Jim's+Eyes+Watching+God

Reflection:

When Ms. Ryce said that it would take us probably 3 chapters to get used to the dialect of the novel I was worried. I couldn't stand __The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn__, partly because of impatience and partly because of the difficulty in understanding the colloquial deep south language used. I didn't feel that AS much in the first chapters of this. Maybe because, through working through __A Clockwork Orange__, which also has an extremely strange vocabulary, I was better conditioned to read be able to digest and translate the language. Reading the first pages of this book makes me mad I have a stupid American accent (ideally it would be Irish). Aside from that, I'm excited for the rest of the book, although not entirely sure where the plot is leading, (the flashback threw me off a little) I can't tell whether it will continue a present to past pattern, or if that was just an exposition for the novel.


 * Connection:**
 * The View**



The women on Pheoby's porch are like The View anchors of the early 1900's south, and poor Phoeby, despite her best efforts, is the producer who can't get the show canceled. Phoeby drops subtle hints that their presence is not necessary all the time, and even occassionally has her husband shoe the women off of his porch, but they always come back. The ladies' purpose on the porch is simply to gossip about whatever is going on in the neighborhood on that particular day, and if they can make it "evil". The womens' aim on this day happened to be Janie, who for over a year has been ghost, and her infamous return from obscurity, like if MC Hammer became a household name again. All the women on the porch offer disparaging Views on the topic (pun intended), but none actually face the issue. It is sad to say that due to this, most of the women on Phoeby's porch, like those on the view, will grow old alone...


 * Reflection: Chapters 3 and 4**

Happily the implementation of the Southern drawl was even less of a hassle in these chapters than in the previous. Originally, the death of Nanna was sad, but upon further reflection I realized I didn't really like the character at all. Not saying that I am happy Janie's fictional grandma is dead, but she was entirely too abrasive for me, being such a laid back person and all. I felt like a lot of her wisdom was doing more bad than good anyways, I mean she told Janie to marry a man she had absolutely no interest in, and when Janie pleaded for advice on "how to love" basically told her that love was overrated, at least you have a farm. I want to see that on a Hallmark Card. Nanna was so fixed on Janie being taken care of physically that she completely lapsed on Janie being taken care of emotionally, which is equally if not more important. I was extremely happy to see that Janie was able to realize Nanna's advice was bad and went off with Joe Starks, regardless of how that situation ends it cannot be any worse than being with Mr. Killicks.


 * Connection:**
 * Wedding Crashers**



In the resolution of the movie Wedding Crashers, Claire (Rachel McAdams <3) is left with a choice to make. She has to choose between either Sack (Bradley Cooper) or John (Owen Wilson). Sack is the man, who despite not being a really good person, she has been with through years, is engaged to be married to, comes from an family, could support her financially, and all in all they would be a perfectly acceptable married couple. In juxtaposition with John, who barely knows Claire, has only spent 3 days with her, lied to her about nearly every facet of his life, but truly cares for Claire. Both have faults, between John's lies and Sack's cheating. It is a decision that will completely change Claire's life in one way or another. Claire chooses John. Similarly, Janie runs off with a man, Joe Starks, whom she has just met, and left her husband who, although may not be too great of a guy, supported her. Joe very well may have promised things he will not be able to fulfill, but Janie took a leap of faith, a decision that will forever affect her life.


 * Reflection Chapter 5**:

The dream relationship between Janie and Joe is less than what we expected, Awa. I'm sure everyone is pulling out their torches and pitchforks ready to hunt Joe for treating Janie bad, but I'll be the realist and say it was completely her decision. My connection, as seen above, makes even more sense now. There was no guarantee that Joe and Janie would live a completely happy life because she left Logan, just the prospect of it was enough to take a chance, a gamble. Happily ever after is not one of the unalienable rights we were given, we were simply given the choice to pursue it. Joe is not the husband Janie expected, but she made an //adult// decision and is now living with it. One thing I didn't understand about this chapter was the seemingly flawless transition of Joe to Jody. I was confused the first several times I read the name, thinking there was a character I completely blanked on remembering. Then it made somewhat sense, but the switch was so quick that I was completely caught off guard, didn't there need to be a conversation where Joe dropped the bomb that he had a girl's name?


