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Their Eyes Were Watching God Materialism Quotes

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Janie has realized that she hates her grandmother for raising her to value materialism and social status. Janie has always been searching for experiences and people to make her life valuable, and she states that “She had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of people; it was important to all the world that she should find them and they find her.” This quote displays the longing for people who made up value and joy in her life that Nanny never allowed and taught. Nanny shuts down any thought of exploration and self-development to thoroughly enjoy life, this includes new experiences and real relationships focused on love instead of practicality and protection. Janie’s longing for real relationships and experiences makes her aware that Janie ruined the previous chances she had to experience life and states “Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon — for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you — and pinched it into such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter's neck tight enough to choke her.” Nanny has taken the dreams and hopes for a fulfilling life and crushed them to force Janie down a path to for materialistic items and social status. …show more content…

Nanny’s obsession with materialistic items is not going unnoticed by Janie, and she notices that “she had been whipped like a cur dog, and run off down a back road after things. It is all according to the way you see things. Some people could look at a mudpuddle and see an ocean with ships. But Nanny belonged to that other kind that loved to deal in scraps.” In this passage, Janie finally had the realization that she had been trampled by thoughts of materialism and

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