Their Eyes Were Watching God

 

Introduction

This is a funky, weird book that defies categories. Some of it is memoir, some of it is fiction, and some of it is anthropology. I think, after you get through the difficulty of reading dialect, you will like it.

Sections

This unit is divided into the following sections.

Topic

See Page

A Society of One

A-1

Chapter One

A-3
 

 

A Society of One

 

Instructions

Read the introduction and the article, and then answer the following questions. This is a very difficult article. Be patient with it.

You will find your task easier if you use a separate sheet of paper.

Knowledge Questions

Answer the following question with a full sentence.

• What is odd about the comment Hurston made about Wright’s weenier novel?

• What does the line "A substantial part of the white audience preferred to be shot at" mean

• What "causes" do some people want her to stand for?

Why?

Does this author believe that she can stand for any?

• How is her use of dialect dangerous?

Why would other black authors choose to use straight English?

• Alice Walker uses the term "racial health" to describe Hurston. What does she mean?

• How did Zora change her life once she came to New York?

• What important things did Boas teach Hurston?

• What is "Color Struck" about?

Why is it a difficult play to read now?

• According to this author, how did she view the Whites around Eatonville?

Continued on next page

Hurston, Continued

 

• What services did she provide for Mrs. Mason?

How were they helpful to Zora?

Why did she need them?

• According to the article, why does she keep abandoning men?

• What transformation starts to occur to Janie once she gets to Florida?

According to the article, why does Zora do this?

• Who was her Muse?

Why is that ironic?

• Why is "Seraph on the Suwanee" so difficult for most readers of Hurston?

Why is it so weird?

• What legal troubles did Hurston weather?

• Why was the black literary establishment upset at her?

• How can language be a triumph?

 

Possible Essay

For added challenge points (or to fulfill your essay requirement), you may answer one of these questions. Try to use modern or literary examples to answer these questions.

• At the end of this article, the author comes down very strongly in favor of Hurston. Why does she like her?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Jeopardy: Chapter One

 

Introduction

We will spend much of this novel examining metaphor and figurative language. Zora revels in the language of the African American South. Watch closely.

Questions

Answer the following questions thoroughly.

1. Right off the bat, Zora zings us with some metaphors. What does she write that the dreams (or wishes) of men are?

How is that different from the women?

Which one doesn’t get disappointed?

2. What are the porch sitters compared to?

Are the human or aren’t they?

Explain.

3. How could it be "mass cruelty"?

4. The author makes a big deal about Janie’s black "rope" of hair. Metaphorically, what is it supposed to stand for?

How could it also stand for race?

5. Hurston is careful to give us many of the particulars of Janie’s life since she left this town. What do we know about her?

6. In the last line of the first chapter, Hurston uses a metaphor. What is it?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Cinema: Chapter Two

 

Introduction

Now, the story begins...

Questions

Pick one of the following questions and answer it fully.

• Janie sees her life as a tree in leaf. How is that different from the image of life as a river?

• Why does her grandmother marry her off to Killicks?

Why might that be good thinking for the Grandmom?

• When Granny calls herself a cracked plate, what does she mean?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching the View: Chapter 3

 

Introduction

Janie lives her life with a guy who has a roll of fat on his neck.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions.

• How does her marriage change?

• How does the metaphor of the tree affect it?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching ESPN: Chapter 4

 

Introduction

Janie gets a thought in her mind and goes a wandering...

Questions

Answer one of the following questions.

• What attracts her to Joe Starks?

• Is Logan that bad a guy? What is bad about him?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching The Simpson's: Chapter 5

 

Introduction

And off she goes with Joe Starks.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions. Use a full sheet of paper.

• How is Joe’s character good for Janie?

How might it be bad? What might he expect?

• How is Joe different from the rest of the town?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching the Waves: Chapter 6

 

Introduction

More in Eatonville.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions.

• Hurston uses humorous black dialect. Is Wright correct when he says it sounds like a minstrel show?

• What rules did Jody have for Janie?

• When does love leave her marriage?

• Is Janie selfish?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Tennis: Chapter 7

 

Introduction

Janie zings the man

Questions

Answer one of the following questions.

• Why is it that what Janie says hurts him so badly?

• Why can’t she run off?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Screensavers: Chapter 8

 

Introduction

Joe gets a higher calling.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions fully.

• Is Joe all to blame for this new argument?

• Is Sam white?

• Why does she say what she does to Jody? Does she kill him?

• What does she do before she tells the town that Jody is dead?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Duke Nukem: Chapter 9

 

Introduction

Janie gets on with her grieving.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions fully.

• Why does she hate Nanny?

• The Story about the sparks is an old spiritual tale, incorporated into this book. Why is it here?

• What is the difference between mourning and grief?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Housefires: Chapter 10

 

Introduction

Enter TeaCake.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions fully.

• How does Tea Cake endear himself to her?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Neil Young: Chapter 11

 

Introduction

TeaCake works his way in and Janie lets him.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions fully.

