Views Of Marriage

When Janie is about sixteen her grandmother finds her in the act of kissing a boy, and afraid for Janie, she arranges for Janie to be married to Logan Killicks, who is an older man with vast property to his name. Nanny, as Janie calls her, is unable to wrap her mind around the idea of marrying for love and mocks Janie saying, "So you don't want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh?" (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 13). Her grandmothers’ gift of life is different from the life that Janie wants to live. She tells Janie, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.'” (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 11). Nanny doesn’t believe that trying to find love and make a better life for you will succeed, she tells Janie that marrying and older man with land to his name will bring security, and she shouldn’t want more than that. Because of this Janie agrees and goes along with the plan. She is depicted as very compliant and rarely speaks her mind, even saying “But Ah hates disagreement and confusion, so Ah better not talk. It makes it hard tuh git along” (Their Eyes Were Watching God, 90).

After seeing Janie kiss Johnny Taylor under a romantic pear tree, Janie’s Nanny insists on her to wed an old man named Logan. This is where the battle begins. Should Janie be submissive to Nanny and marry Logan, or should she let her self-reliance win and stay away from marriage? She definitely shows signs of wanting her self-reliance to win by stating, “Naw, Nanny… Ah ain’t no real ‘oman yet” (Hurston 12). With all her might, Janie is trying to refuse Nanny’s offer by pleading that she is not matured enough yet, displaying how she desires to be self-reliant. However, Nanny counters this by replying, “T’aint Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection” (Hurston 15). As a child, Nanny instills this idea that Janie, without a doubt, needs a man by her side to give her safety and stability. In other words, Nanny wants Janie to be submissive to men because her time is almost up. Janie ends up following her dear Nanny and marries Logan, even though she was previously reluctant to do so. Submissiveness wins this first round of this battle. With Logan, Janie finds out that marriage does not necessarily equate to love. She tries her hardest bowing down to every command of Logan in hopes that doing so will make them love one another, but it simply is not possible; although it is true that Janie is granted a stable lifestyle with Logan, she is also

Janie and Nanny’s views on marriage are completely different. Nanny was born during slavery and has seen firsthand the struggle of black women. She wants Janie to live a semi privileged life with a man that can provide for her. She is not concerned with age or love. “De black woman is de mule of de world as far as Ah can see” (Hurston; 1.14). Janie is young and in love with the idea of love and marriage. She has lived a privileged life with minimal worries and does not understand the importance of a man in her life. “Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day? (page 21) After her three marriages, Janie believes that love is more important than a big house and

Janie’s relationship with Nanny provides Janie with her first views on her role in society and the assertion of men’s power over women. After Janie’s sexual awakening with the pear tree and her kiss with Johnny Taylor, Nanny warns Janie that “de nigger woman is de mule uh de world” (Hurston 14). In Nanny’s prospective, the Negro woman is especially subservient to others, and when Janie goes to Nanny to ask how to love Logan, Nanny dissolves Janie’s notion of love and affirms that love only complicates things. Nanny is seen as Janie’s mother figure and she “dismisses Janie’s romantic ideal of love, feeling that marriage serves a strictly pragmatic purpose, on in which the woman is passive and taken

Nanny tried to live the life she initially craved through Janie, conversely, this caused Janie to hate her. Nanny and her daughter were both raped by their masters, so she is determined to ensure that does not happen to her granddaughter as well. When Nanny talks to Janie about her birth, she says “Ah said thank God, Ah got another chance” (Hurston 16). She thanks God as though Janie is simply her gift to have an another chance for raising a daughter. The view of Janie as a second chance causes her to be controlling. She wishes for everything to be right for Janie and does not want to mess up again, comparable to when she unable to prevent her daughter from being raped by her master. When Nanny finds Janie kissing a boy in the yard, she demands that Janie is now a woman and must get married. Nanny forces her to marry Logan Killicks, although she does not love him. Nanny insists “’Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection” (15). This demonstrates Nanny’s protective instincts towards Janie as well as her controlling nature. Although Janie clearly does not love Logan, Nanny forces her to marry him, simply because it is what she [Nanny] wants. Marriage should be something desirable for both people, however in Janie’s case, it is simply due to Nanny’s dominance over Janie. In addition, Nanny also states that she wished to preach her

