payment page
Johnny Taylor appears in the novel only briefly when Janie is sixteen years old and feeling the first pangs of sexual desire. They share a kiss which—when witnessed by Nanny—becomes the first domino that sets the rest falling. Nanny, fearful that Janie could fall pregnant as her mother had, immediately determines that Janie must marry the more secure Logan Killicks. Nanny’s preference for Logan is not because she wishes for Janie to be unhappy, but because she desires for Janie to have the social and economic protection that neither she, nor Janie’s birth mother, ever did. Janie resists this arrangement at first, but she ends up marrying Logan, as she is ultimately given no other option.
While her exposure to Johnny is brief, Janie’s interaction with him plays an integral role in her life and development. There are many moments in the novel that work to form Janie into the woman she becomes, and her kiss with Johnny is the first of these. But Johnny’s role in her life is not merely symbolic of her womanhood in a hormonal sense. There are real and lasting social implications tied to what feels to Janie like a first innocent foray into romance. Because of her family history, the social climate, and the realities of her environment, her kiss with Johnny is a swift and sure exit from childhood. Johnny is desire incarnate. He is the sweetness and innocence that comes with discovering instinct, desire, and impulse–only to have it crushed by the weight of social responsibility and the sacrificial nature of womanhood. He is the catalyst for the death of Janie’s first dream, and is thus responsible for her becoming a woman.
