Journal #9

In the final chapters of Eyes Hurston uses the atmosphere of Palm Beach and Tea Cakes sickness to develop the theme that life sucks, get used to it.

The atmosphere of the decimated city of Palm Beach is one of death and racism. This is most prevalent when Tea Cake goes downtown and is told how the dead will be sorted, "They makin' coffins fuh all de white folks...Don't dump no white folks in de hole" (171). This idea that even a dead man is more important than a black man is sick and disturbing. Hurston uses these events to snap the reader out of the heroic mood of the previous chapter and change the mood of the book to one of despair and sadness. Where as the aftermath in Palm Beach is a detached and generic event that the reader is not meant to have a strong connection to, Tea Cakes fate at the hands of rabies is much more personal. The slow disintegration of Tea Cakes mind and body is ment to drain the reader of any hope that the end of Eyes will be positive. Hurston pulls the reader even farther down when Jaine is forced to kill Tea Cake to defend herself, and leaves the reader questioning how Jaine will be able recover from such a traumatic experience. But in the final chapter Janie shows that she is not the weak girl who was lead away from her desires by her grandmother or her past husbands, she is now strong enough to stand on her own against any obstacle. Hurson ends the book this way to give a sharp edge of realism to the sword that is her book.


P.S. to Ms. Wecker and anyone who reads this-probably no one-I have a question and it goes thus...would any male character in the book even including Tea Cake care about Jaine if she wasn't so beautiful. I feel that the answer is a resounding NO, and that makes Tea Cake especially seem like just as much of a shallow prick as the rest of the men. I really want to hear peoples opinion on this because I find it to be quite a big hole in the entire plot.

Oh and to Ms. Wecker personally I would really like some feed back either over the blog or in class. If i don't get any then i will assume that you didn't read my blog and i will wear a sad face for the next to classes two show my disappointment.

oh yeah and here is my plot diagram

Jim is a single parent living in a large city during the third world war. His city is bombed and he barley makes it to his shelter in time. When he emerges he surveys the devastation, he also realizes that his 12 year old daughter, Julia would have been on her bus ride home about the time the bombs started to hit. Fearing the worst Jim starts to run toward the school, before he is halfway there he finds what remains of his daughters bus. He cries and screams for a while but eventually starts to make his way home to examine his house and to see if other need help.

Journal #8

Hurston uses the setting of the hurricane to develop the theme that when love overcomes challenges, it grows stronger. During the course of the book up to this point Jaine has been in search of true love, the reader is given hints that she has found it in Tea Cake but the events during the hurricane prove it beyond doubt. It is unclear if Jaine has been aware of how much she loves and trusts Tea Cake but her words to him during the storm are clear, "We been tuhgether round two years. If your can see the light at daybreak you can die at dusk. It's so many people never seen de light at all"(159). Janie tells Tea Cake that there is no place she would rather be than by his side even if that means she might die in a hurricane. This kind of pure unconditional love in the face of death itself reveals the true strength of Tea Cake and Janie's relationship. Tea Cake keeps trying to apologize for not seeing the storm but Janie refuses to blame him for what he did not know. Tea Cake even shows surprise at the deepness of Janie's love for him and this fact seems to push him harder to get out of the storm. With these words to each other their love becomes stronger that ever before and helps them escape the hurricane.

Journal #7

Janie gathered herself "Nanny, I ben thinkin bout my future and what want and it ain't Logan". Nanny face seemed to tighten, but she said nothing so Janie continued, "I know you want me to be safe because of what happened to mama, but I ain't her Nanny. Im old enough to be sterin my own ship. Deres a whole world out there I wanna see before settle down and when I do decide to marry, it gonna be with someone I love". Janie looked at the damage she had done but was confused my the neutral look that blanketed Nanny's face. Finally nanny spoke, "Well it look to me like you got your mind made up then, can't say I'm happy bout the whole thing but der seems to be no way to convince you otherwise". Janie tried to hide her surprise at Nanny's words, "Now i don't mean to leave you just yet Nanny". "Oh i think you do mean leave, there ain't no reason for you to stay here, if you mean what you just said I don't mean to hold you back, you get your things together and be ready to leave by tomorrow monrnin. Ain't know way im keeping you her cooped up takin care of me". So despite her protests Janie packed all her clothes into a suitcase and set it by her bed. She slept soundly knowing that she had escaped a dull fate. The next morning rose and the world seemed new and fresh as the sun peeked its head over the hills to see what had happened during the night. Janie got herself dressed and decided that she would make breakfast for Nanny. She put the meal on a tray and slowly opened the door to Nanny's room. She looked at the old woman, her head peaking out from under the covers was calm and peaceful. Janie went over grap Nanny's hand, she jumped back at the coldness of the touch. She felt Nanny's chest and realized that the poor woman had died in her sleep.

