In this first section of the story, there is a common theme, which is loss of innocence. The story begins with the persecution of Janie Starks. Janie is returning to her hometown in Florida after living an unsatisfied life in the Everglades with her companion Tea Cake.
The women of the town look at her dirty overalls and are satisfied with her raggedness. I think that the section of the story is a reflection of the theme (loss of innocence) because as you go further, her life story unravels and we learn that her mother and her grandmother were raped. Essentially, the main character’s family members endured horrible things and they lost their innocence in the process.
These instances reminded me of Oprah by Kittey Kelly. It is a book about Oprah Winfrey that exposed some of the things that happened in her life (including sexual abuse) that really affected her life. Also, Janie herself losses her innocence when she to faces the harsh realities of life in poverty and unhappiness. The reader can also tell that she changes after the moment under the pear tree when she kisses Johnny Taylor (12).
In a sense, she was losing her innocence as well and becoming sexually curious in a way. The last way that she losses her innocence is when she is married off to Logan Killick. He was a farmer who was much older than she was, and after marriage, he wanted her to start doing manual labor, and even threatens her life. At this point, her grandmother has passed away so she does not have the comfort she had as a child. I considered this moment another time that she lost her innocence because she was kicked into reality that she was not happy with her life.
Kelley, Kitty. Oprah: A Biography. New York: Crown, 2010. Print.
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