{"id":73,"date":"2021-10-29T11:15:29","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T15:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/the-distributed-proofreaders-canada-ebook-of-their-eyes-were-watching-god-by-zora-neale-hurston-2\/"},"modified":"2022-01-28T11:01:59","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T16:01:59","slug":"3","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/3\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 3","rendered":"Chapter 3"},"content":{"raw":"

There<\/span> are years that ask questions and years that answer. Janie had had no chance to know things, so she had to ask. Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day?<\/p>\r\n

In the few days to live before she went to Logan Killicks and his often-mentioned sixty acres, Janie asked inside of herself and out. She was back and forth to the pear tree continuously wondering and thinking. Finally out of Nanny\u2019s talk and her own conjectures she made a sort of comfort for herself. Yes, she would love Logan after they were married. She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so. Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant. It was just so. Janie felt glad of the thought, for then it wouldn\u2019t seem so destructive and mouldy. She wouldn\u2019t be lonely anymore.<\/p>\r\n

Janie and Logan got married in Nanny\u2019s parlor of a Saturday evening with three cakes and big platters of fried rabbit and chicken. Everything to eat in abundance. Nanny and Mrs. Washburn had seen to that. But nobody put anything on the seat of Logan\u2019s wagon to make it ride glorious on the way to his house. It was a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where nobody had ever been. The house was absent of flavor, too. But anyhow Janie went on inside to wait for love to begin. The new moon had been up and down three times before she got worried in mind. Then she went to see Nanny in Mrs. Washburn\u2019s kitchen on the day for beaten biscuits.<\/p>\r\n

Nanny beamed all out with gladness and made her come up to the bread board so she could kiss her.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLawd a\u2019mussy, honey, Ah sho is glad tuh see mah chile! G\u2019wan inside and let Mis\u2019 Washburn know youse heah. Umph! Umph! Umph! How is dat husband uh yourn?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Janie didn\u2019t go in where Mrs. Washburn was. She didn\u2019t say anything to match up with Nanny\u2019s gladness either. She just fell on a chair with her hips and sat there. Between the biscuits and her beaming pride Nanny didn\u2019t notice for a minute. But after a while she found the conversation getting lonesome so she looked up at Janie.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhut\u2019s de matter, sugar? You ain\u2019t none too spry dis mornin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOh, nothin\u2019 much, Ah reckon. Ah come to get a lil information from you.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The old woman looked amazed, then gave a big clatter of laughter. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me you done got knocked up already, less see\u2014dis Saturday it\u2019s two month and two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNo\u2019m, Ah don\u2019t think so anyhow.\u201d Janie blushed a little.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou ain\u2019t got nothin\u2019 to be shamed of, honey, youse uh married \u2019oman. You got yo\u2019 lawful husband same as Mis\u2019 Washburn or anybody else!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh\u2019m all right dat way. Ah know<\/span> \u2019tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 dere.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou and Logan been fussin\u2019? Lawd, Ah know dat grassgut, liver-lipted nigger ain\u2019t done took and beat mah baby already! Ah\u2019ll take a stick and salivate \u2019im!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNo\u2019m, he ain\u2019t even talked \u2019bout hittin\u2019 me. He says he never mean to lay de weight uh his hand on me in malice. He chops all de wood he think Ah wants and den he totes it inside de kitchen for me. Keeps both water buckets full.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHumph! don\u2019t \u2019spect all dat tuh keep up. He ain\u2019t kissin\u2019 yo\u2019 mouf when he carry on over yuh lak dat. He\u2019s kissin\u2019 yo\u2019 foot and \u2019tain\u2019t in uh man tuh kiss foot long. Mouf kissin\u2019 is on uh equal and dat\u2019s natural but when dey got to bow down tuh love, dey soon straightens up.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYes\u2019m.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell, if he do all dat whut you come in heah wid uh face long as mah arm for?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Cause you told me Ah mus gointer love him, and, and Ah don\u2019t. Maybe if somebody was to tell me how, Ah could do it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou come heah wid yo\u2019 mouf full uh foolishness on uh busy day. Heah you got uh prop tuh lean on all yo\u2019 bawn days, and big protection, and everybody got tuh tip dey hat tuh you and call you Mis\u2019 Killicks, and you come worryin\u2019 me \u2019bout love.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBut Nanny, Ah wants to want him sometimes. Ah don\u2019t want him to do all de wantin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t want him, you sho oughta. Heah you is wid de onliest organ in town, amongst colored folks, in yo\u2019 parlor. Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road and.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. Lawd have mussy! Dat\u2019s de very prong all us black women gits hung on. Dis love! Dat\u2019s just whut\u2019s got us uh pullin\u2019 and uh haulin\u2019 and sweatin\u2019 and doin\u2019 from can\u2019t see in de mornin\u2019 till can\u2019t see at night. Dat\u2019s how come de ole folks say dat bein\u2019 uh fool don\u2019t kill nobody. It jus\u2019 makes you sweat. Ah betcha you wants some dressed up dude dat got to look at de sole of his shoe everytime he cross de street tuh see whether he got enough leather dere tuh make it across. You can buy and sell such as dem wid what you got. In fact you can buy \u2019em and give \u2019em away.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh ain\u2019t studyin\u2019 \u2019bout none of \u2019em. At de same time Ah ain\u2019t takin\u2019 dat ole land tuh heart neither. Ah could throw ten acres of it over de fence every day and never look back to see where it fell. Ah feel de same way \u2019bout Mr. Killicks too. Some folks never was meant to be loved and he\u2019s one of \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHow come?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Cause Ah hates de way his head is so long one way and so flat on de sides and dat pone uh fat back uh his neck.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHe never made his own head. You talk so silly.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh don\u2019t keer who made it, Ah don\u2019t like de job. His belly is too big too, now, and his toe-nails look lak mule foots. And \u2019tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 in de way of him washin\u2019 his feet every evenin\u2019 before he comes tuh bed. \u2019Tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 tuh hinder him \u2019cause Ah places de water for him. Ah\u2019d ruther be shot wid tacks than tuh turn over in de bed and stir up de air whilst he is in dere. He don\u2019t even never mention nothin\u2019 pretty.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

