Invoking Sympathy in Janie

“Janie, maybe it wasn’t much, but Ah done the best Ah kin by you… Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie” (19-20).

 Nanny’s witness of Janie and Johnny Taylor’s kiss prompts her to recount her life’s hardships to Janie.  While on the surface she is explaining her life story, she is also attempting to invoke sympathy from Janie.  She depicts how she escaped from slavery and attempted to put Leafy through school so that she would have a better life than her mom.  By explaining that Leafy got raped, fell into a habit of drinking and ran away Nanny hopes to instill “sympathy from Janie.” Nanny implies that the purpose of her life has shifted from creating a better life for her daughter to creating a better life for Janie.  By recounting her life story and explaining that she has “done the best [she] kin by” Janie, Nanny hopes to invoke sympathy in Janie that will persuade her to marry Logan Killicks. Nanny implies that by doing so, Janie would “put [her] down easy;” meaning, she would die unworried because Nanny would know Janie was safe and protected from being “de mule uh de world” (14).