For the final chapters, I would like for you to choose a specific symbol or motif present in these chapters and take a paragraph or so to discuss its significance to the larger meaning of the novel. I would also like for you to continue thinking about Foster's ideas and how they connect to this book. And if everyone would please note a line or passage of significance that you discover during the reading in your post and comment on it, that would be great. The line could be significant because it portrays theme, develops character, illustrates a technique of figurative language beautifully, or strikes you as odd or funny. I'd like to continue delving into the text more specifically as some of you did last week in your discussion of the pear tree.
I appreciate you all sticking with this book. I really enjoy it and I know that it is a novel that appeals more to females, so I appreciate everyone appreciating the novel for all that it has to offer!! Keep up the GREAT work.
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The symbol I chose to use was the hurricane. The hurricane symbolizes how unpredictable and chaotic the world is. It makes everyone leave the Everglades in an unorderly fashion. The next few days in the novel are also very confusing and hectic. This is just like Janie's life. She moves from place to place. She lives with three different men. She works in the fields, a shop, and in a house. She is just all over the place just like the hurricane. After the hurricane Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog and contracts the disease. This is another unexpected twist of fate.
"They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God". Of course I had to pick this line because the title is in it. But this line also has some other significance. It demonstrates how the characters in this novel view God. The do not necessarily view him as the majority of us view God. They see him as a part of nature if not nature itself. This is referred to several times in the novel including in reference to the hurricane and to the sun. I believe that they are referencing to God and nature in this way because it gives God a face so to speak. It lets them see a God that is invisible. Just like when Moses went on Mt. Sinai to recieve the Ten Commandments. Without Moses the Jews did not have a visual representation or link to God. So they built a golden calf so that visual representation would be their. It is easier to believe or worship a God that you can see in some way so the characters in this novel use things in nature to represent God.
In Foster's chapter 10 titled, It's More Than Just Rain or Snow, it talks about the symbolic meaning of different types of weather. The hurricane, as I previously stated, symbolizes the unexpected things that happen in life and it is not just a hurricane.
Terry, good job with your response. In reference to the hurricane, I was also thinking of the chapter in Foster's book about rebirth and how Janie comes out of the experience with the hurricane and is forced to become a new woman, her own woman. Throughout the novel she is trying to find her own voice and it seems she is doing so by identifying herself with a man, but now she is forced to go back to Eatonville and live on her own, and I think she finds peace with that. I'm so glad you chose the passage with the title - that's very significant. Again, nicely done.
"He done taught me de maiden language all over." This was spoken by Janie in Chapter 12 during a conversation with Pheoby. This whole chapter really stood out to me because it is when Janie truly realized that she loves Tea Cake and he is what she needs in her life. Tea Cake helped Janie find her voice and brought her to a greater understanding of what she really wants. Which brings me to my symbol.. the horizon. To Janie, the horizon represents the life she dreams of and the world she wants to live in. The main thing Janie longed for was love. She finally found that in Tea Cake. The hurricane, another symbol, was one thing that brought Janie and Tea Cake closer together. During the hurricane though, Tea Cake was infected by a rabid dog. His illness leads to fighting and eventually Janie must take his life to save her own. Although Tea Cakes death was a horrible time for Janie, it showed us how much she had grown as a person since the beginning of the book. Janies relationship with Tea Cake helped her achieve her horizon. I believe Fosters chapter, Is That a Symbol?, fits perfectly with this book. There are several good examples of symbolism displayed in Their Eyes Were Watching God (The Pear Tree, The Hurricane, The Horizon). Foster taught me to look deeper into text because what we read can often mean a whole lot more.
Mrs. Hollifield, I am leaving for the beach for a week on Saturday. I plan on reading next weeks chapters on the way down there and back. I will post as soon as I get back home and get all my thoughts together.
I believe the mules in this book have some symbolic meaning. Janie's grandmother always compared women to mules saying that they were the mules of the world because they were worked hard and never really appreciated. Also, both of Janie's first two husbands had mules and the way they treated them paralled the way they treated Janie. Logan overworked his mule nearly to death and he treated it very harshly. This is similar to the callous way Logan treated Janie. Her next husband, Joe, never actually had a mule until he bought Matt Bonner's mule. Although he never mistreated it, he never used it either and it was really more of a status thing for everyone else to see. This is similar to the same way he treated Janie. He never let her do anything and he never let her have the freedom to make friends and associate with the townspeople. He just wanted her to always sit still and look pretty so the rest of the town could see her and think he was Mr. Bigshot because he had the best looking wife in town.
