates the pear tree for her (13). Because this young girl succumbs to her grandmothers wishes rather than her own, she is left unhappy and learns that marriage does not make love as she had once misled herself into thinking (24). She is unable to connect to Logan emotionally or physically, which is a main necessity in her idea of love, and this causes her to grow further away from Logan. After she meets Jody and he represents the ideal man of what her grandmother could have envisioned for her, Janie decides that she must leave. As she does, she decides that even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good (31). Janie is fighting against conformity by leaving Logan to find true love for herself, but by doing this for a man that is the perfect example of what her grandmother would want for her proves this to be ironic. Janie is unknowingly tangled, but this act foreshadows the beginning of her new independence.
Jody provides Janie with the hope that he is her true love, but only to disprove this and cause Janie to become more independent. Janie marries Jody so that she may escape her marriage with Logan and have a life that will be convenient and secure. Jody gives her false hope as he sweet talks her into going with him, only to begin to treat her as his possession when he stops making speeches with rhymes to her (32). As Jody becomes mayor of the city, this role Janie fulfills of being more of a possession than as his partner, comes to light. When Jody buys land for Eatonville, the town is overcome with joy and wants to hear a speech from Janie. Jody responds by telling the crowd that his wife dont know nothing bout no speech-makin and that he never married her for nothin lak dat (41). This first act of control that Jody makes public causes Janie to notice that even though she didnt know if she care to make [a speech] at all, Jody didnt even give her the opportunity. She was uncomfortable about the situation, but once again conforms by not saying anything to him or objecting to this. As Jody forces Janie to wear the rag on her head because of his jealousy and worry of losing her, Janies anger builds up within her. She recognizes that she made a mistake in running of with him because of his money and as he is dying she reveals to him all the feeling she has kept inside. Janies independence from his death grows more as she tells Pheoby that she jus loves dis freedom (89). She chooses not to conform into what society would want her to do- showing that she is sorry Jody is gone- and because of this Janie begins to unravel her true identity and find out who she is.
When Janie rebels against what the community tells her and leaves with Tea Cake, she marks the point where she chooses true love over conformity. Janie believes that Tea Cake could be a bee to a blossoma pear tree blossom and this proves that Janie once again hopes that Tea Cake will be her companion (101). She runs off with Tea Cake to the Everglades against what Pheoby and the town has told her, but shows that she has her own insecurities when he steals from her. Unlike the other men that have done her wrong, Tea Cake is able to repay her and because of this Janie feels a self-crushing love for him (122). She is then able to rid herself of the constant persuasions that her community and family have put in her head about marriage and love. Even though Tea Cake causes them to stay back from the storm, it is mutual. Janie and Tea Cake contain the love that Janie has always yearned for- the bee to her blossom. Tea Cake sacrifices his life for her when he is bitten by the dog. But sadly, Janie shoots Tea Cake causing it to be the meanest moment of eternity (175). She killed her one true love, the one who taught her how to shoot a gun, just so that she may live. The sacrifice of this solidifies her emotional growth and independence.
As Janie returns to Eatonville, despite what everyone thinks, this ends her journey for the quest to find herself. Janie chooses to be with Tea Cake because of what she wants. Not because it appeases her grandmother, or because it fulfills the fantasy she has of obtaining what her grandmother never had, but because of true and mutual love that she has always longed for. Janie learns that when she listens to herself, rather than other people, she is able to achieve her own personal happiness. Janies accomplishes her childhood dream. Her conflict with conformity and love no longer exists, and because she was able to grow and understand which one was more important to her, she is now only dependent upon herself.
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