Journal #8 Their Eyes Were Watching God

1: Zora Neale Hurston made the title Their Eyes Were Watching God to highlight the biblical and religious allusions. She probably relied on God and her religion often in her life and wanted to portray that reliance through her story. This affects how I read the story because I realize how much people relied on their religion during this time when they could not control things themselves. Many of them look to or "watch" God to see what will happen and how he will control the situation.
2: I think a good title would have been The Animals on the Porch. This title highlights the animal motifs used throughout the book and the porch. This could highlight the animalistic characteristics of human beings and the concentration of power that these animalistic humans have. It would take the focus off of the power of God and to the power of human beings.
3:My pastiche is titled "The Little Black Box". In the story my main character hides all of her suspicions and beliefs in a box. When it explodes, she realizes that she needs to accept things and move on. The box is the most important part of the story because if it hadn't exploded, Anna would not have had this epiphany.

Journal #7: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Symbol:  Me: “The Box behind the couch that everything was hiding in” (1) Hurston: She founds her sitting on the steps of the back porch with the lamps all filled and the chimneys cleaned” (4).   In my story, the box symbolizes the lies that Anna has been hiding for all of these years. When it explodes, it symbolizes her thoughts finally admitting everything he has done to her.  In Hurston's writing, She uses the porch to symbolize power and when Janie is sitting on the steps of the porch, she is not quite high enough to have power but she is on her way to growing her own power. 

Simile: Hurston: “The morning road air was like a new dress” (32) Me: She bought a dinner as good as she had ever had” (3).   In Hurston's quote, the air is surrounding her like a dress. it is covering her completely, making her feeling comfortable. 

Onomatopoeia: ME: “Bump-you are free. Bump- no more lies. Bump-free” (2).     Hurston:  “Den, one night Ah heard the big guns boomin’ lak thunder” (18). Hurston uses very loud words in this line. She uses words like "big guns", "boomin'"and "thunder" which all sound loud. Their connotations help her make the grandma's  point by expressing how really loud it was. 

Journal #6: Their Eyes Were Watching God

The person who read my pastiche on Friday said that I had strong dialogue that was easy to read but I needed to resolve my story better. She also said I did not explain a few things. I went through and specified certain areas that were shady. I also changed my ending so it would flow better and make sense with my theme. I also changed some descriptive words that changed the mood, for example, I changed "light blue couch" to "grey couch" to change the mood from sad to confusing because that is how the character is feeling. I feel much better about my pastiche now.

Journal #5: Their Eyes Were Watching God

"And Ethan considered Truth. Truth, the animal with fur so soft hiding under the covers of ones bed. The envied one that lives in the hearts of every good man with nurture, with attention. How does one create trust, what throws it away? She sits under the pillow staring. Sitting, waiting for her One to uncover her. Waiting for him to break, take, speak and listen to her. He was sure he would find her fuzz somewhere outside his comforting doors. He was distressed and nervous. Unlucky Anna! She shouldn't have to hear it. Emily came to comfort her heart, but she rejected. She had problems before but there is no way to soften the cold hard truth. If only she could poof that girl away. She would not hear anything. She had assured herself of it. But Emily made it clear, Ethan knew what he must do. And even if she hadn't, he was sure to realize it soon when the others asked what happened to Chris on his romantic, masked outing. Absent-minded people whom he did not know until they stepped in and wrecked everything. Just perched there waiting for an answer. Deceit, that inevitable earthquake, had made everything topple down. "

I used truth as a stuffed animal. I capitalized "One" giving the 'one' or owner, the power to keep hiding the truth or put it in the open. I also used many metaphors that make it obvious what is happening without actually saying anything about it. The tone also changed from warmth at the beginning to dark, sadness at the end.