Nanny controls Janie’s love life, her first marriage with Logan at least, because of her experiences with slavery in the past. Her purpose is to have readers acknowledge Janie’s background and take that into consideration when the setting fades into the town in Florida with Joe as the mayor. Janie does show minimal resistance against the marriage between her and Logan because she does not yet have the experience of what love is supposed to be like and “asked inside of [herself] and out” (25). By not just superficially contemplating the idea if “marriage [ended] the cosmic loneliness of the unmated” or if “marriage compel love like the sun the day”, the concept of love and marriage is something that deeply troubles Janie. The pear tree symbolizes sexuality and it functions as a catalyst for Janie’s curiosity regarding what love is. With the imagery of the pear tree and the bee, it shows that love to Janie is interpersonal for the most part. However, this interpretation Janie has from seeing the pear tree and the bee changes as the novel progresses. At this point in the novel with Nanny attempting to inflict her own values and mentality onto Janie, Janie is viewed as the mule at the moment because Nanny is brought up in the slavery time period with patriarchal system to run their society and the ideas of women being independent and having their own voice are just

     The plan for Janie’s future begins with her lack of having real parents. Hurston builds up a foundation for Janie that is bound to fall like a Roman Empire. Janie’s grandmother, whom she refers to as “Nanny” takes the position as Janie’s guardian. The problem begins here for Janie because her Nanny not only spoils her, but also makes life choices for her. Nanny is old, and she only wants the best for her grandchild, for she knows that the world is a cruel place. Nanny makes the mistake of not allowing Janie to learn anything on her own. When Janie was sixteen years old, Nanny wanted to see her get married. Although Janie argued at first, Nanny insisted that Janie get married. “’Yeah, Janie, youse got yo’ womanhood on yuh… Ah wants to see you married right away.’” (Page 12). Janie was not given a choice in this decision. Her Nanny even had a suitor picked out for her. Janie told herself that she would try to make the best of the situation and attempt to find love in her marriage to Logan Killicks. But, as time went by, Janie realized that she still did not have any feelings of what she had considered to be love in her husband.

Love is different for each and every person. For some, it comes easy and happens early in life. For others, such as Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, it happened much later in life after two unsuccessful marriages. Janie’s grandmother, Nanny raised Janie to be attracted to financial security and physical protection instead of seeking love. Nanny continually emphasized that love was something that was bound to happen after those needs were met; even though Nanny never married. Janie formulates her ideal of love while sitting under a pear tree as a teenager; one that fulfilled her intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and physically. She was then informed that she was to have an arranged marriage to an older

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about a young woman that is lost in her own world. She longs to be a part of something and to have “a great journey to the horizons in search of people” (85). Janie Crawford’s journey to the horizon is told as a story to her best friend Phoebe. She experiences three marriages and three communities that “represent increasingly wide circles of experience and opportunities for expression of personal choice” (Crabtree). Their Eyes Were Watching God is an important fiction piece that explores relations throughout black communities and families. It also examines different issues such as, gender and class and these issues bring forth the theme of voice. In Janie’s attempt to find herself, she

Nanny was born into slavery so letting Janie have the best life was important to her because she does not want Janie to live the life that she did. • Leafy Crawford – Janie’s mother. She ran away after giving birth to Janie so was no very significant in Janie’s

