The image of "pear tree", "the road", and "horizon" all symbolize Janie's individual quest
for self identity. Janie tries to look for her identity in a society both as a woman and a black
person but both are neither appreciated in the white male-dominated world. The narration which
Janie uses makes her strong and serves as her power for attaining and protecting the basis of
African-American culture. As a woman, Janie claims her self and asserts her will to live her own
life. She makes her own voice and that means she attempts the possibilities of new Black voices
and new stories that reflect new realities. Janie's search for inner self may well be parallel to
African-American's search for their own culture by protecting their oral traditions.
It is significant that there is a lack of generation between Janie and her grandmother. Janie
is brought up by her grandmother, not by her mother. The gap between two generations is so
strong. Her inner voice raises first as she replaces her search for identity by the pear tree image
that signifies a happy and romantic marriage. Then, her search for self identity shapes in her
mind through her romantic beliefs. As Nanny's death freed Janie from her snare, so Jody's death
frees her from the second entrapment that makes her deal with her quest. Therefore, she becomes
an active figure in planning her own life. One of the critics Missy Dehn Kubitschek asserts
"detailing her quest for self-discovery and self-definition, it celebrates her as an artist who
enriches Eatonville by communicating her understanding" The novel depicts "an individual
seeking an authentic place in a community". This shows, the sense of belonging to a community
provides the sense of cultural and self-identity.
When Janie is back in Eatonville after Tea Cake's death, s...