There can be a lot of different opinions about what Janie should have done regarding her relationship with Logan in Their Eyes Were Watching God. It all started because her grandmother, Nanny, who wanted the best for her, but in the end Janie doesn't stick with him, utilizing her own skills of judgment. It is understandable that Nanny wanted Janie to have a husband like Logan in the first place, he is stable and wealthy. This sort of future would be favorable, and Nanny is so adamant about securing the future because she has a bad history herself. When she was still in slavery, she was raped by her master and then chastised and beaten for "her actions" by the master's wife. She had no say or free will in the happenings, and it boiled down to just a pretty miserable life for a while. In her direction of caring for Janie, she doesn't want spoiled history to be repeated, so it is for good reason that she insists Logan becoming a part of the family.
Even though I do trust in the judgement of Nanny, I also have a sympathetic side towards Janie and her choices. She is obviously just getting her bearings on life as a developing young woman, so I think it is actually healthy for her to find independence in what she does. The downside is that she just doesn't have the wealth in experience that Nanny has to make her choices. What I find admirable in Janie is that she is slightly aware of this fact. On the outside, she really wants to go forward and do anything and everything, but she is not ignorant. She has the sense to give Nanny's opinions a thought, so she successfully finds a balance in her actions. On one hand, she goes forward and kisses Johnny Taylor -- a moment when she got to experiment with the pleasures she wanted; yet on the other hand, when Nanny scolds her for what she has done, there is not a trace of resentment. Superficially she has the attitude of wanting to do whatever, but the narrator does reveal that the kiss had been reduce to the feeling of a "manure pile after a rain." This admission is key, because it shows readers that she is not rash in her sexual exploration, she is purely trying to find what is ideal and true to her love. If Nanny says that something is wrong, she takes some real consideration as to whether or not that could be right, and in the case of the kiss, she almost agrees.
An even stronger case of how Janie is open-minded to Nanny even if she doesn't always follow through in action, and why I find her a favorable character, is the way she deals with the Logan question itself. From the start, Janie never wants to be with Logan, but somehow, the marriage goes through. How could Janie approve (even if it is only partial approval)? She puts an honest and hopeful faith into the future and that it will work out. She hates Logan in every way -- his appearance and demeanor -- but she finds a way to try things out. The narrator of TEWWG points out that she thought that in the end she would find love. To me, that kind of love experiment is just plain risky. But the point is, she trust what her grandmother says and attempts the new life. Not too long after, we find out that she feels that finding love will be impossible, the reason why she ultimately leaves Logan, but there should be a certain amount of respect for the amount that she tried to make things work by obeying Nanny originally, no matter how reluctant she was.
After spending a little time with Logan, Janie moves on to marry Jody right away, a mercurial quality that sends a lot of criticism her way. The way I see things, it is pretty sad how the direction of her life turns towards disappointment with Jody once she marries him. Some may say that she deserved the hardships and such for not fully listening to Nanny, but to this I have to disagree. It is not a deserved fate for her, just a necessary one. What I mean is that this is where the aspect of her individuality comes into play. To fully realize her own identity, she had to make her own choices. And remember, she wan't making moves on the whim, she tried Nanny's way first. The strong independent spirit of Janie is only put into a real context if the reader considers her nature of obedience as well. It is appropriate for Janie to have thoughts about the pear tree, and finding a love and life that suits her best is a search she has the right to take.
In the end (after Jody is gone), Janie is finally able to let down her hair and express herself with her braid. But to get to this stage, she first learned the hard way what the realities of life are by living with the constantly worsening Jody. She made her decision, and faced consequences for it, but all after making an obedient move. So another question that arises is whether or not the original decision to marry Logan and live her life with him would have saved her trouble anyways. As their marriage progressed, he starting making her work more and more. That experience alludes to a not so easy life that may not have been that different from the arguments she had to endure with Jody. The key difference between the two situations is that one was made out of an independent decision, a healthy move that allowed her to actually develop. The themes of experienced wisdom and youthful curiosity contrast sharply and expose the ways Janie develops as a strong woman through a chain of experience in love.
Janie's vitriolic comments about her Nanny following Jody's death are shocking--we're told that she "hates" her grandmother in memory for giving her this compromised view of marriage. But at the same time, we find her very practical approach toward marriage to be depressingly narrow--Logan's value is summed up in his 60 acres, as if this were a Jane Austen novel. But there is a generational conflict going on here: Hurston makes clear where Nanny's harsh views have come from, and for a woman born into slavery, the very idea of a man in Logan's position owning land would have been too good to imagine. Of course, for her, love doesn't enter into the picture at all.
ReplyDeleteJanie can't relate to this view, which is still very much in line with the prevailing views of her time. Janie fixes upon her own vision of what a marriage could be, and it has nothing to do with security. Sure, the relationship with Jody turns out to be secure, to a fault--but this isn't what Janie had in mind, and it's the security quickly becomes confining.
I agree that Janie is a favorable character, but perhaps for different reasons. You postulate that some things Janie does--on their own--are inherently wrong, but are made okay through her more redeeming actions. I disagree however that Janie being rash in her sexual exploration (which I would argue she might be to an extent), or having thoughts about love and the pear tree--which are all inextricably tied up in sexual desire--would make her an unfavorable person without her redeeming qualities such as "obedience." I think that her fickleness and whimsy are characteristics that are present in everyone--think about today and the rate of divorce, for example. For the most part we don't view people who get divorced as lacking in character in some way. Additionally, obedience is not always a redeeming quality, in fact it can be a negative one, especially in thinking about the trope of the obedient women. Isn't it a good thing that Janie breaks away from obedience? Additionally, I would not cast Janie's agreement to marry Logan as obedience but rather as a necessity (and one that she reluctantly realizes) and out of love and pity for her grandmother.
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