e is unlimited except for her own restraints, not those of others. Early in the novel we see this will and limitless of expression symbolized by a ship in the distance, ôShips at a distance have every manÆs wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Timeö (Hurston 3).
The above depiction of opportunities or dreams is similar to the theme in a poem from another major figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes. In HughesÆ poem, A Dream Deferred, the speaker wonders what happens to dreams that are oppressed by outside forces or the self. He concludes that they might rot, fester, diminish or explode. Janie will not allow her dreams to be deferred, even if they must proceed by zigzags instead of directly forward. Hughes
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