Quiz: Their Eyes Were Watching God

The pear tree marks Janie’s coming of age and her sexual awakening. Standing under its leaves, she feels as if she had been “summoned to behold a revelation.” Enraptured, Janie determines it a “marriage.” From then on, Hurston invokes the pear tree to represent the passionate, spiritual love that Janie searches for in her relationships with men.

Although good vs. evil is a common theme in literature, it is not a major theme in this novel. The three other answer choices are all significant themes in the novel: gender and power dynamics (explored via Janie's relationships), search for identity (central to the narrative of Janie's life), and nature and spirituality (demonstrated by the novel's view of fate and the interconnection between God and the natural world).

The novel draws an analogy between the mule and the subordination of women (particularly black women). Early in the novel, Nanny tells Janie that black women are "de mule uh de world."

The connection is later seen in Janie's relationships with both Logan and Jody. First, Janie feels like a mule in her marriage to Logan as he commands her to work in the fields. Then, when Janie is married to Jody, a malnourished mule is the topic of much discussion with the locals. Janie feels heartbroken for the mule, so Jody buys it—a gesture that symbolizes his domestic ownership over both his wife and the animal.

Tea Cake is Janie’s ultimate love. In their relationship, Janie is his equal, and therefore she is free. By contrast, Nanny forced her into a loveless marriage with Logan, Logan treated her like a mule, and Jody beat and silenced her.

Janie’s hair is a significant source of her attractiveness and femininity. Consequently, her hair is also a source of power; it is one of the only currencies available to her in male-dominated spaces. Her long hair also symbolizes the ways in which race informs power. Janie has long hair due to her mixed ancestry, and as a result, she is perceived by some characters as being worthy of a higher social status.