For this blog post, I wanted to discuss the complex family dynamic that Janie has with her grandmother and absent mother and father. It seems foreign for a family member to want to see a girl married off so young, but Janie’s grandmother is determined to have her out of the house the moment that she shows interest in boys. Though the grandmother is acting in a way that she deems as right and is “protecting” Janie from the horrors that she and Janie’s mother experienced, it is evident that Janie is miserable in her marriage. There is definitely an advantage to Janie being raised by an older woman who exudes wisdom and knowledge, but Janie’s grandmother is definitely fearful and I feel as though it affects Janie’s childhood. Because the grandmother is so afraid that something similar will happen to Janie like it did her own daughter, she is proactive in separating Janie from things that could harm her.
The aspect of absent parents is also intriguing because happily married parents offer an example for love in a child’s life, yet Janie does not have the opportunity to witness this in her own parents and is still obsessed with love. In my mind it seems painful to wish so hard for something that you have never really seen first hand. I think that the grandmother struggles with this more as she was there for the trauma her daughter experienced and attempted to help her through the recovery process and does not want to see Janie suffer.
quotes:
“So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid” (Hurtston 11)
“Dats what makes me skeered. You don’t mean no harm. You don’t even know where harm is at. Ah’m ole now. Ah can’t be always guidin’ yo’ feet from harm and danger. Ah wants to see you married right away” (Hurston 13)
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