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Janie's mother was raped and nothing was done about it since she was a black woman. This was seen as acceptable at the time by many people.

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"Dat school teacher had done hid her in de woods all night long, and he had done raped mah baby and run on off just before day" (19)

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Janie grew up around white children and didn't realize she wasn't white until she saw a picture of herself. The white parents of the children found this humorous.

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"Everybody laughed...she pointed to de dark one and said, 'Dat's you, Alphabet, don't you know yo' ownself?'" (9)

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Nanny wanted Janie married as soon as possible so she could have some sort of "direction" in her life. This resulted in a brief, sad marriage between Janie and Logan. Which is an example of the holding back of Janie's independence.

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"'Ah wants to see you married right away.' 'Who Ah'm goin' tuh marry off-hand lak dat? Ah don't know nobody'" (13)

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Nanny restricted Janie from any sort of independence and didn't believe that she could manage her life by herself.

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"Neither can you stand alone by yo'self. De thought uh you bein' kicked around from pillar tuh post is uh hurtin' thing." (15)

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Janie also brings up how controlling Joe is and that since becoming mayor he's become full of himself. Joe seems to think that he's above everyone else.

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"You ain't tried tuh pacify nobody but yo'self. Too busy listening tuh yo' own big voice" (87)

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Janie speaks up about how she feels about him. She's tired of who he's become compared to the "original" Joe she ran off with.

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"Listen, Jody, you ain't de Jody ah run off down de road wid. You'se whut's left after he died." (86)

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Sitting on the porch in the evening was a frequent thing to do, it was a time to be social and know the people around you.

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"It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk" (1)

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Since Janie was halfblack and desegregation was yet to happen she was poked fun at for being friends with white children,

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"Us lived dere havin' fun till de chillun at school got to teasin' me 'bout livin' in de white folks' back-yard" (9)

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To give a sense of the times, it's brought up how Nanny was born into slavery. Which shows how such an event wasn't as long ago as it may seem.

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"Ah was born back due in slavery so it wasn't for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do." (16)

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Although Janie later talks about how much she resented her grandmother, Nanny did love her. She just had a specific way of wanting/doing things for Janie

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"Ah loves yuh a whole heap more'n Ah do yo' mama" (15)

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Tea Cake was the first man Janie ever actually loved. She saw him as perfect and could only see him in a positive light when they first met.

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Since Joe had gotten power in Eatonville, he now wanted it to grow and prosper like any other town.

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"He looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom-- a pear tree blossom in the spring" (106)

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"Jody himself would be busy driving around from town to town telling people about Eatonville and drumming up citizens to move there" (41)

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Nanny believes all things will happen in time, and that God is the one who provides these happenings.

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"De Lawd will provide. He know Ah done bore de burden in de heat uh de day" (13)

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Janie knew Tea Cake was a better person than the men who cut him, even if they proclaimed to be pure and Christian.

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"Tea Cake had more good nature under his toe-nails than they had in their so-called Christian hearts" (126)

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No one was brave enough to go against Joe on how he ran the town. He received a sort of entitlement from this "bowing down".

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"They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down" (50)

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The most anyone could do during the hurricane was wait and see how events would turn out. It wasn't really in anyone's control.

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"...they didn’t look at anything but the door. The time was past for asking the white folks what to look for through that door. Six eyes were questioning God" (159)

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Janie has been waiting for a love like this in her life, and now she's worried she's lost it because Tea Cake had yet to return.

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"And God, please suh, don’t let him love nobody else but me. May Ah’m is uh fool, Lawd, lak dey say, ... Ah done waited uh long time"  (120)

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Joe had power over the other people in the town, and because of this he was bound to come across people who dislike with him.

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"...any man who walks in the way of power and property is bound to meet hate" (48)

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Janie took life by the reigns and took control of her goals despite all of the events that took place in her life

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Water from the lake starts rising and it's beginning to flood.

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The hurricane quickly worsened and was causing worry from everyone who didn't evacuate

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"'De lake is comin’!' and the pursuing waters growled and shouted ahead, 'Yes, Ah’m comin’!'. and those who could fled on" (162)

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"The wind came back with triple fury and put out the light for the last time" (160)

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"She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder" (193)

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Wishes don't always come true and can be just out of reach, other times they do happen to come within the reach of opportunity.

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"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For others they sail forever on the horizon" (1)

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Janie compares her idea of marriage to sitting under a pear tree and calls it "sweet".

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"Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think" (24)

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The pear tree is a representation of Janie's desire and understanding of romance, this is even shown here in the beginning of the novel during Janie's childhood

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"[Janie] was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her" (11)

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In Janie's relationship with Tea Cake, she has a lot more freedom, like letting her hair down and having Tea Cake combing it. She isn't forced to hide who she is.

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"Why, Tea Cake? Whut good do combin’ mah hair do you? It’s mah comfortable, not yourn" (103)

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Joe enforced the restriction of keeping Janie's hair covered. This restriction allowed Joe to claim his "ownership" over Janie and didn't allow other men to look at her hair.

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"Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn’t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was" (55)