Metamorphosis is the series of developmental stages insects go through to become adults. Butterflies have four stages of life, the egg, larva which is the caterpillar stage, pupa which is the stage where it’s in its cocoon, and the final stage is the butterfly. When Janie was left by her mother Leafy it was her egg stage. This is the first part of her life, being with her grandmother was like a new egg being hatched. Immediately after hatching, the caterpillar is so small it can barely be seen. This can be compared to Janie because she was nothing to the world right now. She was unnoticed and new to the world and its ways just like the newborn caterpillar. Neither her nor the newborn caterpillar know what they are going to be going through to become the beautiful creatures.
Even though when caterpillars are first born they can barely be seen, they grow very fast. Janie was forced to grow up fast also. When Janie was sixteen, Nanny caught her kissing a boy names Johnny Taylor. Nanny then decided to marry Janie off to a wealthy, well off middle aged farmer by the name of Logan Killicks. Nanny wanted Janie to be in a secure situation when it came to being happy in life. Nanny says, “Black women are the mules of the world” all mules do is work and Nanny didn’t want Janie to be that. She knew inside that Janie was more than a working mule.
Just like a caterpillar is connected to nature so is Janie. When Janie finds out that what her and Logan Killicks has isn’t love she connects wit the nature. Janie says, "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think. Ah” (Hurston, 23). Janie compares her marriage to the pear tree because it’s peaceful. When Janie needs to make a decision she looks at the pear tree because she is in touch with herself the most when she’s near it. Janie feels she can connect with the nature in ways many people cant. She talks to the nature and thinks that nature talks back to her.
Janie realizes that being married does not automatically mean that there will be real love between the two. From learning this, she starts to become a woman. This is another step in her evolution. Every time Janie goes through something it makes her grow a little bit more. Janie wants more than what Killicks is giving her. Janie wants to have self fulfillment. She wants a emotional and physical connection with a partner. She mentioned she didn’t love Killicks because he’s not attractive; he talks to her bad to her, she just doesn’t have that connection with him.
Janie’s next husbands name was Jody Starks, he was a powerful man who was more concerned with himself than he was with Janie. Jody wants to be in control of everything and everyone around him. When he marries Janie, he doesn’t marry her because he loves her, he marries her because she will make him more powerful. Since she is young and beautiful Jody thinks that’s the kind of wife a mayor should have. Since Jody is obsessed with power and controlling people Janie was not satisfied. Jody wouldn’t let Janie have her own mind, he would tell her to be quiet at times and tie her hair up because he thinks if she wears it down he will lose her mainly because she is beautiful. When Jody does things like make her tie her hair up it stops Janie from growing and expressing herself. Janie argues with Jody that he never allowed her to show him who she really was because he was always stopped her from showing him. Janie gains some sense of identity when she finally unties her hair, which Jody made her keep tied.
When Jody dies Janie now feels free from all the restrictions Jody had with her. Janie can now do what she wants, Jody’s death was another step in her evolution, and she can now express herself. Janie now realizes her grandmother is wrong when it comes to her finding happiness. They had two different ideas of what happiness was. When Janie falls in love that’s when she will actually be happy. Her grandmother’s views on happiness dealt with being well off In the long run.
Janies next husband was a man named Tea Cake. "Tea Cake looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom - a pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God." (Hurston, 101) Tea Cake was something special to Janie. Even though Tea Cake was twelve years younger than Janie, he was her first real love. Tea Cake understands Janie and loves her back. Tea Cake made Janie feel like a little kid, "It was so crazy digging worms by lamp light and setting out for Lake Sabelia after midnight that she felt like a child breaking rules. That's what made Janie like it." (Hurston 98) They did things Janie would have never thought of doing. Tea Cake is another factor in Janie’s evolution process, he tells her she is beautiful and says he bets she hasn’t looked in the mirror. When Tea Cake leaves that night she looks in the mirror because she hasn’t before. Everyone in Eatonville starts to judge Janie about her spending so much time with Tea Cake. Janie doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. She is going to do what makes her happy.
Janie is now at the final part of her life. She has finally grown into a woman. She’s been to the horizon and back as she would say. From being like a little caterpillar, she has now become a Butterfly. At the end of the book Janie is at her highest point in life. She is content with herself and what she went through to be were she is now. Janie knows that her suffering and sacrifices were a major part in her discovering herself. She has been through ups and downs, struggled, suffered and grown, to be the woman that she is. She finally got the unity she always wanted when she sat under the pear tree in her earlier days. Janie has found what she was looking for in life true love and peace.