In Zora Neale Hurston\u27s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the pear tree is seen as a symbol of Janie Crawford\u27s sexuality and self-discovery. However, the pear tree can also be used to analyze Hurston\u27s use of flipped gender roles and Freud\u27s theories on physical maturation. Janie takes on the role of the bee, rather than the flower she wishes to be, in order to go through her journey to self-discovery and change Eatonville by sharing what she has learned

Mohler, Lauren

English

Olivet Nazarene University

Olivet Nazarene UniversityDigital Commons @ OlivetStudent Scholarship - English EnglishSpring 4-16-2019The Boys and the BeesLauren MohlerOlivet Nazarene University, lnmohler@olivet.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/engl_stscPart of the Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority CommonsThis Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in StudentScholarship - English by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@olivet.edu.Recommended CitationMohler, Lauren, "The Boys and the Bees" (2019). Student Scholarship - English. 4.https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/engl_stsc/4The Boys and the Bees          In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, sixteen-year-old Janie begins a journey of sexual discovery underneath the beloved pear tree in her Nanny’s backyard. However, the tree’s symbolism is much more complex than standing for the search for love and fulfillment of sexual desires. Through her writing, Hurston creates in Janie a character who desires sexual intimacy; however, it is not the intimacy but rather what Hurston derives from it that is significant. Through examining Freud's description of the phallic stage and paralleling Janie’s experiences to the relationship of a bee and a single flower on the pear tree, the pear tree goes from a symbol of sexuality with one partner to a symbol of self-revelation, highlighting Janie’s role within a larger community.  In Hurston’s flashback-style narration, Janie returns to Eatonville and begins recounting her experiences to her best friend Pheoby. She starts with a brief overview of growing up with Nanny during her “young years” and jumps immediately to the “end of her childhood” at the age of sixteen (Hurston 10, 12). Hurston uses two key events in Janie’s life—her entering the phallic stage and Nanny rejecting Janie’s urge for pleasure—to introduce her journey to self-revelation that will change not only her life but the lives of those in Eatonville. Janie allows nature to educate her about intimate relationships and the appeal of a sexual partner as she witnesses her first sexual encounter through observing the physical relationship between a bee and pear tree blossom: She saw a dust-bearing bee sink in 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! (11) This memorable passage serves as the foundation for the stories Janie tells Pheoby upon her return and introduces her sexual awakening as a woman. This sexual awakening, according to Sigmund Freud, initiates the final of three overlapping stages of human development. Charles Bressler describes Freud’s views on the final stage by explaining that in the phallic stage “a child’s sexual desire or libido is directed toward the genitals when the child learns the pleasure that results from stimulating one’s sexual organs” (128). By witnessing the sexual interaction between the bee and flower, Janie enters the phallic stage and feels the urge of the pleasure principle, a part of the psyche that “craves only pleasures, and…desires instantaneous satisfaction of instinctual drives, ignoring moral and sexual boundaries established by society” (126). However, Janie’s first urge from the pleasure principle is crushed by Nanny when she exclaims that she “wants to see [Janie] married right away” to Logan Killicks, a thought that immediately begins “desecrating” the newly-formed vision of marriage Janie found under the pear tree (Hurston 13, 14). Both of these moments set the trajectory for her journey and eventually lead Janie to a self-revelation she shares with Pheoby upon her return to Eatonville in the opening lines of the novel. While talking to Pheoby, Janie defines her role within the community by sharing her story and breaking free of the expectations that once bound her. As Janie introduces Pheoby to the pear tree, the narrator informs the readers that Janie had been spending every spare moment underneath that tree “ever since the first tiny bloom had opened,” feeling called to “to come and gaze on a mystery” (Hurston 10). Even before Janie initially witnesses the sexual bond existing between a bee and a flower, she feels pulled to that newly opened bloom in Nanny’s backyard. Seeking answers to the unknown, Janie questions, “What? How? Why?... She felt an answer seeking her, but where? When? How?” (11). While Janie does not yet know what she is being called to or how this mystery will be fulfilled, there is no denying her attraction toward some greater calling. Upon Janie’s return to Eatonville, the town buzzes with rumors about her journey and where her beloved Tea Cake is. However, Janie speaks only to Pheoby and unfolds her self-revelation, her arrival to consciousness, through embracing her sexuality. Freud asserts that this is necessary in order for her to mature in both her sexuality and as an individual: “If a child…is to grow up as a normal adult, he or she must develop a sense of sexuality, a sense of his maleness or her femaleness” (Bressler 128). In order for Janie to become who she is destined to be and answer those questions she first asked underneath the blossoming pear tree, she has to go through a series of experiences from the time she enters the phallic stage at the age of sixteen to the time she achieves consciousness at the age of forty. Through this path, Janie is able to more clearly define her role in a community, which is made evident through the sharing of her story upon returning to Eatonville, the place where she was once silenced. Throughout the novel, Hurston provides clues alluding to the definition of Janie’s role in a community and sexual relationship, challenging gender roles traditionally assigned to members of each sex. For example, immediately following Janie’s observation of the bee’s pollination of the pear tree blossom, she was entranced by the relationship. The narrator demonstrates Janie’s desire for a relationship such as this by saying, “Oh to be a pear tree—any tree in bloom!...She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. Where were the singing bees for her?” (Hurston 11). Janie deeply desires a marriage like that of the bee and