Janie's grandmother was one of the most important influences in her life, raising her since from an infant and passing on her dreams to Janie. Janie's mother ran away from home soon after Janie was born. With her father also gone, the task of raising Janie fell to her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny tells Janie "Fact uh de matter, Ah loves yuh a whole heap more'n Ah do yo' mama, de one Ah did birth" (Hurston 31). Nanny's dream is for Janie to attain a position of security in society, "high ground" as she puts it (32). As the person who raised her, Nanny feels that it is both her right and obligation to impose her dreams and her ideas of what is important in life on Janie. The strong relationship between mother and child is important in the African-American community, and the conflict between Janie's idyllic view of marriage and Nanny's wish for her to marry for stability and position is a good illustration of just how deep the respect and trust runs. Janie has a very romantic notion of what marriage should be. "She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace . . . so this was a marriage," is how the narrator describes it (24). Nanny's idea of a good marriage is someone who has some standing in the community, someone who will get Janie to that higher ground. Nanny wants Janie to marry Logan Killicks, but according to her "he look like some ole

Nanny believes in marriage and material wealth as the ideal goal for a black woman. This is due to her past as a slave and her and her daughter’s unmarried status due to them being forced into illicit relationships and raped. So all through her life, nanny has seen having property, being protected by your husband, and having time for leisure as an ideal. However, this point of view has limitations as shown by when Janie complains to her nanny about her lack of love and her nanny is unable to comprehend it and instead says “You come head wid yo’ mouf full uh foolishness on uh busy day. Yeah you got uh prop to lean on all yo’ bawn days, and big protection, and everybody's got tuh tip the hat to you and call you Mis’ Killicks, and you come worryin’ me ‘bout love.” This lack of understanding shows that nanny’s point of view is limited, because, unlike Janie, she doesn't realize there's more to life than status and wealth. The book doesn’t support this viewpoint either, because it is clear that Janie is the happiest when she is living and working with tea cake in the Everglades. Her happiness proves that she didn’t need the wealth or leisure lifestyle, she just needed to be loved and cared for by her

Nanny is adamant about instilling a belief that Janie’s voice matters, but misguides her and forces her into a controlling marriage. She underestimates Janie’s ability to create her own path in life, and thus acts counterproductively for her granddaughter by aiding in silencing the voice that she gave Janie as a child. Nanny’s determination that her granddaughter will be married is characteristic of an ex-slave because, to her, it is the only way that Janie can survive. Nanny and Logan Killicks’ cycle happen simultaneously; Nanny dies and she leaves her husband in search of “things sweet with [her] marriage, like when you sit under a pear tree and think” (24). She attempts to shed toxicity and acquiescence, but Janie undergoes another unhealthy marriage cycle with Joe Starks, who “[takes] the bloom out of things” before she meets the man who brings her full circle – Tea Cake Woods

Marriage, the legally or formally recognized union of two people as partners in a relationship, is not taken seriously by many individuals in the recent years which results in an increasing divorce rate. This is attributable to people rushing into marriage and not knowing all the obstacles they are going to face. This assignment exemplified all the marvellous and inadequate things marriage can bring to an individual. I learned in this assignment that deep love is not the only factor that contributes to a marriage as friendship plays a significant role in a successful marriage. In general, this exercise has had a positive impact on my outlook on marriage.

In my opinion, the views of many people are influences based upon the way they were raised and taught as a child. Yes, many others go the opposite direction as the way they were raised, but many others also stay the same. Throughout history, different groups have been suffering from inequality, because the people in their society do not view them as equals in their society. As society evolves over time, new groups of people have become the target of many and denied the rights they deserve as American citizens. For a long time in the United States, it was the African American community that was denied their rights as citizens, but now today it is the same-sex community that are being denied their rights as American citizens. The views about same-sex marriage has received a lot of influence from the Catholic Church in society, because they believe it to go against what God wants from his people. In the church’s eyes, a man should marry a woman, have children, and raise them as a family together. Due to the fact that same-sex couples cannot do this, they are hated by many in society and not allowed to express their love for each other. Many politicians in the United States agree with this view and have voiced their opinions in Congress, to try and keep same-sex couples from marrying each other legally in many states.