Their Eyes Were Watching God Innocence Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
| Quote #1 It was a spring afternoon in West Florida. Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard. She had been spending every minute that she could steal from her chores under that tree for the last three days. That was to say, ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously. How? Why? It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why? This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh. Now they emerged and quested about her consciousness. |
The pear blossoms and bee have an undeniably sexual overtone here. The leaf-buds are described as having a "snowy virginity" whose scent sensuously "caress[es]" Janie "in her sleep." To naïve little Janie, the penetration of the bee into the blossom is a "love embrace" whose "ecstatic shiver" creates a "creaming in every blossom and a frothing of delight." This sounds suspiciously like the overwhelming passion and ejaculation of sexual intercourse. And it leaves young Janie feeling "limp and languid," as a woman might after orgasming. This experience, ironically, both seems to take Janie’s virginity by introducing her so sensually to sex, and also to preserve her innocence by building such a romantic ideal for her future lovers to live up to.
| Quote #2 [Nanny at the sight of Johnny Taylor kissing Janie]: "Janie!" |
Janie’s definitive end of childhood and the most naïve level of innocence is initiated by a single word from Nanny. Curiously, this word does not carry a tone of authoritative reproof, but is marked by its frailty. It seems that Janie is more moved by pity for Nanny than actual regret for kissing a boy, and that her childhood innocence is lost not from the awareness of her sexuality, but from disappointing Nanny.
| Quote #3 [Nanny]: "Dat’s what makes me skeered. You don’t mean no harm. You don’t even know where harm is at. Ah’m ole now. Ah can’t be always guidin’ yo’ feet from harm and danger. Ah wants to see you married right away." (2.31) |
Even though Nanny claims Janie’s womanhood has emerged, Janie is still relatively innocent; she still doesn’t "know where harm is at" and is much less prepared to defend herself against it. So Nanny’s way of protecting her is not enlightening her to the dangers around her, but marrying her off so that a man can keep her from ever discovering those dangers. It is a form of blinding her or helping her preserve what innocence she has left.
