This revelation compelled Janie to seek out affection from a young boy named Johnny Taylor. Nanny witnesses Janie and Johnny sharing a kiss and immediately becomes overwhelmed with emotions, afraid that Janie will make the wrong choices in life. Since Nannie comes from a slave background where all aspects of her life were controlled, she cannot help but have a jaded view of the world and many of its people (Ciment 71). Nanny does not want Janie to have to live a hard life like she did. Although slavery was over and the threat to Janie was now non-existent, she still worried about her granddaughter and wanted her to have every opportunity that she herself was unable to acquire. Nanny's major goal at this time is to find a man who will be able to provide Janie with financial security and social status. She does exactly that when she insists that Janie marry a much older man, a farmer named Logan Killicks.
Even from the beginning of the marriage, Janie is aware that this is not the life that she wants to create for herself. With each passing day, Janies realization of this is continually re-affirmed by Logan's looks and actions. Logan does not provide Janie with the romantic and dreamy lifestyle that she envisioned that day under the pear tree, he instead treats her un-affectionately, like a possession. A few months into their marriage, Janie sits down with Nanny and attempts to express her emotions to her grandmother. Janie searches for advice and understanding and hopes to find it in Nanny. "you told me Ah mus gointer love him, and, and Ah don't. Maybe if somebody was to tell me how, Ah could do it" (Hurston 23). Nanny is appalled at what she considers foolishness and insists that Janie makes things work, she needs to force herself to love Logan, even if it means that she will be miserable. Nanny's view of marriage is much different then the one that Janie once dreamed of.