Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay Example
"Now, Bring Me That Horizon"
Janie is a dreamer and a searcher. She is forever looking for love and companionship, through which she hopes to find happiness. Janie pursues that ideal for forty years although in the end she is unable to keep it. However, with the death of Teacake, it becomes clear that the path Janie followed has actually led her to something of the utmost value; the discovery of herself. Janie's travel down this path is observed in reference to the ideal she seeks, the horizon. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the metaphor of the horizon is the reference point, the ideal state of being, that Janie's journey of self-discovery is illustrated by.
The long search that Janie undergoes begins in her grandmother's backyard underneath the pear tree. While Janie was lying underneath its blossoming canopy, the pear tree " called her to come and gaze upon a mystery." (10) It is in this moment that the tree sparks Janie's curiosity about love and showed her what it looked like. The blooms "emerged and questioned about her consciousness." (11) Having seen what love was; the "singing bees," Janie immediately wants to find it for herself. The narrator states that "[Janie] searched as much of the world as she could from the top of the front steps and then went on down to the front gate and leaned over to gaze up and down the road. Looking, waiting, breathing short with impatience. Waiting for the world to be made." (11) It is to the horizon that Janie looks to for new possibilities and love. Peering into the horizon, Janie suddenly espies "a glorious being coming up the road." (11) This "glorious being" is Johnny Taylor and when they kiss it is Janie's first step towards her becoming a woman, the kiss marks "the end of her childhood" (12). Thus Janie is shown to be a person who searches for love and will always be aware that love is just over the horizon.
The second stop on Janie's journey of self-discovery is her marriage to Logan
Janie is a dreamer and a searcher. She is forever looking for love and companionship, through which she hopes to find happiness. Janie pursues that ideal for forty years although in the end she is unable to keep it. However, with the death of Teacake, it becomes clear that the path Janie followed has actually led her to something of the utmost value; the discovery of herself. Janie's travel down this path is observed in reference to the ideal she seeks, the horizon. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the metaphor of the horizon is the reference point, the ideal state of being, that Janie's journey of self-discovery is illustrated by.
The long search that Janie undergoes begins in her grandmother's backyard underneath the pear tree. While Janie was lying underneath its blossoming canopy, the pear tree " called her to come and gaze upon a mystery." (10) It is in this moment that the tree sparks Janie's curiosity about love and showed her what it looked like. The blooms "emerged and questioned about her consciousness." (11) Having seen what love was; the "singing bees," Janie immediately wants to find it for herself. The narrator states that "[Janie] searched as much of the world as she could from the top of the front steps and then went on down to the front gate and leaned over to gaze up and down the road. Looking, waiting, breathing short with impatience. Waiting for the world to be made." (11) It is to the horizon that Janie looks to for new possibilities and love. Peering into the horizon, Janie suddenly espies "a glorious being coming up the road." (11) This "glorious being" is Johnny Taylor and when they kiss it is Janie's first step towards her becoming a woman, the kiss marks "the end of her childhood" (12). Thus Janie is shown to be a person who searches for love and will always be aware that love is just over the horizon.
The second stop on Janie's journey of self-discovery is her marriage to Logan