"She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels." This quote stuck out to me because it seems like there are a lot of people in the world today that are just like this. Janie had plenty of life and energy in her, but she was beat down by her husband and by the circumstances she was in. Jody was sick and slowly dying inside so to make himself feel better, he always had to cut down Janie about her looks. There are a lot of people today who have a lot of life left in them, but due to poor decison making (Janie's decison to marry Jody in this situation), they often find themselves in situations that are hard to get out of and they are oppressed and beat down like Janie was.
Foster's chapter entitled "Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?" talks about seeing repeating patterns in literature and another story that comes to my mind about a woman being oppressed is the story of Ruth in the Bibile. She was poor, a foreigner, and a woman, which back then counted against you. However, Naomi, who was older and wiser gave Ruth some advice, who had the good sense to listen, and in the end they were both rewarded.
I believe that a strong recurring motif throughout the novel was community. I enjoyed reading the dialogues of characters as they set out on front porches talking and gossiping about other citizens in the town/community. Also, everyone in Eatonville speculate about Janie in everything that she does. After Jody dies, Phoeby tries to get Janie to understand that people will “talk” about her if she starts seeing another man too soon. But Janie just pushes this thought to the side and continues with whatever she pleases.
I am also going to relate this part to “Geography Matters” in Foster’s nonfiction work. When I think about people sitting out on the front porch talking and gossiping, the first thing that comes to mind is the Deep South. I don’t believe that community citizens in the North would sit out on the front porch and talk for hours. One reason behind this is the climate – it’s generally colder in the North than in the South.
Chapter Six: “The store itself was a pleasant place if only she didn’t have to sell things. 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. The fact that the though pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen to.”
I thought that the last line in this portion of the text was a great metaphor to relate how people in the community just loved seeing people sitting and relaxing and simply – talking. Even though this was a thought of Janie, I believe that it would fit well with anyone else in the community.
I also found that the text was easier to read because some of the same words kept coming up, making it easier for me to comprehend what was being said. I guess practice makes things easier.
This book has been interesting to read. One motif that went on through out the novel was race and racism. We got to read from an African American point of view so we got a taste of how it was like. Through out the novel, the characters would always mention how black folks would be put down and treated and how they were nothing compared to white folks. And how Joe wanted to make a town out of black folks and have everything that the white folks had. Then towards the end of the novel, it had a few examples of how the white people treated these black folks by making them burry the dead folks and making a big deal out of throwing the dead white people in a different pile from the dead black people. So race was a pretty big concept that still goes on today. I think it really showed us a point of view that we usually don't experience. I also liked Josh's comparison between the mules and the women. I didn't think about that but it's a good point.
As Kelly mentioned I think that from Foster's chapter "Is That A Symbol" fits with this novel. There are a lot of symbols that you can take and compare it with the characters and themes. Like the hurricane being like Janies life, the mule representing the women and the Pear tree. So almost anything you could take and symbolize into a deeper meaning.
The very last few sentences in the novel, "Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waitst of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see." These few sentences stood out to me. Fist Hurston compares the horizon to a fish net. I believe she is done with life. Her horizon was her whole life and what she always seeked and wanted to be. And she pulls it over her shoulders like she's done seeking everything in life. She has gotten what she pretty much wanted. And now she's in peace. There's nothing else in life that she wants.
For the final blog for this book, I choose the motif of race and racism. This is present throughout the entire book, but most specifically in chapters 16, with Mrs. Turner and her views, and chapter 19 after the court room scene.
I also connected this book to the chaper in Fosters book which was about Symbols. There are just so many symbols in this book including the hurricane, Janies hair, and the pear tree to name a few.
I thought the passage in chapter 16was interesting that talked about how "Real Gods require blood". This made me think about how in all the ancient cultures their were always sacrifices. I know that that has nothing to do with this book, but I just thought it was interesting.
okay. i was skeptical of this book in the beginning. i thought, "another novel about racism and hardship." But i was quite wrong. I found myself unable to stop reading. The author did a great job making you feel connected to the characters. i will admit. i enjoyed the novel much more than i originally thought i would.
