The voice can be considered an expression that can be used to measure one's innate strength and degree of freedom. Since voice is seen as power, silence is seen as its exact opposite, representing weakness and restraint. However, this interpretation of silence is demonstrated differently in the popular novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, as the main protagonist Janie wishes to have a voice of power but instead remains silent during the imperative events that occur in her life. The path of silence can be traced through the role it plays in the entire novel as it begins with the purpose of symbolizing a lack of freedom as in the case of Janie's grandmother and second husband Jody, but ultimately plays a role similar to the power of voice like Tea Cake's. For starters, Janie is silent at the beginning of the novel during a conversation with her grandmother, the nanny. The nanny was forcing Janie to marry a man named Logan Killicks after seeing Janie kiss a boy named Johnny Taylor because she was worried that Janie wouldn't marry a decent man. In turn, Janie begins to argue with the nanny about marrying Logan since “Logan Killicks' vision was desecrating the pear tree, but Janie didn't know how to tell the nanny. He just hunched over and sulked on the floor” (Hurston 14). In this scene, Janie remembers the pear tree and its symbol of finding love as she knew she would not find love with Logan and was clearly against his principle of love. As a result, Janie also remained silent and if he had found a way to tell Nanny about his metaphorical symbolization of the pear tree, he could have instilled confidence within himself to rebuke Nanny's idea and perhaps convince Nanny otherwise for him... .in the center of the paper...Janie's role goes from being a representation of weakness and lack of freedom to a symbol of free will and strength. Ultimately, the moments of silence performed by Janie prevented her from gaining true freedom in her marriage. Despite the lack of freedom, as the novel neared the end, silence was illustrated as a representation of freedom in that marriage as Janie did not feel the need to speak. Janie finally had a chance to express her thoughts to Tea Cake and he would listen to her about what her relationship with Jody was like. Because Janie knew that her voice could be heard, she felt empowered to remain silent to emphasize the strength of her silence. To summarize, Janie's silence at critical moments in her life represented the different roles she played, being a symbol of weakness and moderation to its exact opposite of strength and freedom..