Obstacles appear in every journey, often appearing in different forms ranging from detrimental to slightly irritating. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie experiences many obstacles which appear in her different relationships. While Janie is unhappy at many times, these obstacles also create many important memories and most importantly, an interesting journey that leads to fulfillment. Through the use of metaphors and imagery, Hurston depicts Janie as someone who suffers due to the loss of Tea Cake, and yet also shows how she feels fulfilled in the end; this extends to the theme of the importance of independence in creating a fulfilling experience.

            In the passage, Hurston uses repetition and imagery to show Janie’s suffering while also using personification and imagery to slowly develop her sense of fulfillment, showing Janie’s maturity and understanding of appreciation. When Janie is initially reflecting on what happened with Tea Cake and the aftermath, Hurston describes the court’s emotions as “sing a sobbing sigh out of every corner in the room; out of each and every chair and thing. Commenced to sing, commenced to sob and sigh, singing and sobbing” (Hurston 227). Through the repetition of “sob” and “sing”, it creates an image of everyone in the room crying so much that it becomes similar to singing a full song. The sobbing represents a small piece of Janie’s sorrow and when it turns into a song, the pieces of sobbing combine, creating something much larger-- a song, emphasizing her immense sense of sorrow. In this passage, it shows how Janie is puts emphasis on Tea Cakes passing, not appreciating what Tea Cake brought to her. As Janie keeps on mourning, she shifts her focus on what Tea Cake brings her- happy memories, “The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall” (Hurston 227). Hurston uses “light against the wall” to create an image of a dark place being lit up through positive memories with Tea Cake. The darkness in the image represents Janie’s lack of fulfillment, how she feels empty without Tea Cake anymore. However, with Tea Cakes memories appearing and projecting a “light against the wall”, it represents how Tea Cake is the light in the dark room and how it is lit upon by Janie reminiscing about him. Janie’s emptiness starts to be filled, representing a sense of fulfillment. Her sense of a fulfilling life is further shown when she calls in her soul to see, “So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see” (Hurston 227). When Janie “calls in her soul to see”, Hurston uses personification to humanize Janie’s feelings of self-reflection, emphasizing Janie’s understanding of the importance of self-reflection. Although Janie states “much of her life in its meshes”, showing how her life is not organized, through the use of the exclamation mark, it suggests Janie appreciates the messiness and is happy with it. In the beginning, Janie focused her feelings on her sense of sorrow due to Tea Cakes passing. As she grows into “old” Janie, she starts to realize the happiness Tea Cake brought, and how she is appreciative of her messy life and these special moments, which evolves into her sense of fulfillment.

            The ideas in the passage referenced above support above support a larger theme in the novel of the importance of independence in achieving fulfillment. First developed in her first two marriages where due to a lack of independence in her first two relationships, she felt trapped and wished to escape, whereas when she is provided with independence in her relationship with Tea Cake, she feels fulfilled in the end. In her first marriage with Logan, it is largely forced by her Granny who believes Logan would provide Janie protection through financial stability, “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection” (Hurston 18). As the marriage is forced, it limits Janie’s freedom of choice, leading to a lack of her emotional connection and fulfillment. This lack of fulfillment is shown through Janie running away, “Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south. Even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good” (Hurston 38). In this passage, the gate symbolizes her being trapped inside her marriage like an animal in a cage, developing her wish to leave the marriage. Finally leaving the marriage by exiting the front gate, she swiftly leaves what has bounded her, searching for fulfillment-- “change was bound to do her good.” This leads to her second marriage with Joe Starks, whom she believes would give her a better life. Although the beginning of the marriage shows promising developments, over time, Jody’s controlling nature starts to limit what Janie could do, “This business of the headrag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn’t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was” (Hurston 64). Due to jealousy, Jody controls who Janie could talk to, what she could wear, and what she could do. The headrag in this passage symbolizes Jody’s control, suppressing Janie’s freedom to show herself. Through these actions, Jody takes away Janie’s independence, slowly draining away Janie’s independence and sense of fulfillment in the relationship, “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. […] Sometimes she stuck out into the future, imagining her life different from what it was” (Hurston 90). Taking the “fight out of Janie’s face” it symbolizes how Janie’s initial hope for fulfillment from the relationship is now gone. Instead, it is replaced by her wish to change her life again, “imagining her life different from what is was”. Her imagination for a different life shows how she wants another attempt to fill the empty void of fulfillment. Through these two marriages, Hurston shows the negative impacts of a lack of independence, showing Janie’s lack of fulfillment and wish to continue to achieve fulfillment. In her last marriage with Tea Cake, Janie finally finds fulfillment in the relationship through the amount of independence and freedom she has, “[…] they rode around on the trolley cars and sort of looked things over for themselves. Tea Cake was spending and doing out of his own pocket, so Janie never told him about the two hundred dollars she had pinned inside her shirt next to her skin” (Hurston 138). In her two previous marriages, Janie is often bound to do housework and has to listen to her husbands’ orders. In contrast, with Tea Cake, Janie is able to spend quality time while enjoying new fun things such as riding on trolley cars. This pattern of more freedom is seen in an earlier scene, where Tea Cake teaches Janie how to play checkers, in contrast to Jody who refuses to let Janie play checkers, “He set it up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play” (Hurston 114). During her marriage with Jody, Jody refused to let Janie play, limiting her freedom whereas Tea Cake, willingly invites Janie and teaches her, highlighting Janie’s independence with Tea Cake. In return, later on when Janie reflects upon her life, she finds this relationship fulfilling, achieving her goal and marking the end of her journey, “She pulled in her horizon like a great fishnet. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder” (Hurston 227). In this passage, the horizon represents Janie’s journey, going through multiple different marriages to seek fulfillment. Pulling in her “horizon” symbolizes the end of her journey, the falling action after a climax, where her previous marriages represent the rising action and her marriage with Tea Cake as the climax of her journey. By deciding her journey is completed, Janie realizes that she has achieved her goal- fulfillment. Through Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake, Hurston highlights the importance of independence, comparing the difference in Janie’s sense of fulfillment of these relationships with a lot of independence and without independence.

            Throughout the story, Janie experiences many hardships in order to finally find fulfillment. She lacks freedom and independence in her first two marriages, whereas in her last marriage with Tea Cake, she is provided with adequate freedom and independence. Although her relationship with Tea Cake ends, it has created everlasting memories that she can reminisce on. Janie’s journey highlights the importance of perseverance. Many things may end unexpectedly, but perseverance may help you achieve your goal, even if it is different from one has planned.