Janie's American Dream

Generally speaking, Their Eyes were Watching God is a novel about a black woman trying to find true love while being oppressed by a variety of factors including nature and class differences. Men, however, top the list; the main character, Janie, had a total of three husbands, two of which treated her poorly. The third husband, Tea Cake, was the exception. He helped Janie accomplish inner peace by allowing her to flourish into her own character. Janie would not have found Tea Cake, however, had she not realized her dream under her Grandmother’s pear tree. When Janie realizes her dream under the pear tree, Hurston establishes the need to chase dreams in order to obtain self-revelation.
When Janie lays under the pear tree, she realizes her lifelong dream of true love. Written in an ethereal tone, this scene illustrates Janie’s feelings about her realization. Finally figuring out the meaning of “marriage,” the pear tree gave Janie a “revelation” about what she wanted out of her life (Hurston, 11): true love which is equally felt between the two participants. Realizing her dream is a key component which allows her to follow the path to …show more content…
Tea Cake was Janie’s envisioned dream of true love, and Janie’s actions after his death emphasize how Tea Cake has led her to self-revelation. Upon returning home and telling her life story to Pheobe, Janie returns to her bedroom. At this moment, soft syllables, such as those used in “sigh”, “song”, “love” and “light”, illustrate an ethereal tone that represents Janie’s soul at peace; she has obtained inner peace with who she has become, or obtained self-revelation (183-184). Tea Cake had not only allowed her to achieve inner peace but also filled a piece of her soul; in fact, Janie could not think of him as gone as long as she continued “feeling and thinking,” as if Tea Cake had built her character into a human being instead of keeping her as a mule