Authors often use symbolism to emphasize a deeper meaning in important situations. This popular technique frequently helps to establish the basis of a story. Unraveling these mysteries of symbolic word puzzles can be one of the most interesting investigations. Zora Neale Hurston, the writer of Their Eyes Were Watching God, applies this method in her book to shape the course of the protagonist Janie Crawford. Settings, the pear tree, and her hair each represent Janie’s struggle to reach her goals successfully.

Settings in this novel have a certain symbolization that relate to Janie’s feelings for the duration of her stay. Each differs from its predecessors and gradually changes for the better. This helps to enhance her course of life by replacing sorrow with what she thinks is happiness.

One example of this alter is her first husband’s house. From the beginning of her arranged marriage to Logan Killicks, Janie has a feeling of strong solitude. This sensation of blankness comes from the moment she sets eyes on her new yet old and ugly home. (123.com) She hates the house so much, that it is described as a “lonesome place, like a stump in the middle of the woods

Symbolism adds meaning to Hurston’s novel as the protagonist Janie Crawford sets on her course to love and happiness. The settings represent feelings; the pear tree is a sexual awakening; her hair portrays freedom and possession. Each contains a different sense of signification, but are all related to one another. She accomplished her goals through her experiences and symbolization helped the reader get a better understanding.

“Janie saw her life a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.” (Pg. 11) The pear tree has a vital meaning towards Janie’s “sexual awakening.” (classic notes) It represents her coming of age which marks the end of her short childhood and the beginning her womanhood. It is not easy to have such a sudden conversion so early in adolescence. The situation is effortlessly accomplished because she and the tree have a special connection that unites them together in an inseparable manner. Without this special bonding, Janie could not have become so mature and understanding. This motif has such importance that it is constantly repeated through out the entire novel.

Janie’s hair plays a major role in her married life. It signifies two essential elements that are frequently mentioned: freedom and possession. All three of her husbands, Logan, Jody and Tea Cake, admired her long, black, beautiful hair. Each one of them had their own perspective towards it and treated her according to his personal view.

Janie thought love would come from sex and marriage. She was living in a world of dreams and the tree was to blame. It miss lead her and dug her into a pit of agony. Through Logan, she experienced the exact opposite of what she expected love to be. The beauty, gentile texture and perfect dreams died a slow and painful death. She was now a woman because of the treacherous tree that deceived and took advantage of her naïve way of thinking. This brought Janie into a path of choices that unlocked secrets to her own sexuality.

Tea Cake, Janie’s third husband, is the first man in her life to obsessively love her hair. He caresses it, dreams about it, and combs it. (Pink monkey.com) His feelings to her hair are remarkably different from Logan and Joe. Unlike Joe’s prohibition of loose hair, Tea Cake likes to show it off, and contrastively allows it to be free. Janie finally is in the road of endless love and happiness. By permitting her to do as she p

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