 * Connection:**


 * Trophy Wifes**



I'm sort of cheating a little, seeing as I used this as an example in my critical analysis (which is good for Ms. Ryce but not the almighty AP Board). Janie's beauty is undeniably on display throughout this chapter, and the novel for that matter. The town takes notice. Joe, this powerful, influential, fluent, intelligent man has a complete babe as his wife. Remind us of anyone? Tiger Wood's European supermodel ex-wife Elin, or Donald Trumps wife who is half his age, or Anna Nicole Smith, who died not long after her 76 year old, billionaire husband. Men buy womens' affection all the time, and women let it happen, some even embrace it. A rich, powerful man can mean protection, or promotion, or can be a high maintenance woman's dream. The man's motive is usually obvious. The occurrence is timeless, undeniable, and perhaps scariest of all, understandable.


 * Chapter 6 Reflection:**

Getting a personal view of the town was absolutely fascinating. All of the characters seem to have a certain niche they fill, its extremely interesting. It seems like many of the templates used for these people are super generic (not bad generic), meaning that the characters almost seem universal. For instance,I could see my friends playing tricks on each other, or acting goofy over a girl, or trying to one up each other (Lige and Sam). This creates an aura of familiarity and emotional connection with the characters. Also, the fact that the chapter spent a lot of time away from the main characters was refreshing as well. So many times stories just follow a single person around the whole time, but in this chapter there was a clear view of what was occurring from several different perspectives.


 * Connection**
 * Scrubs (Their Story)**

This chapter reminded me of a specific episode of Scrubs called Their Story. For those of you who don't know the premise, first you should be ashamed, and second, between the dialogue of most episodes JD (Zach Braff) usually has long winded monologues which usually deal with life in general. This particular episode steps away from that idea and follows 3 supporting characters, Todd, Ted, and Jordan, allowing us to see their perspective. The episode is one of my favorites, even more so now that I was able to connect it to this novel (just ask me for my top 5 favorite episodes, I promise you they'll change your life). If you read my reflection (and shame on you if you didn't) my connection to the novel is obvious. This chapter gives the reader a glimpse into the lives of some of the supporting character rather than just Janie and Joe. You get to hear a little more about Lige and Sam, as well as Tony. Their functions, like everyone has a function in a town (or hospital) become much clearer after this chapter, similarly to those of Todd, Ted, and Jordan.


 * Reflection: 7-10**

She waits until he is on his death bed to finally confront him. That is like me waiting for the last chicken wing from a bucket of 40. What is the point? You're only going to get a taste of what you could have had... Janie thoroughly disappointed me to say the least. But enough complaining, we'll get to some of the positives. Possibly my favorite part of this reading was Janie's realization that she hated her Nanny, now we have something in common (not hating our respective grandmothers, simply hers, G-Monster gets mad love!). As cynical as that sounds I find it possibly even more important than Joe's death, granted his death led to this realization. To tell a naive 17 year old being told that love is overrated is stealing the youth directly from that person. Janie finally realized, that while 20 years has gone past, she isn't necessarily old yet, and she can start anew. The literary elements in this section are astounding, especially the metaphors. "Some people could look at a mud puddle and see an ocean with ships", "cloak of pity", and the extended metaphor about the "horizon" (pg. 89). The literary elements of this section hopefully will lead Janie into a new way of thinking, and maybe she'll find some of that long lost youth.

[|Forever Young - Jay Z]
 * Connection:**



Normally not a big fan of Jay Z, but I made an exception for this song. The song I believe matches how Janie is feeling now that Joe is out of the portrait. She feels rejuvenated. She realizes that although she is no longer a child, she is still young. This can be seen by how Janie "starched and ironed her face" right after Joe's passing, something she hasn't done in years. More important yet, Janie " burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging below her waist." (pg. 89) The symbol of suppression throughout the novel thus far, the head rags, are simply memories now. Her hair, and more importantly Janie is now free. She is clearly happy, and believes she still has a full life ahead of her, similar to how Jay Z feels when he says "Just some picture perfect day to last a whole life time, and it never ends 'cause all we have to do is hit rewind". Also, Janie's re-established spirit is evident in her //carpe diem// style approach to life. She isn't in a hurry to even think of remarrying, she is just happy to sit on her porch and have to answer to no one. This idea is best expressed through Jay Z's lyric "Life is for living, not living uptight, see you somewhere up in the sky". I'm hoping this new way of thinking sticks around.