flower, one full of sexual pleasure. In this moment, Janie is picturing herself as the flower, wishing that bees would come to her and fulfill the act of intimacy she witnessed underneath the pear tree. While there is no denying Janie’s sexual desires, it can also be argued that Janie instinctively knows from the first time she met Jody that she is supposed to fulfill the role of the bee—its stinger being a phallic symbol—rather than that of the blossoming flower—a yonic symbol—in the type of relationship she most desires. While Janie was nearing the end of her marriage to Logan and the start of her relationship with Jody, Hurston writes, “Janie pulled back a long time because [Jody] did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon” (29). While the natural symbolism in this passage could be referring solely to the sexual component of the relationship that exists between a bee and its flower, it also represents Janie’s needs as the bee. As the bee, Janie would both need and desire a partner that would supply her with pollen to collect; therefore, if Jody did not represent the open blossoms that would provide the necessary pollen and nectar, he would not be tempting to Janie upon first glance. Furthering the image of Janie as the bee rather than the flower, each of Janie’s marriages demonstrates the working relationship between a bee and a flower. Bees are attracted to a flower from the bright colors of the petals or from its aroma (Canada). Once a bee is attracted to a particular flower, the bee’s main job is to facilitate pollination, which is “the transfer of pollen from the male parts of a flower to the female parts of a flower of the same species, which results in fertilization of plant ovaries and the production of seeds” (“Pollination”). The seeds produced by the pollination eventually mature and become fruit—in this case, a pear. In this same way, each of Janie’s husbands—Logan Killicks, Joe “Jody” Starks, and Virgible “Tea Cake” Woods—rely on Janie to fulfill some sort of role in his life in order to produce a desired outcome. In her first marriage, Logan depends on Janie to help tend the land on his farm, insisting that she “ain’t got no particular place” except for wherever he needs her to be (Hurston 31). Arranged by Nanny, this relationship does not begin with an initial attraction to each other. Nanny picked Logan as a suitable partner for Janie because of his “often-mentioned sixty acres” and ability to provide financially for her granddaughter while Janie only saw him as “some ole skullhead in de grave yard,” clouding his physical appeal as a partner to Janie (21, 13). This lackluster experience makes Janie eager to find her next flower when she meets Jody and is more easily attracted to him and the change in lifestyle he so promisingly speaks of. Jody explains to Janie when they first meet that “[i]t had always been his wish and desire to be a big voice” (28). As the bee, Janie helps Jody fulfill this dream by remaining submissive to Jody’s requests. After Jody’s death, Janie is, yet again, ready for a change of lifestyle and welcomes Tea Cake’s presence into her life. While Janie’s marriage to Tea Cake has much more reciprocity than her marriage to the other men, Tea Cake yields fruit out of his relationship with Janie—validation of his carefree, youthful lifestyle.  While each of these relationships certainly help Janie explore her sexuality, they ultimately serve a greater purpose, collectively working to transform Janie into the woman she is upon her return to Eatonville. In her newfound womanhood, Janie goes through the same process as a bee, allowing Janie to share her newfound knowledge with Pheoby and the rest of her colony in Eatonville. Explaining the bee’s process, Cook writes, “After collecting nectar and pollen from many different flowers, bees fly back to their colonies. They regurgitate nectar, mixed with enzymes, and expose the mixture to the air for several days, creating honey. This honey is used to feed the colony.” Just as the bee engages in a complex, almost sacrificial process to turn its collected pollen and nectar into food for its hive, Janie uses her experiences with each husband to nourish her community in Eatonville.  Elizabeth Meese quotes Barbara Christian, furthering this thought by stating, “Janie Stark is not an individual in a vacuum; she is an intrinsic part of a community, and she brings her life and its richness, joys, and sorrows back to it. As it has helped to form her, so she also helps to form it” (60). This life-giving quality is displayed when, after hearing Janie’s stories, Pheoby is inspired by Janie’s self-revelation and declares, “Lawd!...Ah done growed ten feet higher from jus’ listenin’ tuh you, Janie. Ah ain’t satisfied wid mahself no mo’,” demonstrating both the success of Janie’s self-revelation and the importance of using her experiences to further her hive in Eatonville (Hurston 192).  Janie Crawford’s experiences underneath the pear tree indisputably change the trajectory of her life and set her on a path of sexual exploration and self-revelation. However, while the pear tree is often viewed as a symbol of Janie’s sexual discovery, the symbol’s importance is rooted more deeply. Janie’s relationships with her husbands—parallel to the relationship between a bee and a flower—eventually lead Janie to a self-revelation and open up the possibility for her to impact the community in Eatonville. After relaying her journey to her best friend, Janie stresses the importance of first-hand experiences to Pheoby by stating, “It’s uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there” (Hurston 192). While Hurston does not provide details regarding what happens after Janie shares her story with Pheoby, readers can assume that, just like a bee, Janie will continue to nurture her community and create an impact, one flower at a time.    Works Cited Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. Longman, 2011. Canada Agriculture and Food Museum. “Pollination.” How Do Plants Attract Bees?, Canada Agriculture and Food Museum 2015, bees.techno-science.ca/english/bees/pollination/plants-attract-bees.php. Cook, Maria. “How Do Flowers & Bees Help Each Other?” Sciencing, Leaf Group Ltd., 11 Apr. 2018, sciencing.com/do-flowers-bees-other-5796565.html. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper Collins, 2006. Meese, Elizabeth. “Orality and Textuality in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Modern Critical Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House, 1987, pp. 59–86.  “Pollination.” Native Plants and Ecosystem Services, Michigan State University, www.canr.msu.edu/nativeplants/pollination/.    

