Eyes Journal 7

• Work


• faith


• jealousy


• hopelessness


• equality


• judgement


• marriage


• doubt


• eternity


• apprehension


• pleading


• urgency


• decisions/ choices

The motif of judgement used in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God shows the constant obstacles in life.

The idea of marriage in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston shows that the bonds of marriage can complete a person or hollow a person.

Jealousy in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston emphasizes the humanity of her characters and shows that some types of love can fall into the hands of jealousy.

Eyes Journal 6

Thesis:
Topic 1: Janie's relationship with Logan is emphasized with the story of Annie Tyler.
Topic 2: The ideas of belonging and possessions relate to her marriage to Jody.
Topic 3: Janie shows some growth and progression through her pleads.
Topic 4: Tea Cake's playfulness and freedom brings her happiness and at times anxiety.

Comments:
For Thomas: The figurative language analysis about the sun is similar to what I found. In our groups today, Clara D. and I realized that the first paragraph also relates to Logan with the idea of "no free will' and the middle paragraph relates to Joe with the idea of possessions.
I also liked your analysis of the colors used in the text. If the red and the white mean what you say, then what is the so called "business"? I was just curious because when I read "But pretty [...] in white" again it just sound interesting when you switch the colors red and white to the associations of those colors you made.

For Vlada: I really like how both your analysis on the bed imagery and the analysis of time worked to emphasize the difference between Annie and Janie. The symbolism of the bed and the different actions that Annie and Janie took was very interesting and something I had not realized.

For Andrew:I see what you mean when you say the daughter might be busy but I thought it was comparing the mother and the daughter instead. The mother has jumped from man to man and never seemed to settle. The daughter on the other hand has a husband and has settled. Her daughter also becomes an insult to Annie because her supposedly more successful daughter has to help the Annie out of an unpleasant situation. Also another interesting thing to think about is how old is Annie and how many men has she been with? How many men was the daughter with before she married?

eyes Journal 5

They put her to bed and sent for her married daughter from up around Ocala to come see about her. The daughter came as soon as she could and took Annie Tyler away to die in peace. She had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her.
The thing made itself into pictures and hung around Janie's bedside all night long. Anyhow, she wasn't going back to Eatonville to be laughed at and pitied. She had ten dollars in her pocket and twelve hundred in the bank. But oh God, don't let Tea Cake be off somewhere hurt and Ah not know nothing about it. And God, please suh, don't let him love nobody else but me. Maybe Ah'm is uf fool, Lawd, lad dey say, but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin', Jesus. Ah done waited uh long time.
Janie dozed off to sleep but she woke up in time to see the sun sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark. he peeped up over the door sill of the world and made a little foolishness with red. but pretty soon, he laid all that aside and went about his business dressed all in white. But it was always going to be dark to Janie if Tea Cake didn't soon come back. She got out of the bed but a chair couldn't hold her. she dwindled down on the floor her head in a rocking chair.

Bold words: Ambiguous
colored bright blue: Feeling of urgency
Colored yellow: feeling of despair
colored pink: innocence
colored bark blue: word choice
words colored and italicized and bold: word choice and colored category
Phrases bold with italics: Two desired men Vs. Sun

Janie had this urge to prove people's opinions of Tea Cake wrong. She was proud of her decision and now she feels it was a huge mistake. All of her husbands gave her a moment of despair. The purpose of this passage was to show the doubt we all have in each other.
We almost pity Janie for getting herself in this situation. Oddly enough that was what she wanted to avoid.

Eyes Journal 4

So Luisa plunged in the meditation of Dreams. Dreams, that wispy mist with the intoxicating smell which exists before all beds. The mischievous thing which curses the senses like a sickness without relief, and without a cure. Why do Dreams unhinge, and who can hide from her? She lays on top of the stars masking all light. Laying mindful and calmly for all time with her arrows held down, watching the hopes come forth. Been laying yonder preceding the past, present and future. She was prone to discover a scent from her skin on her pillow any moment. She was worried and anxious also. Pitiful Guido! 'e should not need to avairt into loneliness. She issued the director to comfort yet Guido replied No. Zese collegues wair copacetic with ze genius, but zey lack ze abellity to cair fair 'is problems. He would be fine when the Vatican learned her place. He wasn't leading to failure after all. That was what he concluded. Yet the director said another story, so she grasped. Later still he hadn't, the new day she was compelled to see, since converging would occur in the studio among the press and the cameras. Those who were restricted in the past entered. Remaining behind cameras and watched. Curiosity, the poisoned water, had whispered in the news.



