Journal #8

Hurston uses setting to develop a theme of the power nature has over people. In Chapter 18 Janie and Tea cake experience a powerful hurricane. "The monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred mile an hour wind had loosened its chains."(161). The hurricane forces janie and tea Cake out of their house to stay alive. Hurston gives nature the ability to make people comply with it. This personifies the nature, it gives it a power that people have. Because the nature has more power than the people, Hurston shows us the importance and power of nature. The chatioc scene of the hurricane helps the reader to see the destructive way that natire can uproot our lives and the damage it can do. Nature makes us react and this is just what Hurston wants us to understand.


*My computer/the blog was not working one night...you signed the paper copy I brought you. This is on time.*

Journal #7

Nanny and Janie had been butting heads ever since Janie was old enough to talk back. Janie never really liked her grandma, she never liked the life her Grandma wanted to give her or what she was trying to do for her. Janie wanted her own life, but she did not stick up for herself and ended up marrying a man that she did not love.

"De Lawd will provide fuh yuh Janie. he is goin' tuh lift de burden on muh soul. Yuh is goin' to marry Logan."
" No i ain't, I ain't gonna do nothin lak that. Yuh ain't got tuh tell me what tuh do. Ah'm a women, Ah is going tuh do it my way now. He look like a burned log in the fire. He ain't tuh one fo' me." Jaine replied.
The old broad sat up straight as a rod and put her foot down. She shook with anger from deep within.
"Yuh tryin' to break mah heart? I is only wantin' whats de best fuh yuh. Yuh ain't got no sense in dat head o yuhs." Nanny said.
"I ain't gonna do it, Ah'm a goin' tuh go out with whom ever i wanna Nanny, I is git the right tuh choosea fuh muhself."
"If yuh ain't gonna marry him yuh can jus' git and go outta mah house."

Journal #6

"After a long time of passive happiness, she got up and opened the window and let Tea Cake leap forth and mount to the sky on a wind. That was the beginning of things."(107) -Imagery

"In the coolness of the afternoon the fiend form hell specially sent to lovers arrived at Janie's ear. Doubt."(108) -Conflict

Some of dese mornin's and it won't be long, you gointuh wake up callin' me and Ah'll be gone."(115) -Sound device, rhyme/tone.

Through out the book Tea Cake makes refrences to The Bible. "Ah'm de Apostle Paul tuh de Gentiles. Ah tells 'em and then agin Ah shows 'em." Hurston uses allusions to the Bible as a not so subtle hint to what kind of a person Tea Cake is. The Bible is a Holy, sacred and important book. Hurston compares him to Paul because Paul is a familiar well known character. Tea Cake being compared to Paul shows us his importance in the book, just as paul was important to the Bible. Being compared to someone in the Bible, gives him more of an elevated status, a more prominent position in Janies life.

Janie's hair has finally been released from her hair covers and Tea Cake is glad because he loves her hair. "Whut good do combin' mah hair do you? It's mah comfortable, not yourn." Janies hair is a continual motif throughout the entire book. Hurston uses her hair as a motif to signify the importance of self worth. Janie's hair has been a problem for her for most of her life. Her hair is important to her and embodies her life. Just as she was "owned" by men, so was her hair. Her hair is symbolic to her struggle to be her own person, to be free. When she lets her hair down, she breaks the bonds that kept her inslaved. Janies hair represents the person that had been trapped and now is free.

Journal #5

After making a mistake in the cutting of tobacco Janie speaks up for herself. She bring Joe down a peg by making fun of him for a change. "Then Joe Starks realized all the meanings and his vanity bled like a flood. Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish, which was terrible. The thing that Saul's daughter had done to David. But Janie had done worse, she had cast down his empty armor before men and they had laughed, would keep on laughing." (80-81) This quote is full of appealing words and clever tricks to help the reader relate to this passage. Hurston demonstrates her awareness and manipulation of language with the help of syntax, word choice, tone and sound devices.
Hurston leaves us with something to thing about at the end of each sentance, a small incomplete thought. Her gramatical style is important to this passage because is draws our attention to the choppy, cut up sentances that convey the horribleness and severity of what Janie has done to Joe.
Hurston uses words like bled, robbed, and empty to both demonstrate the tone of the passage and draw us into the book with her word choice. These words create an image of fighting and cruelty. Hurston uses these harsh words to make us see the passage from Joe's point of view, the victims view. Hurston uses these words to get us to side with Joe and make us feel bed for him. We see that she feels bad for him as well, that she has feeling for her characters just like we do. With just a few key words Hurston sets the tone for this passage.
In this passage Hurston uses words with harsh beginnings. The use of T's, V's and B's, create a harsh unwelcoming place. Adds to the horribleness of what janie is doing to Joe. This demonstrates the malice Janie speaks with and gives us a deeper insight to the contempt Janie hold in her heart for Joe.

