Their Eyes Were Watching God: Comprehension and Analysis Blog

Afterword

hurston — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 08:07:01 +0000

Section “I” of the afterword presents us with information on Hurston’s background. Hurston had a specific style of writing. Her writings in the African American vernacular have been studied throughout the country as models for many other people. I found it interesting that Gates said Their Eyes Were Watching God were “more closely related to Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady and Jean Toomer’s Cane than to Langston Hughes’s and Richard Wright’s proletarian literature, so popular in the Depression” (187). We read an excerpt from Cane and in it was a certain part that we were told to interpret for ourselves. The final two lines “Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear, / Beauty so sudden for that time of year” evoke powerful emotions from the author to the reader. This beauty that Toomer speaks about can relate to Janie’s beauty. The brown eyes, which are expressed in the poem, represent her inner intent through all of her marriages. Janie wanted a man to love her and to care for her, not just use her as a housewife or second-class citizen. Janie found that love within Tea Cake, and that is the beauty which is found so sudden in that time of year. Tea Cake’s love for Janie was not what Eatonville expected. Hezekiah tries to tell Janie that Tea Cake is not one of her kind and that she should watch out because he is poor as dirt. Janie doesn’t acknowledge this fact and instead almost goes out with Tea Cake to spite everybody else and show them what a great person he is. There would never be a really good time of year for their love to blossom, especially so close to Jody’s death, but Tea Cake and Janie’s lives changed for the better through this beautiful love.

*–Nicole G– *

Ending Chapters

hurston — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 22:28:00 +0000

Chapter 19 starts off with Tea Cake being forced to bury the dead after the hurricane. I think it is terrible that they(blacks) had to do this. Especially because they had to pull out the white men so that they could be buried in a coffin. When reading this part, it says that they threw quicklime onto the bodies, and I was interested in what this was, so I looked it up.

Quicklime:
also called lump lime, caustic lime, or unslaked lime. This was the name given the lime (CaO) as it was removed from the kilns and packed into barrels. It was “quick” to stick to the skin. Handling the product is hazardous, as it is caustic, takes water from the flesh, and gives off heat. This heat is enough to char wood, and warehouses and schooners shipping lime were known to catch fire.

It sounds like it is something that will help breakdown the bodies faster because higher temperatures means faster bacteria growth, and from the definition it seems to burn the skin.

After this, Tea Cake gets sick, and Janie finds out that he has rabies from the dog that bit him on the cheek. While Janie goes to see the doctor Tea Cake thinks that she is sneaking off to see Mrs. Turner’s brother. Janie finds a pistol of Tea Cake’s and notices that there are 3 shots in it. She rotates the clip so that he will not shoot bullets the first 3 times he pulls the trigger. I think that this is dumb, and you can sense the suspense coming. If i was her, i would have taken the bullets out so that he could not use it at all. When Janie comes back from the doctors again, Tea Cake accuses her again, and has his pistol. Janie defends herself after Tea Cake tried to kill her. This must have been a very hard decision to do for her, but it shows that she is in control. Through out the novel, Janie has been a possession and a object of a male all because she is a women; “Through this gesture, the act of shooting Tea Cake, Janie allows her self as subject to emerge — not, this time, as a fully realized sell as a unified subject, but as a subject freed from its dependence on the Other”(McGowan). I think this is definitely true, and that she is in control of herself and is her own person. Choosing Tea Cake over other men was a step towards this, because she knew that she wanted a man who was not as dominating. Shooting Tea Cake has completely freed her of an reason to be a possession of someone else. Even though she did love him, “she is not at all paralyzed by his loss”(Reich). If anything it helped her by getting further away from her grandmother’s idea that materialism and wealth are all you need to be happy.

—Andrew

Janie’s Journey to the Horizon and Back

hurston — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 01:41:35 +0000

After finshing up the book, I was finally able to observe Janie’s growth of character from the beginning to the end. Janie has not only found her voice and freedom but has grown strenght from her journey and is at peace with herself. In Janie’s first two marriages she realized that both of her husbands “had stopped talking in rhymes to her… had creased to wonder at her long black hair and finger it” (Hurston 25).

