Life is far too short to be wasted living the goals of others. In the literary masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses “the horizon” as a metaphor to symbolize one’s hopes and dreams (Hurston 1). To Janie, the horizon is her lifelong search for love and happiness. Janie soon learns that following Nanny’s dream does not result in her happiness; therefore, Janie struggles through various relationships searching for visionary bliss, and relationships serve as a force for Janie to broaden her horizons. Janie’s relationships propel her through three specific stages of self-discovery: making decisions for herself, discovering her voice, and ultimately learning the true essence of life through finding and losing love.

Nanny’s coercion for Janie to marry Logan Killicks eventually drives Janie to make a crucial decision for her happiness. Nanny’s past trauma resulting from slavery leads her to believe that security is the foundation of marriage, not love; thus, her greatest hope for Janie is to live a stable life by marrying a prosperous man.  Due to the oppression of slavery, Nanny knows “it wasn’t for [her] to fulfill [her] dreams” to have a steady life, so she projects these beliefs onto Janie instead (Hurston 16). Nanny demands Janie to marry Logan Killicks, an ugly older man with sixty acres of land, because Nanny deems his wealth will provide Janie with security and respect. Nevertheless, Janie is miserable living vicariously through Nanny’s dreams. Janie remarks that Nanny has suffocated her "horizon” as Nanny ties her own belief “about her granddaughter's neck tight enough to choke her"(Hurston 89). Nanny’s beliefs of marriage corrupt Janie’s perception of love, therefore, when faced with the opportunity to leave her loveless marriage, Janie decides she would rather take the chance of marrying a stranger than stay with Logan. From her first marriage, Janie learns that “marriage did not make love,” and for the sake of her happiness, Janie must leave Logan (Hurston 25).

Janie’s liberation from her marriage to Jody Starks revives her dream and leaves her with much appreciation for her newfound voice and independence. Janie runs off with Jody because “he spoke for change and chance” (Hurston 29). To Janie, Jody Starks never represents love, instead, she sees him as a beacon for opportunity and a better life compared to the laborious marriage with Logan. Yet Jody’s hunger for power suppresses Janie’s voice as he marries her solely for her youth and beauty, representing the wife of a powerful man. Throughout their marriage, Jody constantly silences and abuses Janie to exert his dominance. He requires Janie to just “sit on [the] front porch” and look pretty for his reputation (Hurston 29). Janie learns from this marriage that her voice needs to be taken into account when it comes to her happiness. The years of Jody’s domination leads Janie to desire equality in a relationship.  

Janie’s marriage to Tea Cake is the catapult for Janie to finally reach her horizon. Tea Cake represents the “bee” to Janie’s “pear tree blossom,” as he is the epic love Janie has been searching for since she was sixteen (Hurston 106). The love between Tea Cake and Janie is two-sided and he treats her with mutual respect. Tea Cake loves Janie as openly as she loves him and allows Janie to speak her mind around him. Tea Cake does not confine her to the typical expectations of women at the time. Tea Cake thinks it is normal for Janie to learn checkers and later teaches her to shoot a gun. However, Janie is put in the position where she must choose between her own safety and her love when Tea Cake’s condition of rabies worsens and threatens her life. Janie ultimately chooses herself and kills the thing she loves the most for her security. Finally, after a life-long mission to seek love, Janie “pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net” by learning how life is not just about finding her epic love but also to love and put herself first (Hurston 193). Tea Cake’s love and acceptance for Janie allows her to finally love and accept herself. Prioritizing herself before her goals, Janie returns to Eatonville with a newfound understanding of her capabilities and a new perspective of self-worth. 

Janie’s quest to find the purpose of her life is accomplished through reaching her “horizon” and making it back, not from living Nanny’s dream, Logan’s riches, nor Jody’s prominence. Janie puts herself at the center of her narrative when recounting her adventures to Pheoby as Janie learns that one’s true love and happiness cannot be experienced by others. At the end of the day, one’s goals only apply to oneself and not others, thus Janie does not care what Eatonville thinks of her return as long as her heart is content. 

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. 1st ed., New York, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.