She began to cry.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think. Ah.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t no use in you cryin\u2019, Janie. Grandma done been long uh few roads herself. But folks is meant to cry \u2019bout somethin\u2019 or other. Better leave things de way dey is. Youse young yet. No tellin\u2019 whut mout happen befo\u2019 you die. Wait awhile, baby. Yo\u2019 mind will change.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Nanny sent Janie along with a stern mien, but she dwindled all the rest of the day as she worked. And when she gained the privacy of her own little shack she stayed on her knees so long she forgot she was there herself. There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought. Nanny entered this infinity of conscious pain again on her old knees. Towards morning she muttered, \u201cLawd, you know mah heart. Ah done de best Ah could do. De rest is left to you.\u201d She scuffled up from her knees and fell heavily across the bed. A month later she was dead.<\/p>\r\n

So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time. But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gate and expect things. What things? She didn\u2019t know exactly. Her breath was gusty and short. She knew things that nobody had ever told her. For instance, the words of the trees and the wind. She often spoke to falling seeds and said, \u201cAh hope you fall on soft ground,\u201d because she had heard seeds saying that to each other as they passed. She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up. It was wonderful to see it take form with the sun and emerge from the gray dust of its making. The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie\u2019s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.<\/p>","rendered":"

There<\/span> are years that ask questions and years that answer. Janie had had no chance to know things, so she had to ask. Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day?<\/p>\n

In the few days to live before she went to Logan Killicks and his often-mentioned sixty acres, Janie asked inside of herself and out. She was back and forth to the pear tree continuously wondering and thinking. Finally out of Nanny\u2019s talk and her own conjectures she made a sort of comfort for herself. Yes, she would love Logan after they were married. She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so. Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant. It was just so. Janie felt glad of the thought, for then it wouldn\u2019t seem so destructive and mouldy. She wouldn\u2019t be lonely anymore.<\/p>\n

Janie and Logan got married in Nanny\u2019s parlor of a Saturday evening with three cakes and big platters of fried rabbit and chicken. Everything to eat in abundance. Nanny and Mrs. Washburn had seen to that. But nobody put anything on the seat of Logan\u2019s wagon to make it ride glorious on the way to his house. It was a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where nobody had ever been. The house was absent of flavor, too. But anyhow Janie went on inside to wait for love to begin. The new moon had been up and down three times before she got worried in mind. Then she went to see Nanny in Mrs. Washburn\u2019s kitchen on the day for beaten biscuits.<\/p>\n

Nanny beamed all out with gladness and made her come up to the bread board so she could kiss her.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawd a\u2019mussy, honey, Ah sho is glad tuh see mah chile! G\u2019wan inside and let Mis\u2019 Washburn know youse heah. Umph! Umph! Umph! How is dat husband uh yourn?\u201d<\/p>\n