The Boys and the Bees

Digital Commons @ Olivet

Olivet Nazarene University
Digital Commons @ Olivet
Student Scholarship - English English
Spring 4-16-2019
The Boys and the Bees
Lauren Mohler
Olivet Nazarene University, lnmohler@olivet.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/engl_stsc
Part of the Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons
This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student
Scholarship - English by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@olivet.edu.
Recommended Citation
Mohler, Lauren, "The Boys and the Bees" (2019). Student Scholarship - English. 4.
https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/engl_stsc/4
The Boys and the Bees 
         In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, sixteen-year-old Janie begins 
a journey of sexual discovery underneath the beloved pear tree in her Nanny’s backyard. 
However, the tree’s symbolism is much more complex than standing for the search for love and 
fulfillment of sexual desires. Through her writing, Hurston creates in Janie a character who 
desires sexual intimacy; however, it is not the intimacy but rather what Hurston derives from it 
that is significant. Through examining Freud's description of the phallic stage and paralleling 
Janie’s experiences to the relationship of a bee and a single flower on the pear tree, the pear tree 
goes from a symbol of sexuality with one partner to a symbol of self-revelation, highlighting 
Janie’s role within a larger community. 
 In Hurston’s flashback-style narration, Janie returns to Eatonville and begins recounting 
her experiences to her best friend Pheoby. She starts with a brief overview of growing up with 
Nanny during her “young years” and jumps immediately to the “end of her childhood” at the age 
of sixteen (Hurston 10, 12). Hurston uses two key events in Janie’s life—her entering the phallic 
stage and Nanny rejecting Janie’s urge for pleasure—to introduce her journey to self-revelation 
that will change not only her life but the lives of those in Eatonville. Janie allows nature to 
educate her about intimate relationships and the appeal of a sexual partner as she witnesses her 
first sexual encounter through observing the physical relationship between a bee and pear tree 
blossom: 
She saw a dust-bearing bee sink in 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! (11) 
This memorable passage serves as the foundation for the stories Janie tells Pheoby upon her 
return and introduces her sexual awakening as a woman. This sexual awakening, according to 
Sigmund Freud, initiates the final of three overlapping stages of human development. Charles 
Bressler describes Freud’s views on the final stage by explaining that in the phallic stage “a 
child’s sexual desire or libido is directed toward the genitals when the child learns the pleasure 
that results from stimulating one’s sexual organs” (128). By witnessing the sexual interaction 
between the bee and flower, Janie enters the phallic stage and feels the urge of the pleasure 
principle, a part of the psyche that “craves only pleasures, and…desires instantaneous 
satisfaction of instinctual drives, ignoring moral and sexual boundaries established by society” 
(126). However, Janie’s first urge from the pleasure principle is crushed by Nanny when she 
exclaims that she “wants to see [Janie] married right away” to Logan Killicks, a thought that 
immediately begins “desecrating” the newly-formed vision of marriage Janie found under the 
pear tree (Hurston 13, 14). Both of these moments set the trajectory for her journey and 
eventually lead Janie to a self-revelation she shares with Pheoby upon her return to Eatonville in 
the opening lines of the novel. 
While talking to Pheoby, Janie defines her role within the community by sharing her 
story and breaking free of the expectations that once bound her. As Janie introduces Pheoby to 
the pear tree, the narrator informs the readers that Janie had been spending every spare moment 
underneath that tree “ever since the first tiny bloom had opened,” feeling called to “to come and 
gaze on a mystery” (Hurston 10). Even before Janie initially witnesses the sexual bond existing 
between a bee and a flower, she feels pulled to that newly opened bloom in Nanny’s backyard. 
Seeking answers to the unknown, Janie questions, “What? How? Why?... She felt an answer 