Journal #4: Their Eyes Were Watching God

"Dis sittin' in de rulin' chair is been hard on Jody," she muttered out loud. She was full of pity for the first time in years. Jody had been hard on her and others, but life had mishandled him too. Poor Joe! Maybe if she had known some other way to try, she might have made his face different. But what that other way could be, she had no idea. She thought back and forth about what had happened in the making of a voice out of a man. Then though about herself. Years ago, she had told her girl self to wait for her in the looking glass. It had been a long time since she had remembered. Perhaps she'd better look. She went over to the dresser and looked hard at her skin and features. The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there. She took careful stock of herself, then combed her hair and tied it back up again. Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see, and opened up the window and cried, "Come heah people! Jody is dead. Mah husband is gone from me" (87).


In this paragraph Zora Neale Hurston is explaining how Janie reacted to Jody's death. Her sentences flow well but in the middle she says; "perhaps she'd better look." this sentence is short and to the point and makes the reader think about whether the young Janie will come back or if she is gone forever. The passage starts with Janie pitying Jody for having a hard time at his job and his sickness but by the end she is trying to cover up her feelings of happiness and freedom. Hurston is creating a tone of masked freedom. She uses the words "weight", "length" and "glory" when talking about Janie's hair. The words "weight" and "length" express the pressure Janie was under and "glory" is used to show that now that Joe is dead, Janie is finally free.

Journal #3: Their Eyes Were Watching God

1: "Joe Starks is too exact wid folks. All he done made it offa de rest of us. He didn't have all dat when he come here" (pg 49). -Epiphany

2: The town had a basketful of feelings good and bad about Joe's positions and possessions, but none had the temerity to challenge him. They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down. (pg 50). -Circular logic/ thinking

3: When the people sat around on the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for the others to look at and see, it was nice. (pg 51). -Alliteration of the letter p

4: The great clap of laughter that they have been holding in, bursts out. Sam never cracks a smile. (pg 52) -Syntax

5: She snatched her head away from the spectacle and began muttering to herself. "they oughta be shamed uh theyselves! Teasin' dat poor brute beast lak they is! done been worked tuh death; done had his disposition ruint wid mistreatment, and now they got tuh finish devilin' im tuh death. Wisht Ah had mah way wid 'em ali" (pg 56) -Symbolism
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4: Hurston uses her sentence structure here to express how Sam is feeling. The passage has a joking mood where Lige and Walter are teasing Sam. It is a happier more laid back tone that she creates but with the suddenly short sentence, "Sam never cracks a smile," she changes the mood quickly to be distressed or conflicting. The word "crack" and "never" give the sentence a feel of sudden ending which she uses to quickly and easily change the tone.

5: In this passage the mule is symbolizing Janie and the other women in the society. The men are taking advantage of the women they have and Janie is coming to this conclusion. She feels bad for the mule and wishes she could stand up for him although she has no power, which is the same as the mule. He can not support or stand up for himself because the men are controlling him just like they are controlling the women. Especially Janie.

Journal #2: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Rule #1: Combine many words when surprised (ex: Ohmygosh)
Rule #2: Drawing out words for "effect" (ex: toootally)
Rule #3: Putting more emphasis on a certain word or a certain part of word (ex: TOT-ally, HAVE)
Rule #4: Putting the word "like" in random sentences
Rule #5: Using abbreviations for phrases (ex: OMGIHH= Oh my gosh I hate her)
Rule #6:Sounds out texting abbreviations (ex: beeteedubs= btw=by the way)
Rule #7: Make up words that sound happy and "bubbly" (ex: coinkedink= coincidence)
Rule #8: Shorten words like anniversary (ex: anni-)
Rule #9:  Using extra exclamation points to express anger or yelling.

