When Janie is 17 she is betrothed to an old, ugly, white man. She says that she can't even stand sleeping in the same bed because of his pig-like feet. He then asks her to do manual labor, which is expected of a farmer's wife. Janie doesn't want anything to do with that, and when Logan goes off to get a second mule for Janie, she waits by the side of the road. She sees a nicely dressed man walking along the road she doesn't know. She starts talking to him, and after two weeks she runs off with Joe without saying goodbye to Logan.
It is pretty obvious that Janie is unhappy with her marriage to Logan, and she has so many daydreams of a happy marriage she could have. But alas, she is stuck with Logan in a farm house where not many travelers come by. Well, she is stuck with him until Joe comes along.
Although she is unhappy with her current marriage, does she desire more to get out of her marriage with Logan, or get into a marriage with who she thinks will make her happy? The lead up to her marriage with Joe is very abrupt, so it is quite unclear of how much in love they are.
To answer the questions that you pose, I think that she really wants to get into a marriage that will make her happy. Looking at the pear tree scene, we see that she is developing into a young woman that has ideals on what love is. The reason why she didn't want Logan in the first place is because he didn't fit those ideals. However, because she wants to get into a happy marriage, that, in turn, makes her want to get out of the Logan marriage. So basically the answer is yes to both of your options, and it is for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the reason why it might be unclear how much in love Joe and Janie are is because Joe's image changes so much. To start, he fit Janie's ideal image (what she did not find in Logan) -- entertaining, wealthy, handsome. These feature change over time, and it is even revealed that he has negative values such as sexism and a temper. Janie's image of love are shattered over and over again as she goes from man to man.
Where did you get the impression that Logan is white? His race is never specified--as with most of the characters in this novel, as pretty much the entire cast is black. We will briefly glimpse a few white folks in the later chapters, but for now, unless a person is specifically identified as white (as with the family on whose property Janie grew up, who are explicitly singled out as "good white folks"), you can presume they are black. And Logan's speech pretty clearly identifies him as black.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been unheard of for a white farmer to marry a black girl in Janie's position in this time and place. I'm not sure off the top of my head if interracial marriage was illegal in Florida at the turn of the century, but it was in many southern states--and it certainly would have been taboo.
The much more common form of racial mixing in this period, and earlier, would have been rape--as when Janie's grandmother is raped by her owner, to produce Janie's mother.
I definitely think she wanted to leave her marriage more than find a better one. It only took one conversation for her to drop everything and leave so that tells me that her hasty evaluation of Jody was enough. Clearly at age 17 she's isn't thinking things through properly but her immediate desire seems pretty apparent.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't really say that love has anything to do with it. With Logan, clearly love is the problem--or lack thereof. Janie doesn't feel that love that she's idealized and runs away with Joe, not because she is in love with him, but because in him she see's more of a possibility for that when compared to Logan. Logan and Janie's relationship is really one devoid of much emotional feeling whereas at least with Joe, there is emotion (even if it's negative).
ReplyDelete