seeking her, but where? When? How?” (11). While Janie does not yet know what she is being 
called to or how this mystery will be fulfilled, there is no denying her attraction toward some 
greater calling. Upon Janie’s return to Eatonville, the town buzzes with rumors about her journey 
and where her beloved Tea Cake is. However, Janie speaks only to Pheoby and unfolds her self-
revelation, her arrival to consciousness, through embracing her sexuality. Freud asserts that this 
is necessary in order for her to mature in both her sexuality and as an individual: “If a child…is 
to grow up as a normal adult, he or she must develop a sense of sexuality, a sense of his maleness 
or her femaleness” (Bressler 128). In order for Janie to become who she is destined to be and 
answer those questions she first asked underneath the blossoming pear tree, she has to go through 
a series of experiences from the time she enters the phallic stage at the age of sixteen to the time 
she achieves consciousness at the age of forty. Through this path, Janie is able to more clearly 
define her role in a community, which is made evident through the sharing of her story upon 
returning to Eatonville, the place where she was once silenced. 
Throughout the novel, Hurston provides clues alluding to the definition of Janie’s role in 
a community and sexual relationship, challenging gender roles traditionally assigned to members 
of each sex. For example, immediately following Janie’s observation of the bee’s pollination of 
the pear tree blossom, she was entranced by the relationship. The narrator demonstrates Janie’s 
desire for a relationship such as this by saying, “Oh to be a pear tree—any tree in bloom!...She 
had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude 
her. Where were the singing bees for her?” (Hurston 11). Janie deeply desires a marriage like 
that of the bee and flower, one full of sexual pleasure. In this moment, Janie is picturing herself 
as the flower, wishing that bees would come to her and fulfill the act of intimacy she witnessed 
underneath the pear tree. While there is no denying Janie’s sexual desires, it can also be argued 
that Janie instinctively knows from the first time she met Jody that she is supposed to fulfill the 
role of the bee—its stinger being a phallic symbol—rather than that of the blossoming flower—a 
yonic symbol—in the type of relationship she most desires. While Janie was nearing the end of 
her marriage to Logan and the start of her relationship with Jody, Hurston writes, “Janie pulled 
back a long time because [Jody] did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he 
spoke for far horizon” (29). While the natural symbolism in this passage could be referring solely 
to the sexual component of the relationship that exists between a bee and its flower, it also 
represents Janie’s needs as the bee. As the bee, Janie would both need and desire a partner that 
would supply her with pollen to collect; therefore, if Jody did not represent the open blossoms 
that would provide the necessary pollen and nectar, he would not be tempting to Janie upon first 
glance. 
Furthering the image of Janie as the bee rather than the flower, each of Janie’s marriages 
demonstrates the working relationship between a bee and a flower. Bees are attracted to a flower 
from the bright colors of the petals or from its aroma (Canada). Once a bee is attracted to a 
particular flower, the bee’s main job is to facilitate pollination, which is “the transfer of pollen 
from the male parts of a flower to the female parts of a flower of the same species, which results 
in fertilization of plant ovaries and the production of seeds” (“Pollination”). The seeds produced 
by the pollination eventually mature and become fruit—in this case, a pear. In this same way, 
each of Janie’s husbands—Logan Killicks, Joe “Jody” Starks, and Virgible “Tea Cake” 
Woods—rely on Janie to fulfill some sort of role in his life in order to produce a desired 
outcome. In her first marriage, Logan depends on Janie to help tend the land on his farm, 
insisting that she “ain’t got no particular place” except for wherever he needs her to be (Hurston 
31). Arranged by Nanny, this relationship does not begin with an initial attraction to each other. 
Nanny picked Logan as a suitable partner for Janie because of his “often-mentioned sixty acres” 
