After today's discussion, I knew my final blog post of the quarter was going to be about Janie. Whether you think she's whiny, lazy, or are sympathetic toward her, (I think) we can all agree her conception of love/marriage is very flawed and warped.
When Janie was 16 she had a very intense experience with witnessing what "love" is with the bees and the pear blossoms. With all the fertility of springtime around her, her developing sexuality was clearly accelerated and magnified. One can't really blame her for then creating an expectation and desire for exactly what she's seeing: a love that's pure and genuine and a marriage that represents that. We can blame, however, Janie's grandmother for not helping her understand what's she's feeling and going through like many mother figures often do. One can argue that it's not entirely Nanny's fault since she herself never experienced or got to experience what it feels like to fall in love. She was forced to grow up in the real world right from the start with the birth of an illegitimate daughter. It's easy to understand how Nanny would be more preoccupied with making sure Janie had a stable future life than to worry about her personal wishes. However, had Nanny at least given Janie some hope for finding love, perhaps Janie would've learned to love Logan with time.
Nevertheless, we see Janie doesn't fully understand how marriage works when she can't accept the work responsibilities of being a farmer's wife. It's safe to say she never gives Logan a fair chance. After a short period of contemplation, she then elopes with Joe Starks who gives off the initial impressions of the perfect husband to satisfy her. That, unfortunately, turns out not to be the case as Joe reveals himself to be overly protective and selfish with Janie despite being very generous and helpful to the town. Ironically, she runs out of an unhappy situation to an even more miserable one.
Although Janie hasn't had any luck with a properly functioning marriage, her fantasy of a man simply taking care of her for the rest of her life is just ridiculous and juvenile. To me, Janie is only in love with the idea of true love and perfect marriage. It's obvious she was way too quick and eager to be able to find it. It takes her two unsuccessful relationships and many years to finally develop patience as well as appreciation for being single. Although no woman should have to endure Janie's terrible 20 year marriage, it seems to have been just what she needed in order to learn, mature, and get her life in order.
I disagree that her concept of marriage is warped, since as you said, you can't really blame her for her illusions about love. As a girl who was raised by Nanny to try and provide for herself, I think its' important for Janie to realize that she needs to discover her own goals in life, and she wants to find a man that treats her the way she wants to be treated. I don't think this is wrong; she simply wants the right to marry for love rather than for money. However, the way she leaves with Joe Starks does suggest that she is more in love with an ideal, and not as willing to understand the realities of life and/or make sacrifices.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, I think everyone's concept of marriage is warped -- marriage is definitely weird in a way, but also powerful as we see in this book. One thing I have been thinking about while reading about this is just the fact that she is stuck in a way because she is women, and she doesn't need all those other factors (a controlling, abusive husband...) to determine the relationship. It is powerful that she takes back some of the control by leaving Logan, and even though she falls into an even rockier relationship afterwards, her misfortune seems natural -- how could it go perfectly?
ReplyDeleteI think there can't really be one concept of marriage because it seriously varies from couple to couple, person to person. Janie has her idea of the perfect marriage, which is perfectly acceptable. She clings to it for dear life throughout her entire relationship with Logan, and this is where she becomes (or, at least, we are able to see more clearly that she is) naïve and immature. Rather than overall having a warped idea of marriage, it is her own, but it is totally stagnant.
DeleteI think it makes sense to talk about Janie as "in love with the idea of love," but where do you get the impression that what she wants is a man "to take care of her for the rest of her life"? Is that how you read the pear-blossom-bee image? Just because she's not into getting behind the mule and plowing (or shoveling manure) on the farm of a smelly, older widower as a seventeen-year-old girl in a marriage she didn't seek out and didn't really even agree to, doesn't mean she's unwilling to put any work in. Ironically, when she follows Joe to Eatonville (*not* under any illusions that he's the "perfect husband," by the way, but simply choosing change and potential over an undesirable situation of confinement), she chafes after being put by him on a pedestal--the work in the store isn't satisfying because it limits her socially, outside the social realm of the other women in town, but prohibited (by Joe's mayoral declaration) from taking part in the men's porch-talking culture. Joe "takes care of her"--he has her needs met, and is a prominent and even "wealthy" member of the community. And this is totally unsatisfying to her.
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