Sunday, February 22, 2009

Blast From the Past! (?)-dream life




In chapter 2-5 I was able to understand a little more about Janie's past when she spoke to Phoebe about her childhood and previous marriages. I learned how she had an abnormal childhood, one without parents and being raised by a single grandmother. During her teens she lived in West Florida with her grandmother, who bought a house just for the two of them. Janie spent most of her time outside "under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard," (page 10). I realized how creative, imaginative and inspirational she was at such a young age. She embraced the beauty of the pear tree and it's surroundings. I liked how she described the buzzing bees around the tree and how she wanted bees of her own that would devoted their life to nurturing her- "Oh to be a pear tree- any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world!" (pg 11). She began to fantasize about love, experimenting with a boy named Johnny Taylor. From observation, marriage between a man a woman seemed to induce love so Janie wondered. She wondered if marrying a man will instantly produce ever-lasting love then she will have it.

Unfortunately, Janie felt that her childhood ended at the age of 16 when her grandmother was dying and she urged her to marry a man that Janie did not love but she accepted because she believed the marriage would be the solution. She quickly realized that the man she married was not the one for her and in chapter 5 she gets a second chance for a dream life. Joe Starks, a wandering man walked by her road and instantly Janie felt an attraction. The man was kind and made her feel like a real woman so she happily left her husband to start a new life with Joe. I feel like Janie is an independent woman and only does what she wants and what makes her happy. I would even go as far as calling her selfish because she disregards all of her previous husband's feelings by leaving him without a clue to where she was going. She is certainly not held back by society's opinions about her race especially when those closest to her tell her about black women being the least respected. She does not care about her husbands money and is not afraid to leave everything behind for a man she hardly knows.

1 comment:

  1. I agree that Janie is very strong and she may even be selfish at times in her pursuit of men. But she certainly shows respect for Nanny's opinions and does not completely disregard them.

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