and ability to provide financially for her granddaughter while Janie only saw him as “some ole 
skullhead in de grave yard,” clouding his physical appeal as a partner to Janie (21, 13). This 
lackluster experience makes Janie eager to find her next flower when she meets Jody and is more 
easily attracted to him and the change in lifestyle he so promisingly speaks of. Jody explains to 
Janie when they first meet that “[i]t had always been his wish and desire to be a big voice” (28). 
As the bee, Janie helps Jody fulfill this dream by remaining submissive to Jody’s requests. After 
Jody’s death, Janie is, yet again, ready for a change of lifestyle and welcomes Tea Cake’s 
presence into her life. While Janie’s marriage to Tea Cake has much more reciprocity than her 
marriage to the other men, Tea Cake yields fruit out of his relationship with Janie—validation of 
his carefree, youthful lifestyle.  
While each of these relationships certainly help Janie explore her sexuality, they 
ultimately serve a greater purpose, collectively working to transform Janie into the woman she is 
upon her return to Eatonville. In her newfound womanhood, Janie goes through the same process 
as a bee, allowing Janie to share her newfound knowledge with Pheoby and the rest of her colony 
in Eatonville. Explaining the bee’s process, Cook writes, “After collecting nectar and pollen 
from many different flowers, bees fly back to their colonies. They regurgitate nectar, mixed with 
enzymes, and expose the mixture to the air for several days, creating honey. This honey is used 
to feed the colony.” Just as the bee engages in a complex, almost sacrificial process to turn its 
collected pollen and nectar into food for its hive, Janie uses her experiences with each husband to 
nourish her community in Eatonville.  Elizabeth Meese quotes Barbara Christian, furthering this 
thought by stating, “Janie Stark is not an individual in a vacuum; she is an intrinsic part of a 
community, and she brings her life and its richness, joys, and sorrows back to it. As it has helped 
to form her, so she also helps to form it” (60). This life-giving quality is displayed when, after 
hearing Janie’s stories, Pheoby is inspired by Janie’s self-revelation and declares, “Lawd!...Ah 
done growed ten feet higher from jus’ listenin’ tuh you, Janie. Ah ain’t satisfied wid mahself no 
mo’,” demonstrating both the success of Janie’s self-revelation and the importance of using her 
experiences to further her hive in Eatonville (Hurston 192).  
Janie Crawford’s experiences underneath the pear tree indisputably change the trajectory 
of her life and set her on a path of sexual exploration and self-revelation. However, while the 
pear tree is often viewed as a symbol of Janie’s sexual discovery, the symbol’s importance is 
rooted more deeply. Janie’s relationships with her husbands—parallel to the relationship between 
a bee and a flower—eventually lead Janie to a self-revelation and open up the possibility for her 
to impact the community in Eatonville. After relaying her journey to her best friend, Janie 
stresses the importance of first-hand experiences to Pheoby by stating, “It’s uh known fact, 
Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there” (Hurston 192). While Hurston does not provide 
details regarding what happens after Janie shares her story with Pheoby, readers can assume that, 
just like a bee, Janie will continue to nurture her community and create an impact, one flower at 
a time.  
  
Works Cited 
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. Longman, 2011. 
Canada Agriculture and Food Museum. “Pollination.” How Do Plants Attract Bees?, Canada 
Agriculture and Food Museum 2015, bees.techno-
science.ca/english/bees/pollination/plants-attract-bees.php. 
Cook, Maria. “How Do Flowers & Bees Help Each Other?” Sciencing, Leaf Group Ltd., 11 Apr. 
2018, sciencing.com/do-flowers-bees-other-5796565.html. 
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper Collins, 2006. 
Meese, Elizabeth. “Orality and Textuality in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Modern Critical 
Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, edited by Harold 
Bloom, Chelsea House, 1987, pp. 59–86. 
 “Pollination.” Native Plants and Ecosystem Services, Michigan State University, 
www.canr.msu.edu/nativeplants/pollination/. 
  
 


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