Symbolism is Key

• Roots of trees-
•  African people without any roots

• Pear tree -
• Janie's Budding womanhood

• Mules-
•  They get the worst treatment. Logan buys Janie a mule to represent how he is tired of treating Janie's like a princess or white women, and now he wants her to do the heavy labor  jobs around the far

• Gate-
•  always looking for another opportunity

• The gate and the road-
• related to the metaphor in the beginning. The gate is the shore and the road represents the waves as Janie looks down the road to find a new dream

• The new Horizon -
• Janie s constantly looking over the gate post, down the road, to a new horizon (a dream or new start)

• The Eatonville general store-
• Represents the center of this first all-black town

• The illumination of the lamp post-
• Represents the start of a new all-black town . It also shows that Joe Starks is all-powerful and likes others to bow down to him, including Janie.

• Joe and Janie's house -
• They live in a 2 story house and it represents a similarity to a plantation owner, while the hard-working towns people live in small shack styles homes like servants' quarters

• Tobacco spittoon -
• They have fancy spitting pots. They have a place to spit when everyone else has to go outside to spit. Shows that they are wealthy

• Janie's long braid-
• Freedom

• Janie's head rag-
• Bondage to Jody

• Guitar-
•  Shows the playful side of people

• Overalls
•  equality of people, the people who work

• Packets of seeds -
•  new life, rebirth, remembering

• Color blue -
•  Tea Cake likes her to wear blue but he doesn’t make her. So she wears it for him

• Fish-
•  sharing relationship of Janie and Tea Cake

• Checkers-
•  Janie's equality of people and men especially

• Dirt in the muck -
• Rich, working class, growth

• Hurricane-
• Gods almighty power

• Rabid dog -
• When change  in relationships happen, life changes. 

Picture from:

Blooming Pear Tree in Field of Dandelions, Langrickenbach, Kreuzlingen, Thurgau, Switzerland Stock Photos." Masterfile Stock Photos: Rights-Managed and Royalty-Free Images. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://www.masterfile.com/stock-photography/image/600-03573842/Blooming-Pear-Tree-in-Field-of-Dandelions-Langrickenbach-Kreuzlingen-Thurgau-Switzerland>.