When Janie marries Logan Killicks she says "He look like some ole skullhead in de grave yard". She associates Killicks with death, as opposed to her view of love which is full of life and nature. When Joe Starks comes along, he is the better option by far. While she knows their love isn't perfect, she is willing to give it a go, rather than living and working for Killicks her whole life. For the first few years of their marriage it is implied that they had fun. But now that fun had begun to dwindle. " The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired." Janie's expectation for love had been fulfilled for the first seven years, but now that Joe has begun to mistreat her she begins to look for something else.
After Joe dies, she immediately feels like a large burden has been lifted and that she has a lot more freedom. Janie has felt the two extremes of a marriage. Killicks worked her too hard and treated her literally like an animal-- something to do the farm work. On the other hand, Joe treated her too "special" and she felt isolated from the town and she still had to work too hard. Even though Joe mistreated her she still learned something in their marriage. As Joe was dying, Janie tried to mend their relationship even though she didn't feel that spark of love like she did initially. When she tries to help Joe it is showing that she is trying to love him out of a choice, instead of pursuing love just as a natural feeling. This shows that maybe Janie's view of love is beginning to change.
I bet as we see the relationship between Janie and Tea Cake progress, we will see Janie's view of love change even more.
I agree that Janie's view of love may be changing. She seems much more idealistic towards the beginning of the book. She doesn't seem to doubt her relationship with Joe too much when she runs off with him. However, after two failed marriages, we see her showing much more doubt in Tea Cake, shown when she fears him as he walks her home at night and doesn't believe he has true feelings for her.
ReplyDeleteI think that while Janie originally loved Joe, his resolutions about their relationship and his unwillingness to actually work out their issues really affected that original feeling. With Logan, she was still a child and didn't take the legality of marriage very seriously so it wasn't difficult for her to run away from an arranged loveless marriage. Socially, that marriage was the best thing Nanny could give Janie, but it was completely at odds with her ideas of marriage and love. With Joe, she is committed to the relationship to the end, remembering the love and at least caring for Joe until his death, but she is still liberated when she becomes single.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope that Teacake is the guy for her! If he truly is some sort of middle choice between Janie's two strong-personalitied ex-husbands, than it makes me wonder where the book is going to go after she's already met some kind of perfect guy. I hate to be a pessimist, but I see some sort of fatal flaw rising from Teacake in the future. Along with this, I also hope that Teacake is the right guy for Janie, because this seems to be the first time that she's really clicked with one of the men, and maybe the first time she likes a guy for who she actually is.
ReplyDeleteA large reason for Janie's seemingly misguided preconceptions about relationships and love stems from the constrained environment which her grandmother restricted her to as a developing adolescent. Janie had never really known love before, and as a result simply believed that it would inevitably develop naturally over time. When she finally realizes this isn't the case in her marriage with Logan Killicks, she is shocked and this prompts her to take such an abrupt action of leaving Logan for Joe. Keeping this in mind, then, it makes sense that Janie's marriage with Joe deteriorates over time as well, as she is still learning after her foul marriage with Logan. It will be interesting to see how her relationship with Tea Cake develops considering her history of relationships starting out well.
ReplyDeleteI kind of agree with Mehul, in that while there is a contrast between Janie's view of love and marriage and the grandmother's view of it, but I think it is more tied to her innocence and naivete rather than her actual point of view. As she experiences both "kinds" of marriage she begins to realize what she actually wants (ending up being Tea Cake?). I think that like you said, Janie does go through a series of different "love changes" and each change represents her getting closer to the version of her we saw in the beginning of the story (oddly similar to the narrator growing closer to the version of him we saw in the prologue).
ReplyDeleteI think that a big factor in Janie's evolving sense of love is that she married Logan at such a young age. At that point, she was only 16 and probably did not know what she wanted in a relationship, she was just going along with what her grandmother wanted. As she gets older, she realizes the types of things she wants in her partner and more problems arise for her with Joe Starks especially.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an interesting view on Janie's changing views of love in the novel, and I do think Tea Cake is going to further morph her stance by the end of their interaction. However, we can see how much over 17 years of bad marriages has marred her perception of love itself and damaged her spirit. Kind of makes the warming up to Tea Cake a bit unbelievable
ReplyDeleteThe warming up to Tea Cake could also predict great disappointment if he abandons her or rejects her. We already see that Tea Cake often leaves for long periods of time,and if he were to leave her after she modifies her love for him it could crush her. However if Janie survived years of a terrible marriage Tea Cake might just stay and make Janie's life great, but the first chapter indicates otherwise :(.
DeleteWith both of Janie's first two marriages failing it is almost as if both love as a choice and love as a feeling fails. I think Janie starts that love is more complex than that as she experiences more and also grows older.
ReplyDeleteYou say that we may see Janie's view of love change as her relationship with Teacake progress, but I am not sure that will happen. I think it is possible that her view of love is still the same as when she was under the tree. It still means life and freedom, and despite having already failed to love in two marriages, I think that she still believes in that form of love. And in this case, to answer your title's question, love is more of a feeling, a natural feeling.
ReplyDeleteLike you pointed out in your first paragraph, love is for Janie is natural. But, I don't think Nanny wanted to "create" love for Janie, she just thought it wasn't an important part of marriage. As far as we know, Nanny was never married so she doesn't have any prior experience to pull from when making these decisions for Janie. She does, however, have experience in what it felt like to be powerless (as a slave and a victim of rape) and so her priority isn't for Janie to feel loved, but to be protected, in my opinion.
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