Nanny is Janie's grandmother, raising her after her mother, Leafy, leaves. Nanny's influence is significant early in the novel, as Nanny is seeking to protect Janie from the types of oppression that defined life in the Reconstructed South. Nanny brings Janie up to admire and desire the goods that white people value: a house, acreage, marriage. Like Logan and Jody Stark, Nanny wants to live according to white values and to value the white world over the African American experience. As a result, she tries to ensure that Janie is well-married to Logan before she dies.
Hurston uses different characters to embody the many arguments regarding how African Americans should embrace their options. Nanny and Logan are similar to Booker T. Washington in his "go slow" approach to enfranchisement of freed slaves. Both Logan and Jody admire Janie for her hair, which is a product of both Nanny's and Leafy's rapes by white men, which Nanny narrates as she explains to Janie her desire to see her married...
(The entire section contains 2 answers and 759 words.)
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