Hurston uses the tension between male and female figures in Janie’s life to promote her emotional growth and maturity. Janie’s spiritual journey traces back to her moment under the pear tree. Janie’s moment under the pear tree is an important symbol that defines the center of her quest throughout the novel, as it serves as the standard sexual and emotional fulfillment that she desires. The tree mirrors standard gender stereotypes as it references the tree waiting for the male bee to penetrate its blossoms. The subtle but efficient language that is used to describe the tree alludes to the female role: “the thousand sister calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree” (10). Hurston’s allusion to the bee and the tree,
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This is a defining moment in Janie’s emotional maturity as it marks the origin of all her struggles and hardships in becoming a woman. Janie’s womanhood wasn’t bred from just looking under a pear tree however, her hidden confidence was the result of three painful marriages. We see in Janie and Joe’s relationship, that Joe did not provide the mutual embrace she desired. Janie’s marriage with Joe did not have the type of emotional and physical connection that Janie had sought, as he suppressed her womanly aspects. Throughout Janie’s journey, the control of her own voice has always been a struggle; Joe’s oppressive nature only suppressed Janie’s voice even further and for a long time Janie lived under the vision of Joe’s voice instead of her own. The defining moment when she finally sums up the courage to talk back is when she finally breaks free from Joe’s bind. After Janie had insulted Joe back from his assaults, “Joe Starks realized all the meanings and his vanity bled like a flood. Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish, which was terrible...For what can excuse a man in the eyes of other men for lack of strength?”
This is a defining moment in Janie’s emotional maturity as it marks the origin of all her struggles and hardships in becoming a woman. Janie’s womanhood wasn’t bred from just looking under a pear tree however, her hidden confidence was the result of three painful marriages. We see in Janie and Joe’s relationship, that Joe did not provide the mutual embrace she desired. Janie’s marriage with Joe did not have the type of emotional and physical connection that Janie had sought, as he suppressed her womanly aspects. Throughout Janie’s journey, the control of her own voice has always been a struggle; Joe’s oppressive nature only suppressed Janie’s voice even further and for a long time Janie lived under the vision of Joe’s voice instead of her own. The defining moment when she finally sums up the courage to talk back is when she finally breaks free from Joe’s bind. After Janie had insulted Joe back from his assaults, “Joe Starks realized all the meanings and his vanity bled like a flood. Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish, which was terrible...For what can excuse a man in the eyes of other men for lack of strength?”