Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Love from a Child's Eyes

"Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated?
Did marriage compel love like the sun the day?" -p.21

Janie's transition into womanhood is extremely troubling because it is marked by the end of her simple hope that events in life should happen just as they ought to. She models pure idealism, agreeing to marry to please her dying grandmother, and believing love is the inevitable byproduct of marriage.

When Janie is married to Logan and realizes she still doesn't feel passionate love for him, she naively thinks her grandmother can simply teach her how to love him. This young version of Janie sees all of the beauty and potential in the world, without yet being marred by its destructive potential. Despite her difficult upbringing, Janie managed to hold on to her idealism until her teenage years. When she finally loses it and realizes that marriage doesn't always entail love, "she became a woman" (25).

It is the death of her dream that markes her entrance into adulthood, which is a troubling thought for a reader to contemplate.

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