First of all i would like to take a moment and comment on Terry's comment. Terry points out the passage "They sat in the company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against the crude walls..." Janie had always longed (though it is not made out to be made obvious or a main point) to interact and be part of the community. In this passage Janie is not really in the room with everybody else but the community shares a strong bond with each other. Especially with Janie and Tea Cake. But on another note, she dislikes the jelousy and envy of the community. She does not like the rumors the community brings forth. I felt this while reading, but until i skimmed over Terry's comment, i did not put the pieces together.
One thing that i found really surprising was Mrs. Turner. She was racist against her own race. She disliked the fact that there "Were so many blacks" and maybe whites would treat them better if there were less blacks. This is what brings me to a symbol. Janies hair takes on different meanings throughout the novel. Mrs. Turner praises Janies hair for its straightness and because it is caucasion* like. At this point in the novel i think Janies hair kind of points towards her white male dominance position. I connected this after reading how Mrs. Turner acts towards her husband. When Tea Cake talks to Mrs. Turners husband, Tea Cake determines that he is afraid of her and she is the dominant one. I think i connected that right but i'm not sure. But like Foster says, "Is that a symbol? Sure it is." :)
As for my connection to Foster's novel. Throughout all of the chapters in his book having to do with God, he speaks in one, about God and nature. Hurston does not use God in the form of what the typical view of God is. She spreads God out in nature. She uses nature to show the wrath of God through the hurricane. The moon and the sun seem to have a feeling of divinity while reading them. Especially the moon while Janie and Tea Cake are sitting and watching it. I also took notice that church is hardly ever mentioned in the novel, yet, the entire novel has a divine feeling.
Good book, though a bit feminine for my tastes. Glad i've added it to my repertoire :)
I feel that one of the biggest motifs that kept reappearing was community as Trent stated. The constant gossip of the towns people on their front porches really added to the book. They were always talking about someone else in their town and getting in everyones business. These people never really affected Janie or the what she did with her life. She could have cared less about what they said about her when she came back
I think in Foster's book the chapter "Is That a Symbol" helped me the most in reading this book. It was a lot easier for me to be able to pick them out and understand what the author meant by them. I kept thinking back to that chapter all throughout the book.
"Tea Cake's house was a magnet, the unauthorized center of the "job." The way he would sit in the doorway and play his guitar made people stop and listen disappoint the jook for that night." This quote made me realize a characteristic Janie had to have in a spouse. 2 out of her 3 husbands held some sort of leadership around other people and always had the spotlight. Her first husband did not have this characteristic and could have been another reason she left him. I think she needed to be with someone who had as much power as she felt she had.
Janie’s fear in the beginning of the chapters is totally understandable. Every man in her life has failed to give her what she craved, companionship. Tea Cake comes into her life and his smile alone gives Janie sensations that she has never felt before. She is so afraid, not only because of his age, but because her heart knows that he can make her happy. Hurston make a very clever move by bringing the pear tree back into the picture when Janie said “ He could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree blossom in the spring.” this quote alone show the connection she feels to him, even thought she tries to prevent herself from feeling that way. Janie was the blossom and Tea Cake was her one and only bee. He made her feel brand new and awaked her inner woman.
He even adores her hair, Janie’s ultimate symbol of strength. It is in the strength that her hair provides that Janie founds the courage to be with Tea Cake and explore the love she has never known. For the first time, Janie has met someone who doesn’t despise her for her strength or make her hide it away from the world. If I were in her position I would be afraid too. The care and love that Tea Cakes offers is something that Janie had declared unreal. She finds herself wondering “what can he possibly see in me?” and she attempts to make him out as a gold digger. The harder Janie tries to find something bad about Tea Cake, more convincing he becomes that he is the real deal.
The symbol I'd like to choose is a biblical type of symbol. I don't know if I'm allowed to have more than one symbol but I'm going to go ahead and talk about two things that are biblical symbols yet don't really play in with each other. I am choosing the husbands as my first symbol. They to me represent the snake in the Garden of Eden. Janie is Eve who is tempted by the snake but except for an apple of knowledge it is like a apple for a thing that she is searching for but does not know exactly what it is. So when the first husband comes she readily follows the whispers of the snake thinking she will find that emotion, that she later discovers is 'love', and marrys Logan. She soon finds out her mistake. Then when Joe comes along it is like another episode with the snake in the garden and although a little more hesitant she still falls and takes that sweet apple expecting love. It's not until Joe dies that she lets herself finally believe she wasn't in love and she had done it again. So when Tea Cake comes by he's out of luck because she's learned her lesson now and although she wants to love him she can't help but see that snake in him even if it might only be her mind playing tricks on her. Tea Cake has to keep on trying to prove throughout their whole two years that that snake she's seeing isn't real, no matter how many times she sees it and in the end I'm happy to see that she does.
