MONDAY, October 17, 2011

1. MONDAY, October 17, 2011 • Essential Question for the Novel: What might shape a “worldview”? How does a worldview affect how we see ourselves and others ? • What forces contribute to the complexity of Janie’s individual and cultural identity? • How does Janie’s story challenge or defy stereotypes of her own time and of ours? • How does Hurston convey the effects of various internal and external forces on Janie’s identity formation? How do these effects change throughout the story? • Begin Reading Text Chapter One • Student Need to Complete Diction Worksheet and Quote understanding. Introduce: New Format for this book: Weekly Class reflection logs Journal for today is located on the next slide.

2. The Negro Speaks of Rivers • I've known rivers: • I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. • My soul has grown deep like the rivers. • I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. • I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. • I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. • I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln • went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy • bosom turn all golden in the sunset. • I've known rivers: • Ancient, dusky rivers. • My soul has grown deep like the rivers. To listen to Langston Hughes read his poem, click here. (1919) One of Hughes's poetic innovations was to draw on the rhythms of black musical traditions such as jazz and blues, but in 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' it's the heritage of Negro spirituals which is recalled by the poem's majestic imagery and sonorous repetitions. Written when Hughes was only seventeen as he traveled by train across the Mississippi, 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' is a beautiful statement of strength in the history of black people, which Hughes imagines stretching as far back as ancient Egypt and further into Africa and the cradle of civilization. The poem returns at the end to America in a moment of optimistic alchemy when he sees the "muddy bosom" of the Mississippi "turn all golden in the sunset". From PoetryArchive.org • What is the tone or mood of this poem? • Why do you think the poem was written and for what audience? • List two things in this poem that tell you about life in the United States at the time.

3. Questions: Ch. One • How does the Novel begin? • The novel begins with a statement about the differences between the dreams of men and women. Men's dreams are like distant ships. For some men, the ship comes in and the dream is realized very quickly. For other men, the ship sails for a long, long time on the horizon. By the time these dreams finally can be realized, so much time has passed that the dreams are worthless. Women don't wait and watch for their "ship to come in." Some women have dreams and some do not. And for women, the mere possession of the dream is what matters: "The dream is the truth. • Who enters at the beginning and what happens? • "Janie has been gone from Eatonville for a very long time, and it is dusk when she returns. As she walks through the center of town to her old home, all the people of the village stare at her and judge her. The townspeople are cruel and envious. They wonder why she is returning in improper overalls instead of a proper dress and where her husband is. • How do the town’s people react? • Janie walks straight through the town and does not let anyone bother her. Janie is a beautiful black woman; the men notice her tight bottom, her beautiful hair and her "pugnacious breasts." The women are envious of her; they hope she might fall to their level some day. The women are angry that she does not stop and explain herself. Only Pheoby Watson, Janie's old best friend, defends Janie's silence saying that maybe her story is not for their ears, or maybe she has nothing to tell. Pheoby leaves the women to take some supper to Janie.

4. Questions: Ch1 • What is the quote used to describe the women? • Pheobyfinds Janie sitting on the back porch of her home, soaking her tired feet. Janie and Pheoby hear laughter from the women across the street; they talk about the terrible jealousy and pettiness of the women. Pheoby remarks that "an envious heart makes a treacherous ear."Janie and Pheoby share some laughter and Pheoby says that Janie should hurry up and inform the community about her past to end all the negative gossip about her. But Janie remarks that she doesn't want to waste the time; besides Pheoby can inform them later. • How what is quote used to describe their friendship • Janie says, "Mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf."Janie begins her tale, which makes up the body of the novel. Janie tells Pheoby that she has nine hundred dollars in the bank. Tea Cake never touched her money, but he has recently died. She lived with him in the Everglades and now she's come back. • This chapter introduces a number of motifs that recur throughout the novel including the horizon, porches, and hair. In this chapter, ships on the horizon represent dreams that are unattainable. Porches are the usual place for community assembly, and are also the only place where people can truly feel human: all day the people feel like "mules and brutes have occupied their skins." But only on the porches, at the end of the day, do their skins feel "powerful and human." The porch is also the setting of Janie's revelations to Phoebe. Janie's hair is a powerful symbol of her individuality and sexuality. It is thick, and healthy: "the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume.

5. Tuesday, October 18th IN YOUR JOURNAL QUESTIONS FOR TODAY: JOURNAL TOPIC #2: This chapter introduces Janie Crawford and several important characteristics of Eatonville, the town that she lives in. The chapters following this one will take the reader back in time and show the character of Janie and how she was shaped by other places she lived. If you can see the town of Eatonville, as it is presented in the first chapter, as a character, write a journal entry about what this character, Eatonville, is like. What are its attitudes? What are its values? Are Janie and Eatonville compatible? Explain why you think they are or are not JOURNAL TOPIC # 3: In the first chapter, porches are presented as the place where people come to congregate, share stories, and express opinions. We learn in the first chapter that they are also the place where the people sitting on them can feel most natural and most human with each other. All day long they feel like “mules and brutes have occupied their skins,” leaving their skins feeling unnatural to them. At the end of the day when they sit on the porch, their skins feel “powerful and human.” The back porch of Janie’s house is where she tells her story to Pheoby. What do you think is empowering to the people of Eatonville about porches and porch talk? What can happen on a porch that can’t happen in other places? Where do you go to feel “powerful and human,” either with others or by yourself? ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: HOW IS DICTION INSTRUCMENTAL IN SETTING CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND SETTING THINGS TO DO: READ CHAPTER TWO COMPLETE JOURNAL QUESTIONS BEGIN WORKSHEET WITH ASSIGNED LITERATURE CIRCLES

6. Wednesday, October 19th IN YOUR JOURNAL QUESTIONS FOR TODAY: • WEDNESDAY: JOURNAL ENTRY: Chapter 2 • White people do not appear very frequently in Their Eyes Were Watching God. How is the white Washburn family portrayed in Chapter 2? What effect do they seem to have on young Janie Crawford? • What does the pear tree symbolize in this chapter? What qualities does it have that appeal to Janie? What does it awaken in her? • How does the story of Nanny’s life help you understand why she decided that Janie should marry Logan Killicks? • Janie didn’t know Johnny Taylor before she kissed him, but she shows by kissing him that she is somehow capable of creating a vision of happiness for herself. Do you see any characteristics in Janie in this scene that show how different she is from Nanny or other female characters you have met in the story so far? • CHAPTER THREE: UNDERSTANDING QUOTES & FINDING QUOTES: • EXPLAIN: "Ah wants things sweet widmah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think. Ah."
- Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ch. 3 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: HOW IS DICTION INSTRUCMENTAL IN SETTING CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND SETTING THINGS TO DO: READ CHAPTER TWO COMPLETE JOURNAL QUESTIONS BEGIN WORKSHEET WITH ASSIGNED LITERATURE CIRCLES