#8220;head and face looked like the standing roots of some old tree that had been torn away by storm” (12) . Nanny can think of no better way to protect Janie than by marrying her to a middle-aged black farmer whose prosperity makes it unnecessary for him to use her as a ‘mule’ (Bush 1036).Nanny makes Janie believe that marriage makes love and forces her to wed a much older man, Logan Killicks. Jones believes that Janie’s first efforts at marriage show her as an “enslaved and semi-literate” figure restrained to Nanny’s traditional beliefs about money, happiness and love (372). Unfortunately Janie’s dream of escasty does not involve Killicks. Her first dream is dead. Janie utters, “Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think” (Hurston 23). Logan began to slap Janie for control over his marriage. He bought her a mule to plow with. Nanny’s idea of marriage comes crashing down. Hurston accedes that Janie notices her husband “has stopped talking in rhythms to her,” she sees the companionship of second husband Joe Starks, who promises her a life without the responsibility of plowing with a mule (25). The significance of this marriage for Janie’s progression toward self-awareness seems to crystallize when she decides to leave Logan for Joe Starks (Collins 146). Joe provides Janie with the “front porch” existence of Nanny’s dreams, but in doing so, he isolates her from direct participation in any life except his own (Williams 101). He gives Janie possessions and status, but assumes that her identity will come only from her role as his wife (Bush 1037). Her status is high above everyone else’s, but her identity is still not shown. Johnson remarks, “Janie soon finds that her pedestal to be a straitjacket, particularly when it involves her exclusion –both as a speaker and a l...