 * Reflection 10-14:**

In these chapters Janie seems to have finally found the love she has been searching for. She is at last a free spirit, and one half of a whole with Tea Cake. However, in these chapters what stood out to me most was not Janie's relationship with Tea Cake, but more of her relationship without him. Tea Cake's random, irrational, and somewhat selfish extended absences were hard to miss in these chapters. Janie's immediate reaction to these absences are often as irrational as the absences themselves though. She reacts with paranoia, spite, jealousy, depression, and hopelessness all within several pagers of the novel. And I'm sure Tea Cake knows that this gallivanting on crazy ventures causes inordinate amounts of stress on Janie, so for me questions arise. Is he simply testing Janie's love, is he trying to strengthen it, or is he simply a reckless spirit. The third choice definitely has some validity, as displayed in his gambling, and his careless use of Janie's money. If this activity continues, it will be interesting to see how Janie reacts when the outcomes are not as swell as these have been.

Connection: Chappelle Show: World Series of Dice

Tea Cakes dice game immediately reminded me of the World Series of Dice skit from __The Chappelle Show__, except possibly not as profane (sorry Ms. Ryce), but hilarious and relevant nonetheless. I see Tea Cakes as Leonard Washington (Dave Chappelle), cocky, intelligent, stoic, witty and lucky. I also draw the connection because both characters get hurt due to the game, the only difference is that Leonard is robbed while Tea Cakes retains his 320$. Also, I don't imagine Tea Cake's game occurred in a glamorous hotel or casino, but probably some back alley like the Marcy Projects. Inevitably, I'm sure the trash talk and witty banter that occurred in the Dave Chappelle skit also occurred in some shape or form in Tea Cake's game. This is bound to happen with competitors, especially when money is involved (just ask my brother or I). Finally, I would like to point out that if Tea Cakes were not a fictional character, with his luck I would have liked to have him help me pick my March Madness bracket.


 * Reflection: 15-16**

Janie's jealousy in chapter 15 is beautiful. Her fear of being hurt is so pure and fertile. I love her competitor's name. Nunkie. However as much as I enjoy Janie's jealousy, I was also happy when the two made up. Such a large discrepancy from when Janie was with Joe and the two would just not talk for weeks at a time. Tea Cake made sure it never reached that point. It kind of reminds me of one of the early episodes of Full House when Danny told his daughters to "never leave a room mad". This is precisely what Tea Cake did, he ensured that he retained Janie's attention and got his point across.

Racism! Mrs. Turner's character in this chapter was completely encapsulating. I kind of found her funny. I think what made it so intriguing was the third person omniscient point of view. The reader got to see both Janie's and Mrs. Turner's thoughts almost simultaneously. My favorite part of this reading was definitely page 145 talking about worshiping. The first part about this that I found so interesting was the fact that Janie admits quickly to be somewhat racist. She then distances herself however, by using Mrs. Turner's beliefs of "Caucasian characteristics for all." in her extended metaphor of gods and idols. I love the metaphor!


 * Connection: Community**
 * Aerodynamics of Gender**

[|community.wmv]

I already hollered to Full House, but this connection was too good to pass up. Sadly this is only part of the clip I wanted to put in (if it even works), but the page just HAS to have a file size limit. Anyways, Mrs. Turner immediately reminded me of Joshua, I jumped on the bus going to our canceled tennis match when it hit me! Mrs. Turner, like Joshua, appears to be really sweet, kind, and helpful, but then you find out both have selfish ulterior motives. Joshua just wanted to keep the secret trampoline a secret, so he was nice to Troy, while Mrs. Turner "paid homage to Janie's Caucasian characteristics.." (pg. 145). The subtly of each character's racism becomes much more obvious once the status quo changes however. I am completely thrilled I was able to connect to Community, my day is made!


 * Reflection: 18**

Tea Cake and Janie live to love another day! I'm so happy (somewhat sarcastic). I feel the novel is just dragging out a little, I realize this was supposed to be the climax of the novel, the chase scene, but I couldn't get into it. Now the only question I have is how is Tea Cake going to go. We all know somehow he does thanks to the first chapter (epic spoiler). Janie will eventually arrive back in Eatonville and be gossiped about by the ladies on __The View__, why do I have to wait 2 more chapters to see this. It seems like Hurston showed too many of her cards, now I know her whole hand. The part of the chapter I enjoyed was the personification of the water, and the implication of the novel's title (even if I haven't the slightest idea what it has to do with it). I'm looking forward to reading the next to chapters to hopefully find out something that I don't already know, but I'm not holding my breath!


