Though long overdue, I wanted to comment on the dynamic of Nanny and Janie on the matter of marriage. Janie, being 17 when she is first married, is in a kind of situation that I could obviously never relate to, but can have some serious sympathy for. Janie is in many ways a hopeless romantic. She wants love, the kind that blossoms under pear trees, in a world where sometimes love has no practical place. I think, if I were an older reader, coming in with a much more cynical perspective on life I'd have a harder time sympathizing with Janie, but right now, I find her all too relatable. I think idealized expectations of love are kind of a rite of passage for teenage girls, whether we admit to it or not. Janie is impulsive, aware of her sexuality, and deeply connected with her emotions. Because her emotions are such direct influences on her, she can't stay still in a position where she isn't satisfied, physically or emotionally. On the other hand, Nanny, too, is well justified in her opposition. Born and raised a slave, with her only daughter being the product of a painful rape, love is trivial, and basically inconsequential. In Nanny's perspective Logan Killicks represents an ideal, something that she could have only dreamt of when she was Janie's age. To have the opportunity, as a woman, to be able to marry into such financial stability was something as valuable to Nanny as love must have seemed to Janie.
This situation is deeply affected by the generational gap between the two characters that prevent them from understanding the others' point of view. In a lot of ways I see parallels of this situation between myself, my cousins and my own grandmother. I won't go into details, but my grandmother was forced into an arranged marriage at the age of 14, and like Nanny, love was never a reality for her. She had children because society expected her to, and struggled to raise her children single-handedly after her husband's sudden, and premature death. Though I respect her in a lot of ways, I also see that her mentality is skewed and stuck in an earlier time. This became especially evident to me when I saw her try to end the engagement between my cousin and her long time boyfriend only because of the interracial nature of their relationship. Different people will always have different priorities in life, but I realize now, that given context, most people are justified in their beliefs.
Tanisha,
ReplyDeleteI love how you used your personal experiences to show that it is important to keep an open mind toward others' opinions. Everyone has gone through different experiences that shape their outlook on life, and it is important to take these experiences into account before dismissing somebody's opinion. For example, nearly everyone in my immediate family has gone through a divorce or separation, so I have seen how people who seem well-matched from a socioeconomic standpoint do not end up getting along. In other words, financial stability does not bring hapiness. Perhaps this makes me totally biased in my criticism of Janie and Logan's marriage.
To add to the defense of the "hopeless romantics," Hurston's decision to make Tea Cake a younger man who is not wealthy adds to the romantic idea that society's marriage standards should not overcome people's love for one another. Similarly to how your grandmother disapproved of your cousin's relationship, the town warns Janie that Tea Cake is not a good match for her, but she moves away with him anyway. I wonder if Hurston will end the novel the romantic way by making Tea Cake and Janie live happily ever after.
Lara,
DeleteI am in complete agreement with your comment. People who seem to match up completely in terms of social class, education, exposure, family, etc. may seem like they are perfect for each other, but there is that whole other thing of actually being compatible with one another. Being with the same person for most of your life requires a lot of compromising and sacrificing along the way, and I think its important to be in love so that you never feel resentment towards that person for having to give things up.
Maybe I'm just a more cynical person, but I don't sympathize with Janie. At that point in history, marrying into wealth was an important part of any relationship. It might be just the way she left Logan, without a second thought nor a note. She's upset with Nanny's apparent lack of understanding her, but what about Logan? She only seems to stay with him long enough to pick out every fault and flaw he has. When Joe keeps her contained as the "mayor's wife," while I don't agree with what he did, I do understand it. She just ran away from her first husband with him after knowing Joe for only a week, so it wouldn't be a crazy thought that she would find someone else in Eatonville and end up with them. Their relationship then dissolves to the point where you could say they aren't a couple anymore, and I can't help but to find Janie responsible, at least in part, for it. While I do think she waited an appropriate time with Tea Cake, I guess for me the bad out ways the good and I don't sympathize with Janie, and I doubt I ever will in this aspect of her life.
ReplyDeleteChas,
DeleteThough I don't share your point of view, I can see where you are coming from. I thought that Janie running away from Logan was definitely impulsive, and I guess pretty irresponsible considering she never left a him a note or any other means of explanation. But at the same time, you have to realize that she is only 17 and has led a relatively sheltered life to the point where she doesn't understand the importance of financial stability in society. If I was in the same situation, I know I probably would have run away too, but this obviously doesn't make what she does 'correct'. On the other hand, I am in complete disagreement with your view on Joe/Jody. He was a controlling, manipulative, and I think, even abusive husband. Keeping Janie 'locked away' is bad in and of itself, but he degenerated to the point of occasionally publicly humiliating her, slapping her, and constantly belittling her in an effort to maintain his ego. No one deserves that, even Janie.
In defense of young Janie, I guess, I'll point out that it doesn't seem like she has to work too hard to "pick out every fault" in him. The faults seem pretty glaring. Whether or not it's harsh to the hard-working farmer, can't we sympathize with her having to hold her breath in order to share a bed with this dirty, stinky, mule-footed man? Even if these flaws aren't his fault, should she have to live with them for the rest of her life because of a situation her grandmother basically placed her in? It might be realistic or pragmatic to say "forget about love; shut up and get behind the mule." But it's harder to make the heart get behind such a sentiment, and this book is maybe more about the heart.
DeleteYea tanisha I agree, I mean her running away wasn't particularly great, and I think she didn't handle that well, but if she hadn't we wouldn't have a story. And at this point in time, she kind of needed to be attached to a man in order to run away, and Joe seemed like a reasonable choice. But even when she left, she knew that Joe wasn't the reason she was running away. He was just a handy excuse. But, even though I can sympathize with Janie, I don't think her Grandmother was out of touch at all. Considering that Janie's family line is a product of rape, her Grandmother knows first hand that she should be worried for Janie. And the fact that she is just a 17 year old girl, who with her romanticism, could be more foolish, he grandmother has the right to worry.
ReplyDeleteSierra you bring up a good point of reminding us that this is, at the end of the day, a story. And that to be a successful story, we can't just have a submissive character who accepts her fate and lives out in misery for the next 50 years of her life. I think with Nanny though, you have to realize that she is completely right in thinking what she does, and that to us, her worries seem legitimate. When I say that she seems out of touch, I mean that she may have seemed out of touch in the perspective of young Janie.
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