Journal #5

Hurston uses her awareness and manipulation of language to show what has become of Joe. "Joe wasn't so young as he used to be. There was already something dead about him. He didn't rear back on his knees any longer. He squatted over his ankles when he walked. That stillness at the back of his neck."(77). Hurston uses word choice to clearly display the sick state that Joe is in. The use of the word "dead" has an absoluteness to it and almost confirms his fate. Also the shortened sentences covey that these are symptoms being red off a list and give the piece a very grim mood. Hurston's tone only pushes the morose feeling of the entire piece further along. She doesn't list these as symptoms of a man who is getting old, but a man who is dying.

Journal #4

With that William wondered about fear. Fear, the small scrawny man who lives just under the ground. He lives quietly, just under the toes of men. He fears no one, for none can see him when he hides himself with a cloak of dirt and grass. He looks though the cracks in the earth and waits for the moment to grab the legs of brave men and keep them from moving. He is still with a mythotical patience, waiting for a man to move forward. He has lodged there many a year pressing pressing his ear to the surface and his eye to the openings to pear at us. William was bound to see one of his holes on a the hill top where they all stood. The poor bastards! they should have hope by their side rather than emptiness. He sent his second in command up and down the ranks but they refused to get up. His priests knew how to cure most fears but they appeared useless to stop coldness that engulfed his men. They would be when they were forced to fight, when they had to choose between bravery or death. They would not cringe at the sight of the enemy. That was what he told himself. But his secound in command said different, so he was ready with a white flag at the ready. And if he hadn't know then he would know by noon the next day, for when the that dark slinking line of men found them on the hill and roped around through the forest like a noose around a condemned man. The army of the country that had once feared them now stood on the opposite side of the fence post. Vengeance, the vulture that circles over the victorious, waiting to strike.

Journal #3

"They sat on the boarding house porch and saw the sun plunge into the same crack in the earth from which the night emerged." (33) -Imagery

"He kin be de king uh Jerusalem fuh all Ah keer." (39) -Allusion

"She knew that the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether" (25) -Metaphor

The townspeople praise Joe Sparks as a savior but when soon learn that he is no saint, "The rest of the town looked like servants' quarters surrounding the "big house"" (47). Hurston uses irony in making Joe Starks as a revolutionary bringing the townspeople out of oppression but he slowly takes up the position of the master. The use of irony shows that no one is a saint, it shows that every one has an agenda and for Joe he is after power. He comes in the town preaching to the townspeople to rise up from their past of servitude but only as long as they listen to him. Hurston is also sending a message to his readers to not trust someone just because they appear to be a saint, she advises us to look at their motives.

Janie decides to run off with the charming Joe Sparks, her descriptions of him are more true than she knows "Janie took a lot of looks at him and she was proud of what she saw. Kind of portly like rich white folks." (34) Hurston uses Janie's observations as foreshadowing to what lies beneath Joe Sparks charm is man hungry for power. Later in the book Joe sheds his angelic mask to show that he didn't arrive in Eatonville to restore the town but instead to take it over. It is almost impossible to see and it lets us sympathize with Janie and the townspeople for not seeing it at first.

Journal #2

O lawd, we omen of the world pray yuh shelter us from harm. We who have suffered so much, lawd give us de strength to take our lives in our own hands and steer it were we wish. For too long has it been lawd, too long has our sufferin dragged on, too long have we been powerless. Lift this burdun of oppression as you lifted the shackles of the white man. Why is it lawd, that while the black man is free, the black woman is still trapped by de rules of a master, a master that we are encouraged to find less we be left helpless. So here us now lawd, we wish to be free and equal amung de men, let us walk at our own pace and not one that someone else dictates, let us choose which road we travel on.

Journal # 1

My image of Janie is one of a woman who has started to lose hope. She is by no means weak or compromising in her actions but there seems to be something broken in her. She still displays that she is strong by shrugging off insults and accusations that the people sitting on the porch throw at her "her speech was pleasant enough, but she kept walking straight on to her gate."(2) Even when she ignores those who accuse her she shows that she has lost the desire to care, so where some might see strength I see regression. The narrator it quite withdrawn from the sufferings of Jaine. he does not seem to take personal interest in her suffering but rather comments on it as if it were a stranger he is quietly observing. He shows this by not using much emotion in his speech and really uses most of his descriptive dialog to describe the stabbing questions of the people on the porch which is to draw attention to it as an important part of the book. I couldn't help enjoying the narrators parts as they lack the heavy dialect of the characters speech that feels like wading though a deep patch of mud. This contrast is used distance the narrator further from the characters.