Setting & Location

I think that when Janie starts to describe her childhood, it is very important to how she grew up to be the woman she is at the beginning of the novel. Janie tells Pheoby about how she used to live with her Nanny in West Florida on the Washburn's land. She goes on to say that she was six before she even knew that she was not white. I think that growing up on the Washburn's land and being with all of the white children and being treated equal by them throughout her childhood greatly impacts how she views blacks and equality throughout the novel. She was never treated any worse then the white children and so she never knew racism throughout her childhood. Once she goes to school this is a different story. Janie is teased about living on the Washburn's land once she goes off to school, and to protect her, Nanny moves to her own land so Janie will stop being teased. This is important because Janie has to leave her childhood home and the place she loved because of the fact that she and her Nanny were living on white people's land, and this is the first moment in her life that Janie realizes she is different from white people. Janie also does lots of thinking under a blossoming pear tree in her new house's backyard. It is here that she first thinks about life and love and without this moment of thought her "childhood" would not have ended because of her first kiss and then her forced marriage.