The Pear-fect Romance
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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."
This passage depicts this beautiful spring day where Janie sits under a pear tree and watches a nature scene unfold before her, essentially becoming a woman and having a sexual awakening in the process. While reading this passage, what caught my attention was the image of a pear tree. Initially, I had kind of glazed over this detail but after talking about it in class, I was drawn to its symbolism and what it represented.
It's important to note that this scene occurs during the spring which is already symbolic in itself. Spring often refers to a time of love, hope, youth, growth, and new beginnings. I think the season itself is already pretty relevant in how much the reader can connect its symbolism in the real world to events in the book. This scene obviously involves sexual elements which relate back to spring's symbolism for love and this youthful idea/dream of a new and passionate romance.
Going back to the pear tree, if you're familiar with Greek mythology, you may know that pears are pretty strongly associated with Hera, the goddess of marriage/birth, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love. In addition, the pear and pear tree have generally always been a symbol of the feminine. This again connects back to this whole idea of Janie's emerging emotions about love and romance and ironically, her upcoming marriage to Logan Killicks, even though she does not necessarily plan for it.
The idea of pears symbolizing love and femininity is relatively universal. In Korean and Chinese culture, the pear symbolizes success, grace, comfort, fertility, and most importantly, affection. For Korean New Year Celebrations, my family would often receive boxes of Asian pears as a well-wishing for the new year and success to come. In addition, pears are usually a part of a New Year tradition that many Koreans participate in called Seollal, which is a ceremony in which you pay respect to your ancestors. I thought this was kind of interesting to connect back to Their Eyes Were Watching God because this idea of a new beginning and success and affection ties nicely into Janie's situation. Janie becoming a woman and having this new sense of sexual desire is her "new beginning" and the pear tree symbolizes the affection and love that she craves.
Although I kind of overlooked it while first reading, I think this pear tree scene is pretty important because it sets up Janie's next romances and her expectations of them which is pretty significant in understanding the book as the plot is largely following these romances. After watching the pear tree, Janie is filled with this idea of a perfect romance which later proves to be pretty unrealistic as we see Janie's marriages crash down around her. This scene and pear tree present not only a romantic idea of a perfect marriage filled with passion and love, but also a dream and hunger for possibility and adventure.
I never realized the symbolism that the tree could hold! It's interesting to see a cross-cultural symbol used in such a short scene. I think it is a testament to the poetic nature of Hurston's writing. In Christian culture, pears also represent virginity and childishness, both of which have relevance in this particular scene. Overall, I think its cool that Hurston used this literary tool to help describe the scene that led to where we are now in the book.
ReplyDeleteIt's also really interesting to think about the role of the bee in the pear tree metaphor. The description of the"love embrace" seems to fit the idea that the flower is merely receptive to the bee, which in the context of Janie's romantic life, serves to represent her reaction to flirtation and the romantic side of love. When it comes to platonic love, like what she finally experiences with Tea Cake, it's really nowhere in this romanticized vision.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many pear connections throughout so many different cultures that I didn't know about until reading this. If I may, I'm going to make another pear connection that I think is pretty relevant but I'm not totally sure. The shape of a pear is often associated with the idealized shape of a mature female body, and that's another connection to Janie coming of age. This also connects to the unrealistic ideals developed by Janie, because the pear-shaped body is totally unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteThis is a super interesting blog post! I had no knowledge of the significance of pears in Korean culture, and the comparison to their role in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" was extremely interesting, and in a way helps to make sense of the pear tree scene.
ReplyDeleteAs most people commenting, I never knew there was so many connections to pears and love and sexuality! Another interesting part of the scene is the bee and the flower. I do not know if this was around back then, But I remember sex being referred to as the bees and the birds. Which makes no sense, so then they would tell me that the bees and the flowers was more accurate. Just another way to romanticize nature :)
ReplyDeleteI know several people have already said this, but I didn't know all of those symbols were associated with the pear. I didn't think too much about the actual tree, more about the flowers. However, I am now curious to whether Hurston intentionally made it a pear because of some or all of these symbols or if it was some other reason. I could definitely see her including it on purpose, I'm just wondering what she saw the pears representing.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was reading the book, I was wondering why the pear tree kept showing up. Now because of your blog post I understand it. The way that Hurston presents the images of nature and how it relates to Janie is very romanticized. Romanticism is a great way to describe how Janie is feeling during this time and it seems like the pear tree and nature in general will play an even bigger role as the novel progresses.
ReplyDeleteWow this really helps me see this in a whole new perspective. I was not aware of the existing metaphorical significance of pear trees. However, this certainly enhances an already strong metaphor of love presented by Hurston.
ReplyDeleteits interesting to see the many different ways Hurston was able to reiterate the theme of love and Janie finding her femininity throughout the book. Though i was aware of some of the symbols that accompany pears and pear trees, it was really interesting to think about them in the context of "new beginnings" as we saw her marriage to Logan started something new. furthermore, the perpetual symbolism of nature as a way of showing love and romanticism adds to the beauty of Janies story, which the pear tree illustrates beautifully. Though we later learn Logans marriage to her is not the most successful or positive thing, the prospect of this new life is exciting to Janie in the way the new fruit of the tree seems to blossom with hope.
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