So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time.… Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman." [What is the relationship between Janie’s inner, private thoughts and the outside world? What does she seem to learn over this passage of time?

In "Their Eyes were watching God," by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie accepts to marry an older man she does not love in order to please her evil grandmother. In fact, Nanny has told Janie that love comes after marriage, and Janie, who innocently dreams of love, realizes that her grandmother's promise is not true. The reason is that even after marriage, she does not love her husband - she even likes him less. Thus, it is implied that girls become women after they have gone through the hardships of real life, in contrast with their previous fantasies about love.