It IS Living if It's Not with Grandma! Analysis of How Nanny's Wants Differ from Janie's in "Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Daddy issues? Nope. Mommy issues? Nope. Grammy issues? Yes.

Ah another Substack post that’s just a copy of an English essay I wrote in highschool. I swear I am working on other stuff. I just want to share these old essays because…why not? Some essays I really enjoyed writing because I really enjoyed reading the text they were responding to. Other essays I wrote because I had to. This is kinda one of those essays. Junior year, we read Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 classic Their Eyes Were Watching God and I didn’t really like the book. I liked aspects of the book. I liked that Janie’s biggest aspiration was just to experience life for herself, albeit it took her an agonizingly slow journey to do so and when she did she was nearly killed, but yeah, as a teen girl I liked the idea that you can’t just rely on other people telling you what life is about or how to live it, you have to live it for yourself. I think the phonetic language Hurston uses is quite interesting, but it would be better experienced to hear it spoken, but then if it were in the form of a play with direct dialogue you would lose some really beautiful sentences that also comprise the book. I must confess this as well: I didn’t read every page of the book and I feel a little bad for it. I got so tired of reading it, I began to skim, skip whole pages entirely, read plot summaries, but I read most of the book. And it seems that this is a common pattern with a lot of people when they are required to read this book in highschool. My brother, who also enjoyed English class, skimmed as well, plenty of classmates of mine barely opened their book, and another English teacher described how excruciating it was for him to read in highschool. So, part of me wonders if highschoolers should be reading it at all? Is it universal that most highschoolers hate this book? Should it be saved for college classes or read for pleasure instead of requirement? The answer is: I don’t know, but here’s this essay. For background, this essay was an in class essay where we were given a 45 minute class period to write it in. Also, at the time I wrote this, I was going through a The 1975 obsession and the title is a nod to their song “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)”. Which funny story, I thought it was about a romantic relationship, but it is about Matty Healy’s drug addiction! I will also add that in hindsight this title is so clunky and I don’t know what possessed me to phrase it like I did. Anyways here’s the actual essay, hope you enjoy!

English B

January 18, 2023

It IS Living if It’s Not with Grandma! Analysis of How Nanny’s Wants Differ from Janie’s in Their Eyes were Watching God

Nanny was born and raised during the time of slavery, and this affects what she wants for her daughter Leafy and her granddaughter Janie. Due to slavery Nanny did not receive an education, so when she is freed and raising Leafy, she wants Leafy to be educated and later in life become a school teacher. This dream doesn’t go according to plan and Leafy is raped by her own teacher at the age of seventeen and later becomes pregnant with Janie. The trauma of the assault and pregnancy at such a young age drove Leafy to alcoholism and eventually running away. Since Nanny’s desires for Leafy did not go according to plan, she wants to give them to Janie, but instead of using the same wants like being a school teacher, she decides she wants Janie to have security and status. 

The action of Nanny’s plan for Janie comes in the form of a marriage to Logan Killicks. Despite Janie’s protests Nanny explains to her that she doesn’t want someone “trashy,” like Johnny Taylor using Janie’s “body to wipe his foots on,” (13) and that “‘Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection,” (15). Logan Killicks is a much older man with a good amount of property and although Janie doesn’t love him, Nanny makes Janie marry him because it’s a way of keeping Janie safe and Nanny likely wants this because she feels regret for her plan with Leafy and its tragic turnout. 

Janie doesn’t want to marry Logan Killicks because she wants to experience life. This is evidenced by Janie’s realization under the pear tree and later when the narrator asks, “Where were the singing bees for her?” (11). Janie is like the pear tree, blooming and waiting to experience “the bees” or rather life. Janie wants something exciting to happen to her and something that she finds exciting is love. This also goes into her protests of marriage with Killicks as she doesn’t love him. Shortly after Janie is married to Killicks, Nanny dies. Janie was told by Nanny and other women that after she was married she would feel love, but she doesn’t and finds a growing disdain with Killicks. This feeling of entrapment drives Janie to run away with Joe Starks. She is attracted and awe struck by Starks’ plans and feels that with him she will have freedom. 

Janie’s second marriage with Joe Starks doesn’t go according to her wishes and she ends up trapped in an abusive and controlling marriage for decades. Once Starks finally dies, Janie is free to do what she wants and as the story moves forward, what Janie wants is to be with Teacake. Despite gossip and disapproval from the town regarding their relationship, Janie explains to Pheoby that, “Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine,” and goes on to explain that Nanny thought life was about “Git [ing] up on uh high chair and sit [ing] dere. She didn’t have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on de stool uh do nothin’,” (114). Janie has already had status in her life from her marriages to both Logan Killicks and Joe Starks, but has not had love, which is her true desire. 

Although Teacake and Janie have a tumultuous relationship, like the fact that he beats her, they almost die in a storm, and she later kills Teacake, Janie is still glad to have had the experience because she got to actually live life on her own terms and wants. To conclude her story to Pheoby, Janie advises that, “Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh themselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves,” (192). And getting to live life includes the loves and losses within it.

*This is not the edition my brother and I read from, although I do really love this cover.

*This is the edition that we read from, which also has a beautiful cover. Whoever said, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” well, sorry, but I do!