"It [the little flower] had called her to come and behold a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf buds; from leaf buds to snowy buds the virginity of the flower. It moved her enormously” (13). Zora Neale Hurston, an African-American author, is known for her expressive and imaginative language. His use of imagery, particularly nature, is used to stimulate the audience's imagination while communicating the deep meaning of a novel. The imagery of nature in one of his most famous works, Their Eyes Were Watching God, creates a unique parallel between the two sides of nature: its beauty and its devastation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Protagonist Janie Crawford's ideal of contentment is illustrated in Hurston's imagery of a pear tree, which represents the beauty of nature. The pear tree represents Janie's idealized view of nature, as it demonstrates her naive and romantic character who constantly searches for true love, and her idealism of harmony in a marriage based on love as she travels a path of self-discovery throughout the novel. . "Oh, to be... a tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world" (14). Hurston deliberately describes the pear tree this way to show the relationship between a flowering tree, which flowers as it grows, and Janie's significant character changes as she marries different men in an attempt to discover happiness in a loving marriage. As the bees interact with the flowers on the tree, she witnesses the perfection of nature's simple beauty, captured in Hurston's imaginative description. This energy, passionate interaction, and happy harmony are ideals that Janie pursues throughout the rest of the novel. While the protagonist sees harmony with nature, she ultimately seeks harmony within herself, while her latest husband, Tea Cake, brings out the true love that is deeply rooted in Janie's marriage ideals. The devastating aspects of nature in Their Eyes Were Watching God are shown through the hurricane, as natural disasters represent the most destructive elements of Mother Nature. Hurston personifies the sea, the most destructive force of the hurricane, comparing it to a monster that "had left its bed." As Lake Okechobee bursts through the levees with winds of two hundred miles an hour, the author describes the monster thus: "It seized its levees and ran forward until it encountered the quarters ; he uprooted them like grass and rushed after his supposed "be conquerors, roll down the dikes, roll down the houses, roll the people into the houses with other beams" (189). To describe the even greater devastation, the sea is described as "walking on the land with a heavy heel". The images give a haunting description of how nature, often seen as peaceful, can also wreak immense havoc. To expand on this description, Hurston shows the. character's thoughts with "through the howling wind they heard things crashing and things rushing and rushing with incredible speed...and the lake grew crazier with only its dikes between them and him [ God]" (186). The devastation of nature, shown in Hurston's colorful images of the hurricane, greatly enhances the characters' perception of God, the creator of the world. The storm that ultimately determines the direction of the novel includes the first appearance of the title as Tea Cake, Janie and Motor Boat look at the sky.