Journal #2

"Come to yo' Grandma, honey. Set in her lap lak yo' use tuh. Yo' Nanny wouldn't harm a hair uh yo' head. She don't want nobody else to do it neither if she kin help it. Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it's some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don't know nothin' but what we see. So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see. Ah been praying' fuh it tuh be different wid you. Lawd, Lawd, Lawd!"

1. When Grandma tells Janie to sit in her lap, it is as if she wants to tell this life lesson to a child going out into the world, someone just being awoken to the truth.
2. Grandma's experiences have told her that white men rule the world, and she feels the need to set Janie straight as to the social hierarchy of the world.
3. "we don't know nothin' but what we see" this could be have the meaning that blacks in that time period relied on their experiences, and have no hope for a better life because they cannot know what that is like.
4. Grandma tries to assure Janie that hopefully nothing bad will happen to her, but then at the end, she says she prayed for this, possibly meaning that she feels like it is all in God's hands, and she is powerless.
5. The reference to Africa as a place where black men rule is referred to as a place in the ocean, meaning showing that Grandma has very little education, and cannot see beyond what her experiences have taught her.
6 Her little knowledge of her heritage, and Africa, shows that she has been conditioned to be basically focused on work, and trying to stay alive, not worried about a better future.
7. The social heirarchy presented her goes back to the first page, in which the sun represented male dominance, and when it wasn't there, blacks became the rulers. This passage continues with black women as the last rung.
8. the metaphor of the black woman as a mule also goes back to the first page, in which humans were described as work animals. Possibly used to show the low social standing.
9. In this passage there is a repetition of Grandma saying that the lesson she is imparting is based on what she has experienced. This could foreshadow the later events in the novel somewhat, but it also shows how her life was very different from Janie's.
10. Grandma's praying for a better life for Genie could show her utter belief in fate, and that very little can be done to change it, except by staying alive and safe.
11. At the end of the passage, Grandma exclaims "Lawd" three times, showing the distress she feels that Janie might have a similar life to her own, or like Janie's mother. This could foreshadow some of the sad events in the book later on, and the difficulties.
12. It is interesting that Grandma feels that she must pick up the things thrown down first by the white men, and then by her husband. It is almost as if her life has taught her that men are generally bad, without regards to race. She almost puts black men on par with white men, in terms of their relations towards black women.
13. There is definitely a connection between the three groups-white men are rulers- black men might have a place where they rule across the see- but black women are the mules of the world, the workers.
14. Given Grandma's history with her white slave owner, it is interesting why she does not include them in her list of the social hierarchy. This is possibly because she feels they are similar to black women, but racially superior and without hard work. They are simply things.