Chapter 3 Summary

Assured by the old folks that love will come with marriage, Janie marries Logan Killicks on a Saturday in Nanny's parlor. Two months later, she comes back to visit Nanny, complaining that even though her husband is not mean or abusive, she does not love him. He is ugly and his feet stink, and Janie wants beauty and love. Nanny tells her not to be so foolish, because Janie has the money and respect about which most black women only dream. She says love is the "very prong all us black women gits hung on" and tells Janie to give it some time.

A month later, Nanny is dead. Though Janie waits through the seasons, nothing changes. She cannot help but dream of the beauty she first saw in the blooming pear tree, and when that first dream dies, she becomes a woman...