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The Horizon
Janie has her first experience of sexual awakening under the blooming pear tree in spring, just before her first kiss with Johnny Taylor. Throughout the novel, the pear tree symbolizes for Janie the feeling she experienced directly while sitting beneath it – the sense of possibility in life for a connection between the self and the natural world, and the feelings of sexual desire and love. Thus when looking at the sexualized imagery of the pear tree blossoms, Janie declares, "So this was a marriage!" Janie's conflation between sexual desire and marriage is an idea that is eventually debunked for Janie by her experiences with Jody, but is reinvigorated when she meets Tea Cake and finds that her marriage to him allows room for both sexual fulfillment and love. It is for this reason that Janie feels she has finally reached the horizon.
The Pear Tree Quotes in Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Their Eyes Were Watching God quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Pear Tree. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2
Quotes
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. 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 a marriage!
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Chapter 4
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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.
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Chapter 11
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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. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God.
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The Pear Tree Symbol Timeline in Their Eyes Were Watching God
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Pear Tree appears in Their Eyes Were Watching God. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...she is sixteen. The day of the kiss, Janie spends the day under a blossoming pear tree in Nanny's yard. Janie is moved by the fertility of the tree, finding its shift...
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Chapter 3
...how she yearns for something "sweet" in her marriage, like "when you sit under a pear tree ."
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Chapter 11
...feelings for him, she refers to him as "a bee to a blossom – a pear tree blossom in spring." Yet Janie still attempts to convince herself that she is not interested...
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