In Their Eyes Were Watching God, how does nature (the pear tree, the ocean, the horizon, and the hurricane) function not only as a plot device but...

The pear tree functions as a key plot device in the beginning of the novel, as Janie spends much of her adolescence under the tree, pondering the fertility of the nature she sees around her and questioning her own feelings of "becoming a woman." Janie observes the blossoms in the springtime and the pollinating bees and concludes, "So this was a marriage!" In her relationships throughout the novel, she hopes to achieve this perfect harmony--to find a bee to her blossom. She finally finds a satisfying love in her relationship with Tea Cake.

Lake Okeechobee becomes important to the plot when Janie moves to the Muck (the Everglades) with Tea Cake to pick beans and be free. The Lake is enormous and seems to have no boundaries. It, like Janie, is unfettered, and its power is a force to reckon with. When the hurricane arrives, the flood waters from Lake Okeechobee ravage the Muck and ultimately put Tea Cake into a position to be bitten by a rabid dog. Even though Janie feels liberated and self-actualized on the Muck, the power of nature (though beautiful) to destroy life is apparent.

Nature, then, both produces life and takes it away, sometimes violently. Nonetheless, Janie connects with nature when she can find no allies in the people around her. Although the Muck takes Tea Cake away from her, it is on the Muck that she feels more alive than she ever has. Its sprawling, uncultivated landscape and exotic foliage speak to Janie's burgeoning sense of freedom from societal norms that oppress her.

Animals are another aspect of the nature that the novel introduces. The mule is first introduced by Nanny, Janie's grandmother, who informs Janie that black women are the mules of the world, as they bear unimaginable burdens. When Janie is married to Logan, he plans to buy another mule for them so that Janie is able to do more work in the fields, paired with the new mule. Unwilling to fulfill Nanny's vision of black women as oppressed and overworked, Janie flees Logan to be with Jody Starks. In Eatonville, Matt Bonner's malnourished, mistreated mule becomes the joke of the town and is an illustration of the importance of "porch talk" and storytelling in the South.

The horizon is discussed throughout the novel, including in the opening and closing paragraphs. The horizon, the farthest point ahead that one can see, represents Janie's hopes and dreams. She never loses sight of the horizon and does what is necessary in her life to reach her horizon, even when others disapprove of her choices. Hurston narrates in the opening paragraphs of the novel that women believe in their dreams and act accordingly to achieve them. Janie fulfills this promise, and, at the end of the novel, she finally is able to, figuratively, reel in and wrap herself in the comfort of her horizon and be at peace.