"Ah yeah, she's too smart tuh stay round heah. She figers we'se jus' uh bunch uh dumb niggers so she think she'll grow horns. But dat's uh lie. She'll die butt-headed." ...this is somthing that Sop said in a conversation with Tea Cake and it wasn't something that wouldn't leave my head and when the revelation of what he meant hit me I was so tickled that I had thought of it. The ex-slaves and thier descendents and even the Indians had called the white men "White Devils" and the Devil in one history or another has horns! So thier saying that Mrs. Turner will the get the reputation of a white woman and become a "White Devil" as well thus "grow horns" but that no one, at least in the colored community, would ever give her that kind of respect (if you can call it respect that they have for the whites, maybe more fear than respect) which leads Sop to say "She'll die butt-headed". It's amazing what you can come up with when you think about it when your reading and how smart it can make you feel! At least, that's how I feel.
And of course, this all plays into Foster's chapter on Bible relations and how the auther uses passages and Bible stories in their own novels. What better novel to use this idea in than in "Their Eyes Were Watching God"?
Hey, Mrs. Hollifield? I was wanting to ask a question that didn't exactly have anything to do with this weeks post. How many points are we getting of for not going back to proofread our comments before posting, thus, having MANY spelling errors and grammer mistakes that are too late to fix? Just for curiosities sake and to see how bad my grade might be. If you wouldn't mind letting me know that is. Thanks and I'll be waiting for the next post. I've had fun with this summer's reading.
Hello everyone. I'm writing from the beach and I'm on my phone because I don't have Internet access via computer at the moment. Just wanted to say that I have been reading your comments and you have again impressed me with your insightful reading. The connections to the bible and the insights on motif and geography have been particularly impressive. I will be home on Sunday the 28th(?) and I plan to comment forther then. P.S. Remember I am not counting off at all for grammar and conventions so don't worry about proofreading. I'm not!
Sorry I'm late on the post. This week has been pretty busy...
Something that I saw as a symbol that nobody else mentioned was the rabid dog, more specifically his eyes. When I first read about the dog I saw it as foreshadowing something bad happening. I wasn't sure what exactly was going to happen at first, but then Janie said she could see it in his eyes that he aimed to do more than hurt her. To me, this symbolized death and was a major hint that there were deaths to come.
In Fosters novel he always goes back to the idea that there is only one story and that everything is based off of some other idea. In Their Eyes Were Watching God the dog and the way that Tea Cake died reminded me of the novel "Of Mice and Men" when George shot Lennie. In both novels a dog was used as a symbol of the death to come, and in both novels they were killed by one of their own.
One line in the novel that stood out to me was when Tea Cake said, "Janie, Ah hope God may kill me, if Ah'm lyin'. Nobody else on earth kin hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom." To me, this line represents what almost any girl would love to hear, Janie has a man that wants to be with her and only her, and he is willing to do anything to prove it. It also shows that Tea Cake loves her, which makes the novel what it is. Without that love it wouldn't be the great Southern love story that so many people have labeled it as.
Death as the actual, physical death of people and as Hurston's personification of Death in the abstract is a significant presence in the book. Hurston often uses the death of characters to mark the death of phases of Janie's life and consequently, transitions to new phases. The two most important incidents are the deaths of two of her husbands. Joe's death frees Janie not only from the restrictions that he put on her, but of the self-imposed submission of her own thoughts and dreams. Janie's relationship with Tea Cake fulfills her "pear-tree" dream. Their time together helps her learn to enjoy being herself again. After Tea Cake's death, Janie is truly independent.
“Soon everything around downstairs was shut and fastened. Janie mounted ... the stairs with her lamp…Now, in her room, the place tasted fresh again. The wind through the open windows had broomed out all the fetid feeling of absence and nothingness.” This line from chapter 20 deals with the theme of freedom and confinement. This passage alternates between images of enclosed spaces and wide open ones. But here, nothing feels trapped. Janie has returned to the home that Joe once trapped her in, but even though the downstairs is "shut and fastened," it feels cozy and comforting instead of claustrophobic. Upstairs, the open windows give the room a sense of largeness which, paradoxically, does not feel empty. Instead, it makes Janie feel free.