 * Connection:**
 * Rocket Power**
 * Hurricane Maurice**



I can't believe I get to make a Nickelodeon reference and I'm an adult and its not Spongebob! So the premise of this episode of Rocket Power is very reminiscent to Chapter 18 of the novel. A hurricane is coming! In both the book and the television series the characters are warned of an eminent hurricane through several different acts of foreshadowing (animals, Indians, Lias). All signs pointed to getting out of the area. However, the troops stick around, until it gets too bad, the levees of the lake break, and here comes the water. Then they have to race the wall of water coming at them, which sort of reminds me of Mario levels in which you have to race the screen (if the edge of the screen catches you you're a gonner).This brings me back to Rocket Power, in which Twister and Auto decide to brave the seemingly dying storm (eye of the storm) to go wind boarding. In the novel, and the show, the characters are inevitably caught by the storm (poor Mario) and it is only by sheer will, luck, and Hollywood magic that they survive.




 * Reflection: 19**

Tea Cake went crazy. I suppose that is an acceptable climax. The bite he received while saving Janie was the final nail in his coffin. The best part about it is that his love for Janie actually killed him (ironic?). That is some extremely dark stuff, which I find pretty sweet. I also found the juxtaposition of the black folks' vs. the white folks' reactions amusing. The white people's idea was "As long as he was black I don't care how many men she killed." All of this when they"re supposedly giving her sympathy, but in reality they're just happy she did what they wanted her to do. On the other hand these people who have gotten to know her for years now were already tying her noose. It feels like this situation is Hurston screaming about ulterior motives, as well as doing things for the wrong reason altogether.


 * Connection: 40 Dogs by Bob Schneider**


 * http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/search?q=40%20dogs**

Well if I spell it out, if I get it out, Will you hear me when I tell you about What I have to say, before it gets too late? It's not as easy as I said it'd be, But there's something right about you and me , Something right about you and me.

Well you're the color of a burning brook, You're the color of a sideways look from an undercover cop in a comic book You're the color of a storm in June , You're the color of the moon. You're the color of the night, that's right, Color of a fight - you move me. You're the colored part of the Wizard of Oz movie

We're like Romeo and Juliet , We're like 40 dogs, cigarettes, We're like good times that haven't happened yet but will. And I can tell you where we're gonna be When the whole world falls to the sea: We'll be livin' ever after, happily.

All the boys taking you for granted , Tell you what they want with their eyes all slanted. I don't like the way they look at you , I don't like the way they talk to , I don't like the way they talk to you. I wouldn't let 'em talk to you like that.

Put 'em up high, reach for the ceiling. Tell them that I'ma walk, damn it, I'm real, __//**And it ain't no crime, it's just dreams we're stealing**//__ - Anything to get more of this feeling

You take the high and I'll take the low, We'll get there before you know. We ain't got no time to waste, We got too much life to taste.

We're like Romeo and Juliet , We're like 40 dogs, cigarettes, We're like good times that haven't happened yet but will. And I can tell you where we're gonna be When the whole world falls to the sea: We'll be livin' ever after, happily.

Sometimes you remind me of a moonbeam, On the ghost of a moonbeam out on the beach, Down by the coast, slip into Manila, Like the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

Come out tonight, come out with me, baby. We'll throw the careful into the crazy , Turn the sky black into a sky blue, Turn the close shave into a hoo-hoo. What I say is true, make a fire, gotta burn a few, Make a fire, gotta burn a few, We can do what we want to do.

We're like Romeo and Juliet , We're like 40 dogs, cigarettes, We're like good times that haven't happened yet but will. And I can tell you where we're gonna be When the whole world falls to the sea: We'll be livin' ever after, happily.

This song doesn't apply to the chapter so much as it does the entirety of Janie and Tea Cake's relationship, and its one of my favorite songs ever. It also has the added bonus of using the metaphor of a dog, which relates to Tea Cake, being that he was attacked by one. I highlighted a couple of phrases that I believe either pertain to the story, or just the theme of the novel in general. First is the simple "Theres something right about you and me", which definitely can describe the relationship of Tea Cake and Janie. The color of the storm line could be considered a reference to Janie and Tea Cake's storm. Romeo and Juliet are "two star-crossed lovers", much like Janie and Tea Cake. Everybody strives to live happily ever after. Jealousy, as well as a little possession, can be seen in the next verse, which was seen from both Tea Cake and Janie in several parts of the novel. "It aint' no crime its just dreams we're stealing" is one of my favorite lines in any song. Ever. Tea Cake was Janie's dream, she finally pushed aside all the advice of her Nanny and others and just went for it. The final line highlighted is just to show the end of the relationship of Janie and Tea Cake, which went fast from careful, to the end, which was definitely crazy, due to Tea Cake's illness.