Reading 1001 discussion

Review thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Questions from HarperCollins.

1. Consider the following lines from the opening of the book: “Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.” Explain how this statement is true in Janie’s life.

2. On page 9, Janie says, “Dey all uster call me Alphabet ‘cause so many people had none named me different names.” Examne the use of names in the novel. What do the character’s names reveal about identity? How do names reflect a character’s culture, socioeconomic position, and/or personality? Pay particular attention to characters that are called more than one name throughout the novel.

3. The novel contains several scenes with men talking in an exaggerated and humorous way about women. Examine these scenes (pages 36; 67-69) and explain what they reveal about the cultural context of male and female roles.

4. On page 39, Coker observes, “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 keeping us down! Shucks! He don’t have tuh. Us keeps our own selves down.” Throughout the novel, how does envy impact Janie’s life?

5. Hurston makes the following observation on page 51: “When the people sat around on the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for others to look at and see, it was nice. The fact that they thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen to.” As a folklorist and anthropologist, Hurston was interested in storytelling and oral tradition. Examine the role that storytelling plays in her novel.

6. The image of the road is a universal symbol in literature. Analyze and explain the significance of the road in Their Eyes Were Watching God.

7. Explore Hurston’s use of Biblical allusion in Their Eyes Were Watching God. How does an understanding of these allusions impact the reader’s understanding of the novel?

8. Analyze the structure of Their Eyes Were Watching God, paying particular attention to way Hurston begins and ends each chapter.

1. Consider the following lines from the opening of the book: “Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.” Explain how this statement is true in Janie’s life.
Janie dream/truth is of love and happiness. At first, she believes marriage alone will create love, so she agrees to marry Logan Killicks (really fulfilling her grandmother’s dream) but finds that 3, “marriage did not make love.” Even though Joe Starks does not suggest “sun-up and pollen and blooming trees,” he speaks to her of something new and different, something that isn’t just ploughing and chopping wood and moving manure piles. One of the first things Hurston says about this relationship after they are married is this: “On the train the next day, Joe didn’t make any speeches with rhymes to her, but he bought her the best things the butcher had… mostly he talked about plans for the town…” This foreshadows what will happen when they get to Maitland – building the town, his power, and reputation will be more important to Joe than his marriage. Likewise, he only cares about Janie looking and acting according to his standards. Her life also becomes all work and routine; as Hurston says at the beginning of chapter 6, “Every morning the world flung itself over and exposed the town to the sun. So Janie had another day. And every day had a store in it, except Sunday.” Joe doesn’t even allow Janie to participate in the fun and social aspects of the store, like teasing other townspeople and playing checkers. After Joe’s death, she gradually starts to live for herself and not worry about what others think about her. With Tea Cake she finds freedom and the kind of love she dreamt of as a girl, “soul-crushing.” Part of the reason she loves him so much is because he lets her be herself and do what she likes to do – play checkers, shoot guns, go fishing. And every day with him is different. As she explains to her friend, “He can take even little things and make summertime out of it when times are dull. Then they live off of that happiness til more comes around.”

2. On page 9, Janie says, “Dey all uster call me Alphabet ‘cause so many people had done named me different names.” Examine the use of names in the novel. What do the character’s names reveal about identity? How do names reflect a character’s culture, socioeconomic position, and/or personality? Pay particular attention to characters that are called more than one name throughout the novel.
Janie’s nickname for Joe is Jody and others call him Brother Mayor or Mister Starks. Tea Cake’s real name is Virgible Woods. These are the only ones I can think of, although there are likely secondary characters with nicknames.

3. The novel contains several scenes with men talking in an exaggerated and humorous way about women. Examine these scenes (pages 36; 67-69) and explain what they reveal about the cultural context of male and female roles.
In the first case, one of the men boasts about how great he is at romancing women. In the second case, the teenagers are basically playing at gender roles. As Hurston says, everyone knows it’s not courtship but acting out courtship: men are supposed to sweet talk women and fight over them. The women just sit back to see who wins, I guess.

4. On page 39, Coker observes, “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 keeping us down! Shucks! He don’t have tuh. Us keeps our own selves down.” Throughout the novel, how does envy impact Janie’s life?
Janie is oppressed by her husband’s expectations about how she should behave and those are based on what he believes others will say/think. Keeping her hair covered by a scarf is the clearest symbol of this. Joe seems to model Eatonville on a white surburb, and when Janie leaves for Jacksonville and the Everglades, she leaves this kind of oppression. Although even in the Everglades she meets people who judge others by their appearance – e.g., Mrs. Turner, who likes her because she is light-skinned and dislikes Tea Cake because he’s dark.

5. Hurston makes the following observation on page 51: “When the people sat around on the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for others to look at and see, it was nice. The fact that they thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen to.” As a folklorist and anthropologist, Hurston was interested in storytelling and oral tradition. Examine the role that storytelling plays in her novel.
Janie is the most prominent storyteller, narrating her own tale to her friend Pheoby. She seems to want to tell it, but she also seems aware that she HAS to tell it, that the townsfolk must hear it if they are ever to accept her back into the community.

6. The image of the road is a universal symbol in literature. Analyze and explain the significance of the road in Their Eyes Were Watching God.
I guess this refers to Janie’s journey. Each time she leaves somewhere, she becomes someone else’s wife – she leaves her grandmother’s home to marry Mr. Killicks; she leaves him to marry Joe and travel to Eatonville; and she leaves Eatonville to go with Tea Cake to Jacksonville and then to the Everglades. In every stage of this journey, she discovers something about herself, even if it is only what she DOESN’T want: a loveless marriage, a routinized existence, letting the standards of the community determine how you live your life. With Tea Cake, she discovers what she DOES want and who she is. As she tells Pheoby, she’s been to the horizon and back and now she can stay home.

7. Explore Hurston’s use of Biblical allusion in Their Eyes Were Watching God. How does an understanding of these allusions impact the reader’s understanding of the novel?
I honestly didn’t notice anything except the flood. Maybe the idea of Janie returning as a kind of prodigal daughter?

8. Analyze the structure of Their Eyes Were Watching God, paying particular attention to way Huston begins and ends each chapter.
Changes in time of day are often mentioned. The first chapter ends with a description of night falling (“Time makes everything old so the kissing, young darkness became a monstropolous old thing while Janie talked.”), and the second chapter begins with dawn (“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.”).

Sometimes the opening sentence of a chapter poses a question that is answered by the end. Ch. 3 opens with Janie wondering if marriage ends “the cosmic loneliness of the unmated?” And it ends with an answer to that question: “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” Chapter 12 ends with Janie telling her friend, “Some of dese morning’s, and it won’t be long, you gointuh wake up callin’ me and Ah’ll be gone.” And chapter 13 begins with that event: “Tea Cake’s letter tells her where they are going: Jacksonville.

It will take me some time to finish this book. Not because it isn't good, oh no. Due to the special kind of English. It's not translated into my language and normally I haven't got an issue with reading English but this book is difficult. I both listen to it and read the e-book simultaneously. It's only when I can both hear how she pronounces words and can see how they're are transcribed that I can understand them. This is a tedious work so therefore I read it in a very slow pace. But I do believe it's worth it, the first impression if it is that it's a great and poetic book for all women worldwide.

So please have patience with me, thank you! I wish it was translated.

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