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at it [her relationship with Joe]she saw that it never was the flesh and blood image of her dreams. She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be. (Hurston, 71-72)

This realization is a key component to her awakening. It causes her to consider all aspects of her life and consequently of herself. She finds that she has thoughts and emotions that she has never expressed because of Joe's suppression. She digs within herself and finds that she has stored and hidden her identity, her personality. She found aspects of herself that she had forgotten existed. "She was saving up feelings for some man that she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them" (Hurston, 72).

This zenith of Janie's awakening allowed her to remain submissive to Joe's command until his death. Her inner knowledge of her true self gave her strength to endure Joe's constant tirade of complaints and orders. Joe died of kidney failure and Janie inherited the general store. Janie worked the store for several months and did not pursue remarriage against the advice of her friends. Men and women both felt that Janie needed to be remarried so that she would have a man to take care of her. Janie, however, is remaining true to her dream of pear trees and kissing bees. She does not want another husband to rule over her like a master to a slave. Joe's death liberated her from possessiveness and she had no desire to return to that kind of relationship.

Janie finally fully awakens when she meets a man named Tea Cake. Tea Cake is much younger than Janie. He begins coming by the general store to chat with Janie on a regular basis. He talks with her and is interested in what she has to say. She had never had anyone actually take an interest in her as a person before Tea Cake. Not even her grandmother had taken the time to learn who Janie was. Tea Cake is everything that Joe and Logan could not have been. He helps her break away from the stiff gender roles of her society, which dictated that women did not participate in the activities of men. He teaches Janie how to play checkers. He teaches her how to hunt and fish. He encourages her to make conversation. She is genuinely herself and genuinely happy when she is with Tea Cake.
He could be a bee to a blossoma pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs

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