In her relationship with Tea Cake he never once stopped admiring her beauty or make her hide or stay isolated because of it. Tea Cake wished to show Janie the world and with him Janie eperienced many new things. “Tea Cake and Janie gone to a dance. Tea Cake gone fishing. Tea Cake and Janie gone to Orlando to the movies. Tea Cake making flower beds in Janie’s yard…”(Hurston 105). Like Jody, Tea Cake brings Janie to work with him but only because he wishes to spend more time with her. Even after death Janie can still feel Tea Cake’s love for her. Janie can be content with herself now because Tea Cake has showed her all the beauty in the world and in the short time they were together shows her love unlike anything Janie has every experinced. While speaking with Pheoby in the last chapter, Janie states, “Dey gointuh make ‘miration ’cause mah love didn’t work lak they love, if dey ever had any…. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore” (Hurston 182). Is this something Janie would of been able to say after Jody died? Because of Tea Cake Janie knows love in her heart something that in her entire life she never knew. I feel that because of this Janie knows that Tea Cake will never be dead to her and she will always have the memories of their happiness. My final question is, if Janie has gotten her ultimate dream of love does this mean that the horizone is a projection of Janie’s inner peace and happiness?

-Monica

Quick Irony

hurston — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 01:18:58 +0000

While reading the ending of the novel, in chapter 19, right after the trial sequence some men were talking about the trial right outside where Janie was staying, they said, “Well, you know whut dey say ‘uh white man and uh nigger woman is de freest thing on earth.’ Dey do as dey please” (Hurston 180). I noticed how this was contradictory to what Janie’s grandmother said earlier in the novel, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world” (Hurston 14). I was wondering what everyone has to say about this and if they noticed it also. I also it is interesting of the gender of the people who say it and their perspective. Men say the women and it good while women disagree. I also think the men who said that were black like Janie’s Grandmother, but I am not sure.

- Andy

Ch. 13, Group E

hurston — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 17:49:15 +0000

The key event that we can see in chapter 13 is the fact that Janie is getting married again. She was not able to be herself in her first two marriages and hopefully the third time is the charm. By this time, it is very evident that Janie would like to be treated as an equal in her relationships. This is why she makes such a big deal out of the fact that Tea Cake doesn’t invite her to the party he has with the $200. She states that from now on she wants to enjoy everything that Tea Cake does. What differs in this marriage is the fact that Tea Cake genuinely cares for Janie. He feels terrible about what happened and manages to reimburse Janie. He manages to earn the money back gambling despite being injured. Tea Cake has clearly demonstrated that he will do anything it takes to keep Janie happy. In pas marriages, Janie’s husbands would not have gone out of their way like Tea Cake does. For this act of respect, Janie begins to build up trust in Tea Cake. To further what he has already done, Tea Cake promises that he will provide for Janie by getting a job when they move to the everglades. In the past, Janie was the one forced to work, however this marriage can be seen as a reward for all her hard work and determination.

As is some of my prior blogs, I’d like to touch on the idea of the American Dream. Even though it had appeared as if Janie had achieved the American Dream twice before, it was all too good to be true. I feel as if the reader has sufficient evidence to feel that this time will be different. Never before has Janie been treated with such care. Janie had always been the caring one, but for once the feeling is mutual.

“November Cotton Flower” and Janie

hurston — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 00:07:23 +0000

I think this poem “November Cotton Flower” can connect to Janie’s “American Dream” to love and, metaphorically, to be a pear tree. The whole poem discusses nature during the winter, when really metaphorically speaking it is about the hardships the African Americans went through during slavery. Janie’s life is all hardships: her father leaving her mother, her mother drinking her life away, her grandmother holding her back, her marriages with Logan and Jody and etc. It is sudden and dramatic when Janie meets and falls in love with Tea Cake. It is unusual for a life full of hardships to have a chance of happiness. The poem says “Old folks were startled, and it soon assumed/ Significance. Superstition saw/ Something it had never seen before” (Toomer). Janie and Tea Cake begin a relationship that makes Janie feel something new and wonderful.

Throughout Janie’s life she always searched and was on a journey for love. After two miserable husbands, Janie finds true love with Tea Cake. “Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,/ Beauty so sudden for that time of year” (Toomer). Janie’s “American Dream” has come true through her love for Tea Cake. As in the poem, the slaves dreams have come true through the abolishment of slavery.

-Nicole L

Janie’s silence in early Chapter 17

hurston — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 23:32:16 +0000

Chapter 17 is a very short chapter right before the climax of the entire story. Although it has a small amount of text, it is an important connecting device to the climax. When I read the first page of chapter 17, I was surprised that Tea Cake beat up Janie, but I was even more surprised that Janie did not defy him. At first, I understood this incident as Hurston’s strategy to make an appropriate connection between before and after chapter 17. However there is something with deeper meaning; it shows how much Janie has developed herself to use her silence to express herself. Beside Jody, Janie’s silence was a symbol of her weakness and helplessness but after his death, helped by Tea Cake, she found her voice back and now she knows how to use it suitably. Her silence is only her strength in chapter 17!

By the way I have a quick question, is tomorrow day 1 or day 2??

