Journal 1

Hurston's use of nature acts as a way to cease a view of the environment, and to highlight a special understanding for Janie that is referred to throughout the book. Janies experience underneath the pear tree is a defining moment in her life, and one that creates a new view of love. At first, the stereotypical repetition seems to come out within this page, but Hurston's careful language creates a give-and-take relationship between the bees and the blossoms of the pear tree. "The thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree"(11). While underneath this tree, she is introduced to the sexuality of the springtime, but also to the sexual and emotional fulfillment that she will spend her life aching to find. She soon craves the attention the pear tree attains, wondering "where were the singing bees for her?"(11). Janies marriage to Mr.Killicks on the other hand, acts as a foil to her desire of a springtime relationship: "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think."(24) Janie searches for a relationship that carries both a physical and emotional fulfillment, one that Logan fails to promise. "She now knew that marriage did not make love"(25), but that the springtime relationship is the promise of her fulfillment craving.

I enjoy Hurston's use of nature throughout this section of the book; does Hurston repeat this technique within other books she has written? Also, the use of dialect within this book greatly enhances my understanding of the environment, but also knowing the date to which this book takes place would be helpful. What time does this book takes place? And depending on the time that this book takes place, was an arranged marriage common? Or just was purposefully placed on Janie to enhance her life?