Opportunities are hard to trust and rare and it was the mission of many to create a world better for the next generation. That was Nanny’s hope for Janie, after Nanny’s years of slavery and what happened to Leafy, and Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. The greats. Silence in the face of injustice is the same as committing the crime. To become educated to these injustices is the first step, but just as racism is prejudice enacted, it is hoped that enlightenment enacted and spread with bring change. The time when Janie was the most happy was when she had fewer material possessions, in “The Muck”, and she found family and a community united together. Race did bring privilege but it did not bring happiness. Mrs.Turner idealizing what she could never be only bought her sorrow. Instead, like Janie we must strive for our best future, and equality, but not adopting the attitude of those who created the gap in the first place. 

This misplaced hate/fear manifests in Their Eyes Were Watching God when Janie is worried about Tea Cake and Nunkie, when Mrs.Turner projects her own wanting for the white lifestyle on the what she though were the faults in black people, and when Tea Cake hits Janie to show his dominance after Janie's conversations with Mrs.Turner. This misplacing of emotions is just a diversion to the separation in our country. Mrs.Turner blames black people for her own exclusion in society instead of the real wrongdoers, while in modern day racists take their own insecurities and fears out on black people with acts of violence on the community .This brings into question who and what the Constitution protects: simply freedom. A declaration of freedom quickly becomes an excuse for exclusion; we satisfy the majority so easily that the voices of the minority is silenced by those in a position of power. However, given a platform to speak, like Janie, an ocean of resistance comes forth. Soon, this build up of emotion leads to a burst in the dam, a perforation to our walls. One event can change anything, begin and end journeys, but eventually the back and forth will cease; it is the nature of the pendulum to come to rest in the center. The minority, dignity stripped, trust divided, and left to itself, has a way to flourish and grow into its own. The nation may shrivel until there is no sand left to hold and a new age will rise. The path to the horizon was paved by dreamer, like Janie and today’s immigrants, their noble dreams will sustain and advance our country. 

In the end of the book, the cloak of the horizon/the sky Janie wears is proof of her accomplishment. Janie suffered from suppression in her first two relationships, and lacked the freedom to express herself and find her substance in life. When put away at the will of other people’s hate one “sings” for freedom (even within themselves). The poem “I too sing America” illustrates how the struggle in finding ones place in the world made more difficult by societal circumstances (segregation and prejudice/racism). However, the larger the suppression can also mean the greater the push back. Even if you clip someone's wings it does not remove the urge to fly. The bird in this poem is caged, and unable to do the things it dreams of, so in turn it sings of freedom, release, and the future it always looks towards. There is power in voice, and one match can start a fire in other. Janie’s story is inspiring and moves Phoebe to almost disbelieve and makes Phoebe realize she wants the same things for herself. People want to have the option to explore the unknown, but are often too scared to pursuit something foreign. It can sometimes take an outside force to jumpstart action, like many historic and modern African American civil rights movements. In history and struggle it is very true that we stand on the shoulder of giants and on the graves of those before you (those who could not fulfill their own song by fought so others could).

There can often be one story when venture into the world, a single narrative about a mass group. There are many stories about the dangerous African American, or about the native Africans who are poor and uneducated to the modern world. These negative and harsh genalizers are never used to describe mass white people, the stereotype basic white girl, does not have nearly as many racial or social connotations. This single story speaks a lot for how society isn’t enlightened. Media has a way of skewing the modern perception, so that is is centered around the story of the majority that helps get across their message. It reminds me of the saying, “there is always a little truth in the best lies or else no one would believe them.” If something happens once, or is said to, it can be believed forever, especially when the voice of the accused is so easily silence. Stories have power, which is why through the ages people want to hide some of the ones we prefer to forget, despite the benefit for our culture to remember them. The sad things that happened to people for not reason, injustice, racism, war. It is a curious dynamic that people would rather take the fictional to be real; the story of the exotic and primitive African American, in place of learning any truth that would require discovery and discussion.