Journal #4

Then Grace meditated on choice. Choice, the unknown monster with the gloved hands that made its home in the north. The one that resided in the trees like a hidden passage only known to the discoverers.Why does choice try to hide, for everone can always find his hiding place.He waits in the shadows with a view of everything. Crouches silently and deadly with his arrow strung in his bow. He waits for the alarm to sound.Waiting there before the day, the hour, the minute. She knew he was trying to lure someone down the wrong path at any moment. She was afraid and indecisive. Poor Trevor. He shouldn't have to face him alone. She sent his mom in to ask for a visitation, but Trevor rejected her proposal. Parents were okay for the unimportant decisions, but they didn't know a ounce about Trevor's dilemma. He'd be cool when he understood what he was facing. He was not going to make a mistake. That was his plan. But that was not what his parents told her, so she understood. If he did, the people were going to know, they started to watch him closely under a microscope. They who did not give a hoot watched shamelessly. They hid and watched. Waited, for the dirt to be trod on as he walked on.

Journal #3

"All we can do, if we want light after de settin' or befo' the risin', is tuh make some light ourselves." (45) -light as a symbol.

"Here he was just pouring honor all over her;building a high chair for her to sit in and overlook the world and she here pouting over it."(62)-alliteration

"Daisy is a walking drum tune. You can almost here it by looking at the way she walks."(67)-simile

Joe has just bought the first street light for a colored town and he is very proud to give a speech at the lighting of the light. "He made nature and nature made everything else."(65) Hurston uses the light as a symbol for the colored people and the town. The streetlight gives importance to the colored people of the town. The light is uses as a symbol of freedom that the black recently aquired. It gives power to the black people, a light that the world can see. Gives the people a "eternal" feeling through the ability to control the light, to master the light gives them power of their destiny.

The colored people talked alot about Janie and Joe, about all the things they had and why they were different. "A familiar strangeness."(48) These two words are such opposites that by using them in the same sentance we get more meaning out of the short juxtaposed sentance. This sentance creates a contrast bewteen the two words just as we see a contrast Janie and the townspeople. It gives us insight to the feelings of Janie. There is a contrast between her two husbands, but there is also the familiar aspect between the two. The juxaposition is the sentance foreshadows the downfall of Janie's marrige with Joe.

Journal #2

Can yuh not see chilluns tha' yuh is importan' tuh? Yuhs all gotta take a part in society. Yuh ain't no baby any mo', yuhs is adults. Yuh think yuh ain't got no say but yuh do. We ain't gonna baby yuh no mores. Yuh gots to do and go out in da whorld and make somethin outta yuhsself. You alls don't sees it, yuh still thinkin yuh is a small chillun.
I says go out in a duh whorld and make yuh owns future. Yuhs got tuh. Yuh can dream and sit all the day long but yuh best git out dere and make yuh self something. Yuhs got tuh.

Journal #1

The adult Janie is very different from child Janie. The adult Janie is a strong and independant person. This is very different form the person she was as a child. The circumstances of her life changed her from a dependant scared girl to a woman. Her childhood was very different from mosts. Raised by a grandmother with no parents in sight she learned to let things roll of her back and to carry on. She is the person she is today because of her past.
The narrator is a middle aged female. We can infer this about the narrator by the writing style and the use of specific words and phrases. She seems so knowledgeable about hardships and our cross to bear in life. She talks alot about the past, something ladies do more often then men. She also seems to understand the problems Janie is facing, she writes in a empthetic stlye. She writes in a way that makes us feel the way the characters, see what they see and feel what they feel by her common relatable word choice. The simple and easy to understand style of writing lets us put ourselves into the story.

First day of School

first day of school homework assignment...