Summary
After Tea Cake's funeral, the men of the muck realize
how poorly they treated Janie; to appease their feelings of guilt,
they beat Mrs. Turner's brother and run him out of town again. Since
the Everglades mean nothing to Janie without Tea Cake, she returns
to Eatonville, taking only a package of seeds that she plans to
plant in remembrance of Tea Cake.
Her story finished, Janie tells Pheoby that she is content
to live in Eatonville again, having already lived her dream; she
has been to the “horizon and back.” She knows that the town will
gossip behind her back, but she doesn't care. She says that they
don't know what love really is and that they have not truly lived
for themselves.
That night, in bed, Janie thinks about the horrible day
that she killed Tea Cake, and her whole world becomes sad. She realizes, however,
that Tea Cake gave her so much and that he will always be with her.
He showed her the horizon, and now she feels at peace.
Analysis
The final chapter shows Janie at full strength and utmost
self-assurance. She is able to reject the community that has treated
her poorly and, of her own volition, return to Eatonville. The story
comes full circle as Janie's long narration catches up to the moment
of her current conversation with Pheoby. This return to the opening
of the novel mirrors Janie's return home. The conversation, full
of self-possession and sage advice, gives the impression that Janie
has become a guru of sorts—indeed, Pheoby, having heard all about Janie's
fulfilling adventures, declares that she is no longer satisfied with
her life. Janie has, as she claims, achieved the horizon and found
her enlightenment.
That a bout of melancholy settles over Janie's room is
not a sign that she has failed to reach her horizon. Rather, it
allows her to demonstrate the strength that she gained along her
journey. As she reflects on her experiences, “[t]he day of the gun,
and the bloody body, and the courthouse . . . commence[s] to sing
a sobbing sigh,” once again, impersonal forces harass Janie. But
the memory of Tea Cake vanquishes the sadness and fills Janie with
an understanding of all that she has gained and become.
Janie has already realized that suffering and sacrifice
are necessary steps on the path toward self-discovery. In The
Natural (1952), Bernard Malamud
writes: “We have two lives . . . the life we learn with and the
life we live with after that. Suffering is what brings us toward
happiness.” This maxim is certainly applicable to Janie's situation.
She has grown, struggled, and suffered; having found her voice,
she is now able to begin anew. Although the body of her lover is
gone, his legacy remains with her, in the person that she has become.
She has achieved the unity with nature that she sought so long ago
under the pear tree. Although the forces of the world may be unknowable
and at times painful, she is at peace with them. Her act of “pull[ing]
in her horizon” around herself reflects the harmony that she has
finally established with the world around her. She has found true
love, which has enabled her to find her voice.
This final image of Janie “pull[ing] in her horizon”
contrasts with the opening image of men's “[s]hips at a distance.”
These metaphorical ships suggest that regardless of their ultimate
success or failure, men dream of great accomplishments, of working
on and changing their external worlds. Even if the ship comes in,
it still originates as something external. Janie's pulling in her
horizon shifts the field of action to the interior. Her quest requires
experience of the world, of other people and places, but it is ultimately
directed inward.