Note: Ambiguous pronouns might make my paragraph confusing. Should I color code it for a better understanding?

Eyes Journal 3

The two names that caught my eyes first were Lige and Lum. They appear in this chapter in the part with the mule and in the scene with Daisy.

Although there isn't a meaning for the name Lige there is a similar name in Greek mythology. Ligeia means "cleared-voice, shrill, whistling" and was the name of a Siren and the title for one of Edgar Allan Poe's stories. This seemed interesting because used their voices through song to trances seaman to their death. Lige is leading people to their death, but he does get people to come and hear him speak about the mule and when Sam and him start a little scene. The story written by Poe has a few similarities that seem to have no importance. Ligeia is a woman who has long black hair and eventually dies leaving behind her husband. The husband remarries and still thinks of Ligeia. The only things that are similar is the hair to Janie's and a spouse dying leaving the other to remarry. Janie moves on fairly well after Joe's death and doesn't seem to linger on it.

Lum is also a very interesting name and the closest name found was Lumi which in Finnish means "snow". That would be a large stretch to connect to the book but is interesting to see all of the unique character names that appear in this book.

Eyes Journal 2

"[Hicks] wasn't ready to think of colored people in post offices yet. He laughed boisterously.
'Ya'll let dat stray darky tell y'all any ole lie! Uh colored man sittin' up in uh post office!' He made an obscene sound.
'He's liable tuh do it too, Hicks. Ah hope so anyhow. Us colored folks is too envious of one 'nother. Dat's how come us don't git no further than us do. Us talks about de white man keepin' us down! Shucks! He don't have tuh. Us keeps our own selves down.'
'Now who said Ah didn't want de man tuh git us uh post office? He kin be de king uh Jerusalem fuh all Ah keer. Still and all, 'taint no use in telling lies just 'cause uh heap uh folks don't know better. Yo' common sense oughta tell yuh de white folks ain't goin' tuh 'low him tuh run no post office.'
'Dat we don't know, Hicks. He say he kin and Ah b'lieve he know what he's talkin' 'bout. Ah reckon if colored folks got thay own town they kin have post offices and whatsoever they please, regardless. And then again, Ah don't speck de white folks way off yonder give uh damn. Less us wait and see' " (36-37)

In the white are two words describing the sound that Hicks is making. Boisterous has the synonyms rowdy and rambunctious which makes me think of the words loud and uncontrollable and childlike. Obscene has the first definition as "disgusting to the senses". It was a disgusting sound. It is also curious as to why she said the word "sound" as in the past she has used snort or an other specific sound. The word "sound" is generic which maybe shows there is no better description than "an obscene sound".

Coker repeatedly uses the word "us", highlighted in black, when he is speaking about the colored people keeping themselves down. This is important because he is emphasizing that all are held down not by the Caucasians but by themselves. Joe Starks doesn't appear to be held down by anyone. Coker also says that the colored folk are envious and they are the problem. In some ways it was the Caucasians because they started that idea with slavery and the Jim Crow Laws.

Finally, in blue are words used because of the dialect that show a repeating idea of being less. The word "down" is not closely as related but emphasizes how Hicks and Coker see themselves and other colored people below the whites or a step down. The two words "low" and "less" really meant allow or let. the words being said in slang like this continues to make Hicks and Coker's idea of their people more visible.

Eyes Journal 1

When seeing Janie kiss Johnny Taylor, Nanny is described as, " the standing roots of some tree that had been torn away by storm" (12). This image is used showing the shock and dismay of Nanny. She has been caring for Janie and was Janie's strength and kept her safe. Now Janie describes her as being broken and powerless. This also shows that Nanny no longer can take care of Janie for she has nothing left to give. Nanny has become the Giving Tree at the end of the book and she can't even be used as a seat to rest on. In contrast, the blossoming pear tree that Janie enjoyed in her childhood shows her innocence with its "alto chant of visiting bees, the gold of the sun and panting breath of the breeze" (10). This tree is warm and welcoming with beauty. It is untouched and has seen no struggle. Janie wanted a struggle as said on the next page " she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her" (11). She received her struggle when she married Logan Killicks and it was what she had dreamed it to be. As Joe Stark walked down the street one day she realized there was something better than her pear tree. "[H]e did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon" (28). The far horizon poses new struggles and adventures with the companionship of a man who shows promise.