Peacefully Ever After

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sacred 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 loveembrace . . . so
this was a marriage," is how the narrator describes it (p.24). Nanny's
idea of a good husband 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 Janie "he look like some ole skull-
head in de grave yard" (p.28). Even more important to Janie, though, was
the fact that "the vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree"
(p.28). Nanny tells Janie "So you don't want to marry off decent like . . .
you wants to make me suck the same sorrow yo' mama did, eh? Mah ole head
ain't gray enough. My back ain't bowed enough to suit ...

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Logan tells Janie "I aims to run two plows, and dis
man Ah'm talkin 'bout is got a mule all gentled up so even uh woman kin
handle 'im" (p.46). There is little doubt why Logan would need a mule so
gentle even a woman could handle it. As Logan realizes more and more that
Janie is not happy with him, he tries to force her into the traditional
wife role by having her do more and more of the demeaning work around the
farm. The last straw is when he asks her to get a shovel and move a pile
of manure. "A feeling of newness and change came over her. Janie hurried
out the door and turned south" the narrator says.

Janie leaves Logan behind for a young man, Joe Starks, who she thinks is
her ...

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