mahjae05’s Blog

I cannot understand why people would be offended by this book at all; even though the characters speak in an uneducated manner, the things that they say is far from uneducated.  In chapter 2, Nanny makes some very intelligent and valid points:

“Ah don’t want yo’ feathers always crumpled by folks throwin’ up things in yo’ face.  And Ah can’t die easy thinkin’ maybe de menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit cup outa you”  pg 20

Nanny has been trying her entire life to keep Janie in line for a successful life.  Since Nanny and her daughter had grown up with many hardships, both of them being raped, Nanny does not want Janie to end up in a similar situation.  When Janie kissed Johnny Taylor, Nanny sees Janie subduing herself to a male and gets worried.  Though it is not as extreme as getting raped by a male, the submission to any man is not what Nanny wants for Janie.  Pertaining to the cult of true womanhood, which we heard about the first day, this action by Nanny seems very interesting.  It seems like under Nanny’s ideology, Janie is going to become a very difficult women to deal with.  We already know she left Tea Cakes for some reason and that Nanny is marrying her to Logan Killicks, we can already see that something is obvoiusly not going right between Janie and her men.