Janie didn\u2019t go in where Mrs. Washburn was. She didn\u2019t say anything to match up with Nanny\u2019s gladness either. She just fell on a chair with her hips and sat there. Between the biscuits and her beaming pride Nanny didn\u2019t notice for a minute. But after a while she found the conversation getting lonesome so she looked up at Janie.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhut\u2019s de matter, sugar? You ain\u2019t none too spry dis mornin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, nothin\u2019 much, Ah reckon. Ah come to get a lil information from you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The old woman looked amazed, then gave a big clatter of laughter. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me you done got knocked up already, less see\u2014dis Saturday it\u2019s two month and two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo\u2019m, Ah don\u2019t think so anyhow.\u201d Janie blushed a little.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ain\u2019t got nothin\u2019 to be shamed of, honey, youse uh married \u2019oman. You got yo\u2019 lawful husband same as Mis\u2019 Washburn or anybody else!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh\u2019m all right dat way. Ah know<\/span> \u2019tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 dere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou and Logan been fussin\u2019? Lawd, Ah know dat grassgut, liver-lipted nigger ain\u2019t done took and beat mah baby already! Ah\u2019ll take a stick and salivate \u2019im!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo\u2019m, he ain\u2019t even talked \u2019bout hittin\u2019 me. He says he never mean to lay de weight uh his hand on me in malice. He chops all de wood he think Ah wants and den he totes it inside de kitchen for me. Keeps both water buckets full.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHumph! don\u2019t \u2019spect all dat tuh keep up. He ain\u2019t kissin\u2019 yo\u2019 mouf when he carry on over yuh lak dat. He\u2019s kissin\u2019 yo\u2019 foot and \u2019tain\u2019t in uh man tuh kiss foot long. Mouf kissin\u2019 is on uh equal and dat\u2019s natural but when dey got to bow down tuh love, dey soon straightens up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes\u2019m.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, if he do all dat whut you come in heah wid uh face long as mah arm for?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Cause you told me Ah mus gointer love him, and, and Ah don\u2019t. Maybe if somebody was to tell me how, Ah could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou come heah wid yo\u2019 mouf full uh foolishness on uh busy day. Heah you got uh prop tuh lean on all yo\u2019 bawn days, and big protection, and everybody got tuh tip dey hat tuh you and call you Mis\u2019 Killicks, and you come worryin\u2019 me \u2019bout love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Nanny, Ah wants to want him sometimes. Ah don\u2019t want him to do all de wantin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t want him, you sho oughta. Heah you is wid de onliest organ in town, amongst colored folks, in yo\u2019 parlor. Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road and.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. Lawd have mussy! Dat\u2019s de very prong all us black women gits hung on. Dis love! Dat\u2019s just whut\u2019s got us uh pullin\u2019 and uh haulin\u2019 and sweatin\u2019 and doin\u2019 from can\u2019t see in de mornin\u2019 till can\u2019t see at night. Dat\u2019s how come de ole folks say dat bein\u2019 uh fool don\u2019t kill nobody. It jus\u2019 makes you sweat. Ah betcha you wants some dressed up dude dat got to look at de sole of his shoe everytime he cross de street tuh see whether he got enough leather dere tuh make it across. You can buy and sell such as dem wid what you got. In fact you can buy \u2019em and give \u2019em away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh ain\u2019t studyin\u2019 \u2019bout none of \u2019em. At de same time Ah ain\u2019t takin\u2019 dat ole land tuh heart neither. Ah could throw ten acres of it over de fence every day and never look back to see where it fell. Ah feel de same way \u2019bout Mr. Killicks too. Some folks never was meant to be loved and he\u2019s one of \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow come?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Cause Ah hates de way his head is so long one way and so flat on de sides and dat pone uh fat back uh his neck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never made his own head. You talk so silly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh don\u2019t keer who made it, Ah don\u2019t like de job. His belly is too big too, now, and his toe-nails look lak mule foots. And \u2019tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 in de way of him washin\u2019 his feet every evenin\u2019 before he comes tuh bed. \u2019Tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 tuh hinder him \u2019cause Ah places de water for him. Ah\u2019d ruther be shot wid tacks than tuh turn over in de bed and stir up de air whilst he is in dere. He don\u2019t even never mention nothin\u2019 pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n

She began to cry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think. Ah.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t no use in you cryin\u2019, Janie. Grandma done been long uh few roads herself. But folks is meant to cry \u2019bout somethin\u2019 or other. Better leave things de way dey is. Youse young yet. No tellin\u2019 whut mout happen befo\u2019 you die. Wait awhile, baby. Yo\u2019 mind will change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nanny sent Janie along with a stern mien, but she dwindled all the rest of the day as she worked. And when she gained the privacy of her own little shack she stayed on her knees so long she forgot she was there herself. There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought. Nanny entered this infinity of conscious pain again on her old knees. Towards morning she muttered, \u201cLawd, you know mah heart. Ah done de best Ah could do. De rest is left to you.\u201d She scuffled up from her knees and fell heavily across the bed. A month later she was dead.<\/p>\n

So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time. But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gate and expect things. What things? She didn\u2019t know exactly. Her breath was gusty and short. She knew things that nobody had ever told her. For instance, the words of the trees and the wind. She often spoke to falling seeds and said, \u201cAh hope you fall on soft ground,\u201d because she had heard seeds saying that to each other as they passed. She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up. It was wonderful to see it take form with the sun and emerge from the gray dust of its making. The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie\u2019s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-73","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/73\/revisions\/132"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/73\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}