"Ohmygosh! I cannot believe what I am seeing right now!"
"OMG! That is toootally happening right in front of us!"
"She used to be, like, my best friend! And she is, like, TOT-ally talking to my ex," said Nadine.
Nadine and Amanda stood and stared at the horrible event that ruined Nadine's day. As Sam and Jennifer walk into Abercrombie, Nadine and Amanda run to hide behind the plant outside the store. They crouch for ten minutes waiting for Sam and Jennifer to come out.
"OMG! He is totally holding her bag! She is, like, using him!" said Amanda. " We HAVE to do something about this!"
"OMGIHH!!! She was, like," Nadine wiped her eyes to hide that she was crying, " my best friend! How could she do that to me?"
Nadine and Amanda follow Sam and Jennifer around the mall until Amanda gets an idea. She runs ahead without being noticed and then runs into Sam and Jennifer and acts surprised.
"Ohmygoshjen!!! What a coinkedink! I would have never thought I would have, like,  run into you here at the mall!" says Amanda while giving Sam and evil glare. "It is SUCH a nice surprise. Beeteedubs, your I totally ran into your boyfriend the other day and he said your 3 month anni- is coming up? Congrats! Anyways, I will totes see you peeps later! Love ya!" Amanda said as she walked past them and up to Nadine. "They will, like, never go on a date. I am such a good friend," she says and gives a smile to Nadine and the two girls go home.

Journal #1: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Janie is described by the people on the book as a bad person. They talk about her like she is a naive girl: "we all know how she went 'way from here and us sho seen her come back. 'Tain't no use in your tryin' to cloak no ole woman lak Janie Starks" (pg 3). The only person who is supporting her is Pheoby who keeps telling them that Janie had a reason for coming back although she was having trouble figuring all of this out. The author put all of this dialogue on the porch before we met Janie to put an image of what others thought and when we meet Janie, we realize this is all biased. When Janie and Pheoby talk, we get an insight of Janie's life and her feelings. She is really a nice person who had a lot of trouble to over come and just needs to talk to someone she can trust will help her. "If they wants to see and know, why they don't come kiss and be kissed?" (pg 6). Janie is willing to tell anyone her story if they come to talk to her.
I see the narration in a Third-Person Omniscient view. When we first see Janie, the narrator, instead of saying what she looks like, describes what the men notice and see. but the author also slips in a few lines that suggest he/she is sitting watching the story take place. "Janie must be round that side" (pg 4). This quote suggests that Pheoby is being watched by the narrator. It also becomes apparent that the narrator may be a character in the story using similar dialect as the characters' dialogue (saying round instead of around).

Post #4

1: "You ain't no young pullet no mo'. You'se uh ole hen now" (There Eyes Were Watching God) This is an example of ______.

2: In the book Othello, Cassio is a ______ to Othello.

3: In Of Mice and Men, the opening passage uses a lot of ______ to describe the land, people and animals in the Steinbeck hills where the book take place.

4:In Of Mice and Men, hands show up often throughout the story. It is a recurring ______.

5: The book The Odyssey is made up of multiple greek ______.

Post #3- Satire

Satire- a way to ridicule a person, group of people, or society to point out flaws in hopes that it will improve. shows like Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report are examples of satire by making fun of celebrities and/or politics.

Post #2

Connotation: Analyzing a word by understanding its literary meaning and not just its literal meaning.
When analyzing a passage, it is important to take into account the connotations of words (red often resembles death, blood, etc.) and not just their literal meaning. It is also a way to portray the mood the author has by using words with negative or positive connotations.
 

Post #1

1: My favorite book was The Stranger because Mersault was an interesting character. It bugged me that he did not show any emotions but I realized that that is what makes him so interesting. It is a puzzle trying to figure out what the author, Albert Camus, wanted to express about Mersault. The writing style of this book was also easier to read and understand than the style in Their Eyes Were Watching God and in Brave New World.

2: Their Eyes Were Watching God was my least favorite book we read. I did not like it because of the dialogue used. It was too hard for me to focus on the plot or theme because I felt like I was translating the dialogue sentence by sentence. Perhaps when we read it again though, I will be able to get more information from it because I already know the storyline and have gotten used to the dialogue.

3:For Brave New World, I would write an essay on the societal differences and similarities. I would look into what was happening in the world at the time Huxley wrote the book and look at parallels between the two societies. I would go into depth on the similarities of society and see if there is connections and analyze what Huxley meant to put these into his story about this dystopia.