Tangled - Mother Knows Best

(Text) Although the title is “Mother Knows Best”, this song represents Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, quite well. In this Disney favorite, Rapunzel wants to go outside and experience the world she has been trapped from. Her “mother” keeps Rapunzel locked up in order to keep her safe from the world for her own benefit. She does not want her to experience life outside the tower for fear that she will find out who she really is (a princess). In Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God, Nanny represents the mother in the song. Nanny is keeping Janie from living a life where she can make her own choices and experience life with mistakes and learn from them. Nanny warns Janie of all the bad men in the world, “He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to womenfolks” (Hurston 14). She then declares that she must marry Logan Killicks in order to avoid any mistakes in Janie’s life. Nanny does not want Janie to end up with a man who treats her as a slave, so Nanny takes it upon herself to order Janie’s life around her own wishes. In the song the mother sings, “Look at you, as fragile as a flower. Still a little sapling, just a sprout…That's right, to keep you safe and sound, dear.” This part of the song reminded me of Janie’s pear tree which represents Janie’s heart or soul. Janie’s pear tree is young and starting to blossom just as Rapunzel is “fragile as a flower” and “still a little sapling, just a sprout.” Yes, both girls are fragile, naïve, and young, so Nanny and Rapunzel’s mother think take control over the two girls in order to protect them as much as they can. Nanny does so by telling Janie who she must marry, while Rapunzel’s mother keeps her locked up in the tower. -Taylor