In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston stresses the importance of love and how it is supposedly achieved during the 20th century. Janie Crawford, with a combined heritage of black and white, struggles to find true romance. Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, teaches her that social status is more important in a relationship than love. Janie is forced into her first marriage to appease her grandmother and her visions for Janie. Nanny, who has struggled in life due to slavery, wants to see Janie grow up to become a woman that she couldn’t be herself. Zora Neale Hurston is drawing a distinction of contradiction between Janie and Nanny within their relationship through metaphors, personification of a tree, and sentence structure. This is significant because when Janie realizes that her grandmother no longer has power over her, the readers gain understanding of Nanny’s pressure on Janie.

Through the use of metaphors, Hurston draws attention to the elderly physique of the grandma with the reference, “Palma Christi leaves” that had become a part of Nanny. These leaves can be used as treatment for hair loss and Parkinson’s disease which are usually developed at an older age. This is significant because Janie’s hair is constantly being emphasized throughout the novel. Janie was forced to keep her hair up when she was married to Jody and Nanny would’ve agree with him. But Janie enjoyed her hair down and free flowing in the wind. The grandmother is also referenced as “standing roots of some old tree that has been torn away by storm” (12). This metaphor allows the reader to assess the permanent battle scars left from slavery on Nanny’s body and repercussions that came from it. The grandmother was raped and impregnated by her white master and had a daughter that was also raped and gave birth to Janie. Janie’s mothers’ forced pregnancy led to her being an alcoholic. It then became the grandmother’s job to look after Janie. The love that the grandmother had developed for Janie could be seen in her eyes as, “They diffused and melted Janie, the room, and the world into one comprehension.” (12) She had only ever wanted what would be best for Janie.

Janie has soon discovered, through the use of metaphors, that her grandmother no longer has control over her. This is discovered when Hurston mentions that the grandmother is a “torn away” tree and has had enough of Janie. Janie had her first kiss with Johnny, and the Nanny could not allow her relationship to continue. The grandmother felt that Janie needed to marry a more respectable man (12). Since Nanny is fragile and tarnished, Janie can sense all of her weaknesses that she couldn’t see earlier. Janie knows that her grandmother wants her to marry rich and become successful, something she could never achieve. Janie’s freedom allows her to become the women that she envisions for herself. Janie is aware of the love her grandmother has for her but despite Nanny’s wishes, Janie longs for romance not social status. 

A tree was used to personify the age of Nanny and can also represent her life’s trials and tribulations throughout her life as a slave. The grandmother is personified as an “old tree that had been torn away by storm,” when describing her physical appearance (12). It becomes apparent that the grandmother is aged and wise. Nanny at a young age, started as a small tree; one that had grown through the civil war and grew stronger as her life progressed. The grandma is a victim of many tragedies that occurred during the war. Nanny fled a plantation to avoid a brutal beating that was promised by her mistress and found a place that she could live and work and raise her daughter following the emancipation of slaves. Ironically, her daughter was raped by a white schoolteacher in her town. White men during slavery were known as “rulers,” who had complete power over African Americans. Post slavery, white men were not as powerful, but were able to give some harsh treatment which had a negative effect on African Americans. For example, Janie had succumbed to the arrogant Logan Killicks. An older white male that felt that he could control her even as his wife by making her work in the field. The field was something that most slaves tried to avoid after the war. Nanny had a very strong attitude toward those white men and knew how well they could provide for their wives. Nanny had hoped that Janie could be a decent woman and live her life with Logan. However, when Janie approaches Nanny with questions about love, she is unable to answer them. Janie feels that there should be more meaning in a marriage and that she should feel “love” for her husband. Janie sat under a peach tree, fantasizing about sex. She dreamed about love and being an equal to her husband. However, her grandmother, an uprooted tree, offered her knowledge about how the real world operated. Nanny had never experienced the love Janie had asked her about and couldn’t provide any knowledge on the matter.

Janie had been mocked in school and struggled to fit in and the grandmother did not help her through these times. Because Janie was a different skin color, had beautiful long hair, and lavish clothing, the children she grew up with decided that Janie was better than they were. Janie made no friends while growing up. Additionally, Janie faces many struggles and hardships throughout her life journey, her grandmother still, did not seem to care. When Janie questioned love, her grandmother was more interested in Janie growing into a woman that men would see fit for a wife. Nanny did everything she could to try to make Janie as presentable as she could for males. However, Janie did not take interest in the Nanny’s perspective of her. Janie wanted a natural relationship. In reference to Janie’s tree, it was one that struggled blossoming because of the constant pressure that the grandmother placed upon her. It is clear that after the grandmother can no longer construct Janie’s life in her eyes, Janie can mature and grow into a beautiful tree. New branches are grown on Janie’s tree of life with such events of leaving Logan Killicks, the death of Jody, and the death of Tea Cakes. Each new branch creates new leaves. Janie has experienced all that her grandmother has asked of her and more. The marriage with Jody helped her life the lavish lifestyle that the grandmother had always wished of her but Janie experienced the love with Tea Cakes that her grandmother was never able to find. 

The tone of voice of my used by Zora Neale Hurston illustrates how much Janie resents her grandmother. Passive voice is when a noun that would be an object in the sentence is used as the subject. An example in the novel is, “The Palma Christi Leaves that Janie bounded on her grandmother are described as being part and parcel of the woman” (12). The Palma Christi Leaves should have been the object, however Hurston decided to show how the grandmother is being acted upon. Hurston also chose these words to show how Nanny had aged over the years. She could have chosen to describe the wrinkles in her face or the frailness of her body, but she wanted to highlight what has happened to the grandmother over the years and the events that have shaped her life. The word “foundation” is used as a noun in reference to something that was used at the beginning of an era. A foundation can also mean “to keep something standing.” In essence, slavery, was a foundation to the white control that monopolized the south. Because Nanny experienced and understands the control that the whites had, she knew what would be best for Janie and only tried to help her take advantage of opportunities that would present themselves to her. 

In the passage that I selected, “They diffused and melted Janie” is written in passive voice to describe the burning love Nanny shared for Janie. Although Nanny wanted nothing but to make sure Janie could receive everything Nanny could not, Janie did not want to become that person. Nanny wants Janie to be successful and prior to this moment Janie was led to believe that Nanny only thought for herself and that she was going to continue to force Janie down paths she did not want to take. However, Nanny had more feelings than she had shown before. Nanny knew Janie would eventually peruse a life opposite of what she had wanted her to and due to this Nanny wanted to make sure that Janie truly understood why she did what she did. After her raising her from a small child, it is only normal to share those strong feelings for a loved one. 

Love is something that cannot be forced. It brings people together and forms a bond that cannot be broken. During the 20th Century, colored women found it very difficult to find love and to become successful. Janie Crawford was raised by her grandmother who endured the life of a slave. Because of this, she set expectations for Janie and made decisions in her life that she saw fit. Janie, forced into a relationship she never wanted, did not have the same aspirations as her grandmother. Zora Neale Hurston truly draws a distinction between Janie and her grandmother and the tight grip that Nanny could only hold for so long.  

  