Chris Kim

The Yellow Mule as a Symbol

hurston — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 21:53:27 +0000

One thing that really stood out to me in Chapter 6 was Matt Bonner’s yellow mule. I saw a huge connection between the mule and Janie’s situations. First of all, it is interesting that Hurston chose to make it a yellow mule. Yellow is usually a reference to light-skinned African-Americans like Janie. Also Nanny earlier referred to women as the “mules of the world.” So, I connected the yellow mule to Janie.

When Janie was married to Logan, he forced her to work and treated her like a beast of burden. This could be paralleled to Bonner’s treatment of the mule. Then, when Janie married Jody he allowed her to live a life of ease, basically as a trophy wife. Since Jody lured Janie in with his big ambitions and money, in a way he “bought” her affection and took her away from Logan. He also bought the mule away from Matt Bonner and made it his own.

Finally, the mule became a centerpiece of the town and the subject of many legends and tall tales. Janie, as the mayor’s wife, is also a major symbol in the town and is often in the spotlight.

Although this connection is clear, one thing I don’t understand is why Jody would not let Janie go to the mule’s funeral. If the mule symbolizes Janie, why did Hurston choose to let is die and get eaten by vultures?

Perhaps the mule’s death could be a symbolic freeing of Janie’s soul. Maybe one part of her died with the mule and she is now ready to stand up to Jody.

-Ariel

Sudden Beauty and the American Dream Group D

hurston — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:57:42 +0000

While reading the poem “November Cotton Flower” by Jean Toomer, a question arises that we feel relates closely with the last scene in chapter 8. This question is: What might this sudden unexpected apperance of beauty symbolize? This question refers to the cotton flower that appears in Winter in the poem, but we also feel this can be applied to Janie’s sudden realization of her own beauty; “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” (Hurston 83). This quote depicts a sudden unexpected apperance of beauty durring Janie’s metaphorical winter. Janie should be mourning her late husbands death (this symbolizes the winter) but she has grown through life experences and age and comes to realize that although she is no longer young, she is still beautiful. In other words, Joe repressed Janies beauty during their twenty year marriage and only when she was free of him could she see herself as an individual; beautiful in her own right.

All of this relates to the American dream because Lincon’s ultimate lesson to the American public is that one cannot find happiness by trying to gain fame and weath but instead can inspire hope in ones self and hope in others by eliminating prejudice. Janie’s sudden realization of her beauty in this period of mourning relates to the American Dream because she observes that she is important as an individual and can succeed by herself. She is motivated by her own strength and strives not for propriety but for freedom from her decessed husband and his hold on repressing her beauty.

So our final thought on the matter is if it really is unexpected for Janies beauty to shine through in her darkest moments? Or should it be expected to have a glimmer of hope during a metaphorical winter?

Posted by: Monica and Alyssa
(Sorry for the late post! We were both away over break)

Racism against the same race in chapter 16

hurston — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 17:29:19 +0000

Something that has always boggled my mind is when someone is racist towards someone in their own race. A prime example of this is Mrs. Turner. She is a lighter skinned negro, and feels superior to any darker skin negro, and she is not afraid to hide her opinions. Mrs. Turner is immediatley drawn to Janie for the same reason, because she has much lighter skin, and white hair. Mrs. Turner will often visit with Janie and discuss her harse opinions with Janie. Mrs. Turner’s main concern stems from the fact that Janie is married to Tea Cake, she would classify Tea Cake as a “common nigger”. The term “common nigger” is deamed to anyone with dark skin, who works in the field. Mrs. Turner just can not understand how Janie, who is much lighter skin, and therefore classier, than her dark skinned husband, could marry someone like Tea Cake. Mrs. Turner’s initial reaction was the Tea Cake must of had a lot of money when Janie married him.

“Whut make you think dat, Mis’ Turner?” (Hurston 135).

“Tuh git hold of uh woman lak you. You got mo’ nerve than me. Ah jus’ couldn’t see mahself married to no black man. It’s too many black folks already. We oughta lighten up de race (Hurston 134-135).

In Mrs. Turner’s mind the only way a woman like Janie would marry a man like Tea Cake is if he had a lot of money. And in fact, in Janie and Teak Cake’s situation the case is just the oppisite. Janie is the one with all of the money, so clearly she married Tea Cake only out of love for him.

Mrs. Turner says some very inetesrtign things in that one quote: “Ah jus’ couldn’t see mahself married to no black man” (Hurston 135). Mrs. Turner is black, and she is married to a black man. In her eyes, she doesnt see this because they are lighter skin. Ultimatley she is dividing a line within her own race. She is saying even though i am from the same race as you i am better because my skin is lighter. Where does Mrs. Turner get this notion from? Is it a reprecussion of the attitudes of whites towards blacks? Is it steming from a desire to be white?

EMIILY DESTEFANO