• Why doesn’t Hezekiah like TeaCake?

• Janie’s hair once again figures in the story. How?

• Why does she push TeaCake away from her? Is that weakness?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Grass Grow: Chapter 12

 

Introduction

Janie begins to get more serious.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions fully.

• The chapter starts in another voice. Whose?

• Why does Phoeby argue for the funeral director?

• Is Janie Tea Cake’s equal? Does she act that way?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching the WWF Chapter 13

 

Introduction

TeaCake and Janie go their own way.

Questions

Answer the following question.

• Do TeaCake and Janie have a strong relationship? What makes it so?

• Does TeaCake treat her well?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Mud Wrestling: Chapter 14

 

Introduction

Welcome to the muck.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions.

• What is different between the muck and Eatonville?

• Some critics have called the muck "an Eden," is it?

 

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Steamships: Chapter 15

 

Introduction

Jealousy and suchforth

Question

Answer the following question fully.

• Is this a rape or not? Explain.

 

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Runners; Chapter 16

 

Introduction

Racism in the muck

Question

Pick one of the following questions and answer it fully.

• Mrs. Turner is very clearly racist. How does Janey react to her?

• Why is she attracted to Janie?

• How does Hurston’s dialogue change?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Target Practice: Chapter 17

 

Introduction

The most controversial chapter in the novel.

Questions

Answer the following question fully.

• TeaCake slaps Janie. How does she react to it?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Hurricanes: Chapter 18

 

Introduction

Tragedy strikes.

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.

• How do Janie and TeaCake react to the storm?

• How does the rest of the population react?

• Why don’t they leave?

 

Their Eyes Were Watching the Dogcatcher: Chapter 19

 

Introduction

TeaCake comes to an unfortunate end.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions fully.

 

 

 

Their Eyes Were Watching the Sun: Chapter 20

 

Introduction

Janie returns to Eatonville.

Questions

Answer one of the following questions.

 

Their Eyes Were Watching Test Patterns

 

Introduction

The following test is designed to sharpen you wits and test your recall. You should be able to puzzle your way through the exam.

Always guess

Sections

This exam will have the following sections.

 

Character Matching

 

Introduction

Match the characteristics on the right with the characters on the left

__Tea Cake a. Janie's friend in Eatonville

__Joe Starks b. Raised Janie

__Jason Killicks c. Janie's first husband

__Phoeby Watson d. Janie's second husband

__Nanny e. Janie's third husband

__Mrs. Turner f. He turned on Janie in court

__Sop-de-bottom g. She flirted with Tea Cake

__Janie h. She favored Caucasian features

__Nunkie i. Woman with a lot of money

__ Sam Watson j. Hung out on Jody's porch

Objects

Identify the following objects.
    1. 200 dollars
    2. Lake Okechobee
    3. Checkers
    4. A blooming pear tree
    5. A second mule
    6. Dice
    7. 60 acres of land
    8. A brand new guitar
    9. A rabid dog
    10. three empty chambers

      11.  

       

       

    11. a kerchief
    12. A long braid of hair

Quotes

Identify 10 of the following quotes fully. Who said it and why is it important?
    1. "Teacake, you sho is a lucky man…A person can see everyplace you hit her."
    2. "Ah ain't going to no hospital, nowhere."
    3. "Janie, youse uh oman now…"
    4. "Put me down easy, Janie. I'm a cracked plate."
    5. "When you pull down you britches, you look like the change of life."
    6. "Nobody in heah ain't lookin fo no wife outa yuh. Old as you is."
    7. "A pretty doll baby like you is made to sit on the front porch and rock and fan yourself and eat potatoes that other people plant special, just for you.
    8. "Thought I'd try to get heah soon enough to tellyuh mah day time thoughts."
    9. "Look at me. I ain't got no flat nose and liver lips. Ah'm a full featured woman.
    10. "Miss woods got herself a lil boy rooster, but he been off somewhere and won't tell her."
    11. "What good do coming my hair do you?"
    12. "What she doin coming back here in dem overhalls?"

 

 

Metaphors

Hurston's great strength is in her figurative language. Would you analyze the following bits of her language.
    1. Put me down easy, I'm a cracked plate.
    2. So now the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human.
    3. Then she starched and ironed her face.
    4. Death, that strange being with the huge square toes that stands in the west.
    5. They were there with their tongues cocked and loaded
    6. Teacake was the son of the Evening Sun.
    7. A tongue storm struck the Negroes like wind through the palm trees
    8. She pulled in her horizon like a great fishnet
    9. In the cool of the afternoon, the fiend from hell specially sent to lovers arrived at Janie's ear. Doubt.
    10. Oh to be a pear tree, any pear tree in bloom.

 

 

Picture

Look at these two pictures (Johnson and Brown on my web page) and write a one page commentary on either of them. I am grading for creativity, coverage, and use of the book.