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"...the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume..."(2).

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Her hair here can represent how she is now truly free, but this time not under favorable circumstances.

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"Before she slept that night she burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house the next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist"(89).

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By letting her hair flow freely, she felt new sense of confidence because she was no longer confined by Joe, or the head rag.

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"She 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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This shows her true comfort and relaxation through telling how she enjoys laying under the tree; the tree may represent love.

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"She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was marriage!"(11).

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What happened here represents how she has realized the beauty of love and marriage, such as what the pear tree has shown her. She associates love with comfort, like she is stretched underneath the tree.

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"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until..."(1).

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For some people their wishes may come true, but others may spend their life forever sailing just on the edge, or forever out of sight.

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"Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance. Still she hung back. The memory of Nanny was still powerful and strong"(29).

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Joe did not represent much of what the pear tree did, but he did speak of the "horizon" unlike Nanny, who held her back so much. Joe had goals, and was ambitious to reach them.

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"This time she asked where they were all going and at last one of the men answered her. 'Going to high ground. Saw-grass bloom. Hurricane coming'"(154).

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This was a telling situation that should have acted as a warning for the upcoming disaster, but the naive nature of the men of the muck would later impact them all.

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"They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God"(160).

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The hurricanes might was measurable to God's, and everyone sat waiting and questioning his ambitions and what he planned to let happen to them

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"Thank yuh fuh yo' compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin' bout no speech-makin'. Ah never married her for nothin' lak dat. She's uh woman and her place is in de home"(43).

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Janie was silenced by Joe; he strongly thinks that a woman should be quiet and stick to her normal tasks, which seemed promising to Janie at first until now.

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"Janie did what she had never done before, that is, thrust herself into the conversation. 'Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business'"(75).

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This shows a change of character in Janie; she stands up and speaks for herself, not letting Joe silence her in that moment.

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"Jody, dat wuz uh might fine thing fuh you tuh do. 'Tain't everybody would have thought of it, 'cause it ain't no everyday thought. Freein' dat mule makes uh mighty big man outa you"(58).

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Releasing the mule and making him independent can be a sign of foreshadowing of Janie's later freedom.

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"Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see, and opened up the window and cried, 'Come hear people! Jody is dead. Mah husband is gone from me'"(87).

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Janie announces Joe's death, but must put on a face beforehand. She is finally free, despite the unfortunate events that had to lead to that. Nevertheless, she is still happy.

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"So she would pick at me all de time and put some others up tuh do the same. They'd push me 'way from de ring plays and make out they couldn't play wid nobody dat lived on premises" (9).

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Janie was made fun of when she was younger for her race, and constantly excluded from the groups of children.

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"Tuh git hold of uh woman lak you. You got mo' nerve than me. Ah jus' couldn't see mahself married to no black man. It's too many black folks already. We oughta lighten up de race"(140).

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She dislikes the other black people, and feels that they shouldn't be around as much, and should obey white people.

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"Naw it ain't, it's nature, cause nature makes caution. It's de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it's de onliest thing God ever made. He made nature and nature made everything else"(65).

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This part of the argument between two men uses God to justify his statement, saying that everything was brought about from him.

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"The spirit of marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor... So she put something in there to represent the spirit like a Virgin Mary image in a church"(71).

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The couple's spirit was no longer a new, fresh love, but instead a business only meant for show.

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"Ah'm buyin' in here, and buyin' in big. Soon's we find some place to sleep tonight us menfolks got to call people together and form a committee. Then we can get things movin' round here" (35).

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Joe wants to form a committee of the men to get something going in the town, later forming a much better community.

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"The house was full of people every night. That is, all around the doorstep was full. Some were there to pick the box; some came to talk and tell stories..."(133).

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A sense of community is felt in the fun and games that the people of the muck create, all gathering at where Janie and Tea Cake were staying.

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"Dis occasion is something for us all tuh remember tuh our dyin' day. De first street lamp in uh colored town"(45).

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This was a moment in history for those of the all black town; Joe was the one to bring light to the dark streets.

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"Ah ain't never seen mah papa. And Ah didn't know 'im if Ah did. Mah mama neither"(8).

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We are given a bit of backstory from Janie, and we learn that she doesn't know who her father is, and hasn't seen her mother. This explains to us why she lives with the white folks and Nanny.

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"Heah, Ah just as good as take you out de white folks' kitchen and set you down on yo' royal diasticutis and you take and low-rate me! Ah'll take holt uh dat ax and come in dere and kill yuh!" (31).

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Logan is displaying his power here by threatening to kill Janie for not listening to what he wants her to do.

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"The wife of the Mayor was not just another woman as she had supposed. She slept with authority and so she was part of it in the town mind"(46).

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Janie was seen as an authority figure, because she was with a man who had power. She disliked the fact that everyone looked up to her, because she could never be an equal with them.

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"Oh to be a pear tree- any tree in bloom! With kissing bees and singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and busting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her" (11).

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This is representative of a beautiful thing arising from nature, and she imagined it to be like the joining of two souls.

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"Janie buried Tea Cake in Palm Beach. She knew he loved the 'Glades but it was too low for him to lie with water maybe washing over him with every heavy rain....Tea Cake was the son of Evening Sun, and nothing was too good"(189).

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This shows that Janie loves Tea Cake very much; she wanted to bury him in a nice place where he wouldn't be harmed. He was an amazing person, and nothing could reach his level of importance to Janie.

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"Well, she thought, that big old dawg with the hatred in his eyes had killed her after all" (178).

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Janie's fate was decided once Tea Cake's was- the dog had killed him, therefore killing her as well because her love was gone.

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"The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman" (25).

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She believed that love was nearly impossible, and thought that she was destined to deal with a loveless marriage, all different from what she had hoped for before.