Study Questions

1. What does Janie ask herself as the marriage approaches?

2. Who arranges Janie’s wedding ceremony?

3. When Janie asks Nanny for “information” why does Nanny laugh?

4. What does Janie want Nanny to do?

5. What does Nanny mean when she says “bein’ a fool don’t kill nobody. It just makes you sweat”?

6. What doesn’t Janie like about Logan’s appearance?

7. What does Nanny do after Janie leaves her?

8. What is “a bloom time, a green time, and an orange time?”

9. What does she tell the seeds, and why?

10. What “failed” Janie, and what does she do about this?

Answers

1. Janie wants to know if marriage will “compel love like the sun the day.” She also hopes that marriage will end her loneliness.

2. Nanny and Mrs. Washburn take care of everything.

3. She guesses that Janie might already be pregnant.

4. She wants Nanny to tell her how to love Logan.

5. According to Nanny, love is what keeps a woman “pullin’ and uh haulin’ and uh sweatin’ and doin’ from can’t see in de mornin’ till can’t see at night.” She considers such behavior foolish, because to her love isn’t realistic, and it is senseless to worry oneself over it.

6. According to Janie, he is too fat, “his toe-nails look lak mule foots,” and he doesn’t wash himself enough.

7. After Janie leaves her, Nanny goes to her shack and prays the entire night.

8. These “times” are the seasons that pass as Janie waits for her marriage to improve.

9. She tells the seeds, “Ah hope you fall on soft ground,” because she had heard seeds say that to each other.

10. Janie looks up the road that passes her gate because “the familiar people and things had failed her.” She looks for something new and exciting to come along and rescue her from this familiarity.