In Chapter 11 called “…More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence” Foster talks about the different types of deaths in a novel. Tea Cake’s death came under the category of character caused act of violence since Janie, the heroine, shot him in response to his continual abuse of her. And this is one of the few examples of books I have read in which a woman is violent. However, I think she was justified in her actions because she killed Tea Cake in self-defense.
as some have already mentioned, i believe that racism is a big motif in the book. reading from janie's point of view allowed me to get a feel for how african americans were treated compared to a white person. racism is shown in chapter 16 where janie and mrs. turner were having a conversation as well as in chapter 19 where people were burying the dead and where janie's trial was taking place. in chapter 16, mrs. turner, the owner of a diner, belittles african american people. she believes that her nose, her eyes, and her overall appearance set her above and beyond from "negroes." however, janie's complexion and hair made her an exception. mrs. turner cant stand african american people and the way they "laugh" and "sing ol' nigger songs."
"if it wuzn't for so many black folks it wouldn't be no race problem... de black ones is holdin' us back...tain't de poorness, its de color and de features. who want any lil ole black baby layin' up in de baby buggy lookin' lak uh fly in buttermilk...colored folks don't know nothin" (141-142)
this quote is one of the many examples of racism portrayed in the book. i think its quite ridiculous how people can hate someone based on their race. matter of fact, its completely pathetic.
in chapter 19, tea cake along with many others were ordered to bury the dead. while the african americans were all thrown into a hole, white people were given coffins. also, during janie's trial over tea cake's death, the white women were supporting and helping janie while the african americans were all against her.
The symbol I chose to use out of the book is the rabid dog. I find the dog to represent the devil. He was using the cow to stay dry and out of harm's way. I see the cow as representing human kind. The devil ways us down with sins and allows us to do all the dirty work for him. The dog biting Tea Cake shows how the devil can get into our minds and take us over. He gets the best of Tea Cake and eventually causes him to go crazy, leading him to his unfortunate death. The devil can lead us to do things we really don't want to do. Tea Cake in his right mind would have never pulled a gun on Janie and Janie would have never shot her husband.
The rabid dog (the devil) gains control of Janie and Tea Cake's lives, ruining them both.
"When God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered all over. Then after that some angels got jealous and chopped him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. So they beat him down to nothing but sparks but each little spark had a shine and a song." I marked the page of the quote while reading because it reminded me of Jody Sparks. He was so full of spirit and life. This also relates to Janie Sparks. Jody was jealous of all the other men looking at Janie's hair and fantasizing about having their hands in it one day. He made her keep her hair up but she never lost spirit. She was still the same beautiful Janie. Jody locked Janie in his own little cage, not allowing her to converse with the other people. Despite his attempt to keep her bottled in, she never lost her shine.
I'm just going to post on this blog because it is an older one and hopefully not going to be analyzed and graded and now that I have finished the blog that actually IS due and probably wont be counted either because it is late despite the fact that i have no internet. i did not explain that factor to begin with like i should have. but i have only myself to blame. i should have explained what i was planing on doing over the weekend. i guess i should have gone Saturday when i had the house to myself before i went to work and so here i am now finished and praying it will count but not really hoping with an atheist friend reading over my shoulder and poking me, quite painfully, with a staple that he claims isn't in his hand. and again with the slight pricks that make me jump out of my chair. And so lets hope that this comment will not be read. But if it is I will comment a little on the actual blog post so that I will not get into too much trouble. The worst is that my comment will be erased which I will probably do myself. The symbol though that I would like to use is the dog that was so precariously holding onto life in the middle of a hurricane storm. In my opinion this dog was representation of humanity. Humans tossed into chaos, when alone and devoid of kindness will usually become sick with a sickness much like rabies. They become aggressive and soon distrustful of any kindness or attempt at friendship. Then they are isolated from the world in a chaotic environment much like the dog on the house floating in the middle of the hurricane. And like rabies they can infect and corrupt other human beings those of mankind that are represented by the rabid dog. It is a kind of nice symbol isn't it. Not something too many people would read too much into but I just could not help myself and tend to read into things too much in the first place so I was happy to oblige.
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