For starters I think it's important to remember that when Janie's grandmother decides to marry her off she's till in her teen years. She is only just starting to enter puberty and coming to have a desire for love. As shown by the scene by the pear tree she sees love as something beautiful and natural;"She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing in delight. So this was marriage!"(11). Just like any other human at that age does, she's experiencing the development in a desire for love.
Regardless of this she is still married off to Logan Killicks. Her grandmother clearly thought she had Janie's best interests in mind in doing so, but still it's understandable that the prospect of being married off to a strange unknown man would frighten and repulse Janie. Indeed in marriage to Logan Killicks she certainly doesn't fulfill her ideal marriage plan. Janie believes that although she may not love Logan immediately that love will come. Upon entering his house she thinks, "The house was absent of flavor, too. But anyhow she went inside to wait for love to begin"(22). Her hopes, however, are dashed. Janie did not enter her marriage with Killicks expecting to be working hard. Logan Killicks, however, definitely expects that she work around the farm just like him. He tells her, "Come help me move this manure pile befo' de sun de sun gits hot. You don't take a bit of interest in dis place. Tain't no use in foolin' round the kitchen all day long" (30). An argument ensues in which Janie tells Mr. Killicks that she is not grateful to him and he has done her no favor. Killicks insults her, her mother, and her grandmother as a result, and this pushes Janie over the edge. She leaves him without another word.
Now while I think Logan Killicks is not a dislikable character, or necessarily even a bad husband, I don't think that it's unreasonable for Janie to have been dissatisfied with him. She is married off at an early age, against her will, to a man who expects a much more mature and obedient wife. In her position I would certainly have felt a strong desire to flee.
Partly what we see here might be viewed as a generational thing, with neither side "right" or "wrong": Janie's grandmother has very good reasons (articulated at length, and compellingly) to want to see Janie "secure." But Janie, under the influence of pear pollen and her own individual spirit and *maybe* the twentieth century, wants some romance or excitement out of life. It's not poor Logan's fault that he doesn't embody any of these things, nor that he seems completely oblivious to the fact that Janie does. But it just feels wrong to say that she should be bound to him for the rest of her life. The analogy to slavery itself is probably too strong, but there is an uncomfortable association with a person being bound against their will to a plot of land that they have to work on.
ReplyDeleteAnd leaving with Joe sure makes for a more interesting novel!