Big Question Introduction

Big Question Intro. -

Literature Analysis #4

Their Eyes Were Watching God

by Zora Neale Hurston

1.Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read.

After a long absence, Janie Crawford is now back at Eatonville, Florida. People gossip about her and her young husband, Tea Cake. Her grandmother's wants to marry Janie and finds the perfect fit, Logan Killicks. They marry and move in. One day, Joe Starks and Janie flirt and she runs off with him and marries him. They travel to Eatonville where Jody hopes to have a “big voice.” Jody makes some negative comments about Janie's appearance, so she does the same. Jody beats her for making fun of him and their marriage breaks down. Jody gets ill and he soon dies. Janie feels free for the first time in years. Later when she encouters Tea Cake, a man twelve years her junior, Janie is attracted to him. Despite negative gossip people made, she begins dating Tea Cake. Janie marries Tea Cake and leaves town to go with Tea Cake to Jacksonville. A terrible hurricane takes place in the Everglades, and as they flee the rising waters, a rabid dog bites Tea Cake. Tea Cake doesn’t realize the dog’s condition and three weeks later, he falls ill. Tea Cake becomes convinced that Janie is cheating on him. He shoots at Janie, and in order to save herself, she kills him. She is  put on trial for murder but all-male jury finds her not guilty.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

One of the themes in this book is about gender issues. Janie needs to get married to a man so that her life would be safe. This leads to the idea that women are dependent on men to protect them.

3. Describe the author's tone.  Include three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

Hurston’s main tones are celebratory and sympathy of the richness of African-American culture.

- "What she doin coming back here in dem overhalls? Can’t she find no dress to put on? – Where’s dat blue satin dress she left here in? – Where all dat money her husband took and died and left her? – What dat ole forty year ole ‘oman doin’ wid her hair swingin’ down her back lak some young gal? – Where she left dat young lad of a boy she went off here wid? – Thought she was going to marry? – Where he left her? – What he done wid all her money? – Betcha he off wid some gal so young she ain’t even got no hairs – Why she don’t stay in her class? – "

- "Janie stood where he left her for unmeasured time and thought. She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just some thing she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over. In a way she turned her back upon the image where it lay and looked further. She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be."

- "There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought. Nanny entered this infinity of conscious pain again on her old knees. Towards morning she muttered, "Lawd, you know mah heart. Ah done de best Ah could do." De rest is left to you." She scuffled up from her knees and fell heavily across the bed. A month later she was dead."
4. Describe five literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the theme and/or your sense of the tone.  Include three excerpts that will help your reader understand each one.

1)Allusion: The author makes references to the following -
     Civil War
     General Sherman Eatonville, Florida
     George Washington
     Abraham Lincoln
     Booker T. Washington

2) Metaphor: The use of this device allows me to make connections between the person being compared to the noun.

- "Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches."

3)Foreshadow: This device allows the readers to ascertain what's going to occur.

"Nanny sent Janie along with a stern mien, but she dwindled all the rest of the day as she worked. And when she [Nanny] gained the privacy of her own little shack she stayed on her knees so long she forgot she was there herself….Towards morning she muttered, "Lawd, you know mah heart. Ah done de best Ah could do. De rest is left to you." She scuffled up from her knees and fell heavily across the bed. A month later she was dead.

4)Imagery : Helps me to visualize the text when I'm reading along. It leaves a better memory of the story.

- "She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid."

5)Symbolism: the head-rag Janie wears represents the constraints imposed on women by men in power.

Charles Dickens' Great Expectation

The significance of the title Great Expectations is from what Pip goes through in the book. By helping out a criminal who set him up with an inheritance, Pip now has money/"great expectations" coming his way and that he now is to become a gentleman instead of a blacksmith.

Poem Worth Loving

The Laughing Heart (Charles Bukowski)

Your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

*I love this poem because it relates to my life. Ever since I was young, I was extremely shy and not outgoing. As time passed, I began to come out from my "darkness" but I still possess that character. However, when I read this poem, I was like "WOW"...this is the story of my life! So ever since, I loved this poem.

Open Question

            In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caufield, the protagonist in story, caught my attention, and I grew to admire him. Some might argue that I am mistaken since Holden is portrayed very poorly in the story, but one side of him shouldn’t be used to judge him as a whole. Salinger does this on purpose to make Holden stand out from his hectic life. Holden discovers a very important fact about life where he wants to be the catcher in the rye. 

Salinger, throughout the entire plot, shows the negative side of Holden and towards the end provides a new side of him where the readers feel compassion for him. Even though he flunks out from Pencey prep school, calls up a prostitute to ease his desire, and lies to his sister Phoebe about dropping out from school, he has a side which admires me; he imagines himself being the catcher of the kids falling off a cliff. Salinger uses a metaphor for the cliff to represent the transformation from childhood to adulthood, the state where kids experience puberty. From all the events that occurred up to this point, this intention is capricious, judging from his previous haughtiness.

He is one of the kids who fell from that cliff, no one to catch him from falling off. As he is experiencing the event, he realizes that the unknown world is cruel and harsh. He calls most people “phony” and criticizes them to cover up for his loneliness and depression. Through many signs and symbols, I can conclude that Holden wants to be young again in his innocent youth. He doesn't want to grow up because there will be many responsibilities and desires he never expected as child.  

Holden Caufield is not the typical protagonist who does great deeds and lives a moral life. He is one who is sick of all the cruelties of life and has nowhere else to relieve them except on others and him. He is aware of this and wishes to prevent others from going through the same experience. People shouldn’t judge a character solely on his/her action or behavior but what’s in the heart. 

Big Question: Abstract

Ever since Earth began, inhabitants emerged and transformed through the ages. Civilizations erupted, laws were made, and wars broke out. People began to adapt to their enviroment and form races that enabled them to communicate and interact with each other. Since then, many races formed which led to many stereotypes. There are many researches that relate to race and ethnicity. My purpose to research on this topic is to discover if race has a huge influence on an individual and how societies use this factor to distinguish people. I want to know if racism can be not only a negative practice, but a positive one someone can learn from.