The pear tree that first appears in Chapter One symbolizes the theme of Janie's self-fulfillment in Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. "Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches" (8). This appearance of the pear tree supplies the arrival of the book's most significant image. In this section, Janie's sexual awakening is stated in terms of the bees-and-trees imagery, and she fervently wonders when she will feel the joy of her own pear tree awakening. The pear tree becomes the measure by which she will evaluate all of her partnerships with men. "The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree" (14). If a man falls short, such as her first husband Logan, Janie states that he does not live up to the pear tree, which shook with pleasure in response to the bees.
             Self-fulfillment is represented the most obvious theme in the story and is symbolized by Janie's pear tree. "She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. She searched as much of the world as she could...waiting for the world to be made" (11). When she is sixteen, she watches the bee take nectar from the tree, and from that point, forward she looks for the perfect male relationship that can fulfill her. "It was a spring afternoon...she had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree...ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to listening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh" (1
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