“Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine…She was borned in slavery time when folks, dat is black folks, didn’t sit down anytime dey felt lak it. So sittin’ on porches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her. Dat’s whut she wanted for me- don’t keer whut it cost. Git up on uh high chair and sit dere. She didn’t have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on de stool uh do nothin’. De object wuz tuh git dere. So Ah got up on the high stool lak she told me, but Pheoby, Ah done nearly languished tuh death up there.” (114)

The quote above is from Ch. 12, when Janie is talking to Pheoby about her relationship with Tea Cake and telling her what she plans to do next in her life. The quote is significant because it clearly shows Janie’s finally deciding to part with what Nanny had wanted for her. After being forced marry Logan when Nanny was still alive, Janie has striven to get herself closer to her ideal way of life with each subsequent marriage: she left Logan for Joey because she fell in love with Joey for his big dreams and ambitions; she realized later that Joey was just as (or even more) domineering and controlling a man as Logan had been, and her dream of having a romantic relationship deteriorated as years passed by; seeking a truly romantic relationship where she had the freedom to be the person she wanted to be and do the things she wished to do, she decided to go off with Tea Cake. The quote is also significant because it shows a fundamental difference between Janie and Nanny and what they want in their lives: having survived through the terrible conditions of slavery, having enough wealth to be able to sit in a high chair doing nothing was more than Nanny could want in her life. However, having been born after slavery ended, Janie didn’t have the same value Nanny had: knowing that being free (of forcible labor by whites) was a guaranteed right, she wanted so much more in life than Nanny did. She didn’t want others to have any control over her and her life in any way whatsoever, and thus resented at being told what to do by her husbands.