Images of Nature in Janie's Life

Through out the novel, there are several references to nature being involved with Janie's life. The beginning of her life as an adult begins with her under a pear tree, trying to come to terms with the cycle of all things natural. When Nanna sees Janie kissing the boy, I expected a lecture on purity and chastity, not about needing a good marriage in order to be taken care of.

The purest thing in Janie's life always seems to be nature. She returns to nature in times of strife and in times of happiness. As a reader, I expected her life to be full of working on the land and living from it, not trying to marry and escape from it. When Janie was with her first husband she was so repulsed by the idea of a woman working, and especially with a woman working the land. I was very surprised by this. Perhaps this reaction was due to her grandmother having been a slave and thus Janie formed an opinion of work being always akin to slavery. This idea is shown yet again when she marries Joe and is forced to work miserably in the store.

Another theme tied into nature through out this novel is change. Every time Janie has a life change, she is outside. First again with the pear tree, then when she meets Joe outside on the road and agrees to marry him, next when she meets Tea Cake and spends time on the porch or fishing and doing other outdoor activities. The most important example of this is the hurricane. This is the only scene where nature is a negative force in Janie's life, and comes at the happiest point in her life, creating an interesting juxtaposition.