Tuesday, April 22
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On Cornell Note paper create a small web using
the words horizons and dreams. Write the
connotations and denotation of those words.
Read the first two paragraphs of Chapter 1. What
are the distinctions made between men and women?
In the left column write the word Men; skip a few
spaces and then Women. Explain the distinctions
these two paragraphs make between men and
women in the lined section.
In the summary, write a reflection about the
imagery associated with these two ideas.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Theme: self discovery, expression, becoming and being
accepted for who you truly are
Narrative voice: Omnisicient – knows everything about
everyone. Speaks in formal English
Setting: 3 locations: West Florida, Eatonville, and the
Everglades (The Muck)
Symbols: Janie’s hair, The Pear Tree
Motifs: animals (mules, cows, chickens)
anything associated with The Pear Tree: blossoms, blooms,
springtime, trees, branches, roots, leaves, petals, bees, birds,
fruit…
Janie’s clothes, the horizon, gates
Vocabulary – Lit Terms
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Framed Narrative: a story within a story; this novel
begins at the end – in the present; Janie tells her
story to Pheoby in Chapter 2 and that is where the
framed narrative begins.
Characterization: indirect and direct; pay careful
attention to the dialogue to infer important
characteristics of the characters
Vocabulary Ch 1-4
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crumple: to wrinkle; to crush; to cause to collapse
resignation: patient acceptance
abrupt: sudden or unexpected
mien: way of acting and looking, especially as
expressive of attitude and personality
expound: to explain in careful often elaborate
detail
pugnacious: ready for a fight; bully
Friday, April 18
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Take out your study guide – review Chapter 1
questions – statements. ( Last page)
Chapter 1 Objectives
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Interpret the author’s imagery
Analyze an author’s characterization
Characters: Ch 1 – 2
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Janie Crawford – main character
Pheoby Watson – Janie’s best friend
Nanny – Janie’s grandmother
Johnny Taylor – first kiss
The Porch – gossip mongers
Tea Cake – Janie’s love
Logan Killicks – Janie’s first husband
Leafy – Janie’s mother
Mrs. Washborn – Nanny’s benefactor/employer
Chapter 1- Ships at a distance have
every man’s wish on board.
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Read the first two paragraphs of Chapter 1. What
distinctions do the they make between men and
women?
What questions do these paragraphs raise for you?
Males respond to 1st paragraph and females to the
2nd paragraph
Chapter 1-Porch Sitters
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As Hurston describes the woman, where she has been,
and the people who see her return, she uses evocative
imagery.
 List
several of the images and the senses they appeal to.
 How do these images impact the reader?
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How does the porch serve as a metaphor for judgment?
What do the porch sitters and Pheoby want to know?
What does Janie want to tell them about?
 Who
is her direct audience?
 Who is her indirect audience?
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What is a framed narrative?
Chapter 1 Summary
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Introduction: difference between men and women
“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board” (1).
Aphorism
“Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to
remember, and remember everything they don’t want to
forget” (1). Antimetabole
“The sun was gone, but he had left his footprints in the
sky”(1). personification
The Porch – metaphor for townspeople that gossip and sit
in judgment of Janie
Event: The Porch feels more powerful after
the sun goes down – They sit in judgment
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“These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless
conveniences all day long” (1). Sound device;
“they chewed up the back parts of their minds and swallowed
with relish” (2). metaphor
“killing tools out of laughs” (2). metaphor
“Words walking without masters” (2). Alliteration,
personification
“ears full of hope” (2). Personification
“the men were saving with the mind what they lost with the
eye” (2). Imagery
“it was a weapon against her strength” (2) metaphor
“She sits high, but she looks low” (3). Idiom
More from the porch:
“She left the porch pelting her back with unasked
questions. They hoped the answers were cruel and
strange” (4). Alliteration – personification
“An envious heart makes a treacherous ear” (5).
Aphorism.
Monstropolis (7) – Hurston’s made up word
Direct description of Janie
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“The porch couldn’t talk for
looking”(2).personification/metaphor
“firm buttocks like she had grapefruits in her hip
pockets” (2). simile
“great rope of black hair swinging to her waist”
“unraveling in the wind like a plume” (2). Simile
“pugnacious breasts” (2). Descriptive language
“faded shirt and muddy overalls” (2). imagery
Monday, April 21
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Complete four entries for dialectical journal for Ch 1.
Include:
direct and indirect descriptions of Janey;
ideas about the judgment by the porch;
the narrator’s ideas about the differences between
men and women;
Author’s style
If you have completed, move on to Ch 2
Chapter 2: Janie saw her life like a great
tree in leaf with the things suffered …
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Examine figurative language and motifs
Recognize the frame story as a
structural/organizational pattern
Distinguish among varying points of view within the
text
Academic Vocabulary
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Framed narrative: a story within a story
Motif: a recurrent theme, subject, character type, or
image that becomes a unifying element in a text
Aphorism: is a terse saying that embodies a
general, more or less profound truth or principle.
For example: “An envious heart makes a treacherous
ear” (5).
The Tree Metaphor
Explain the opening Chapter 2 “Janie saw her life like a
great tree in leaf with things suffered, things enjoyed, things
done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches”
(8). Simile, parallelism, anaphora, alliteration,
juxtaposition.
Why do you think Hurston chose to juxtapose opposing
images as she presents the central simile?
Janie’s Pear Tree
Chapter 2 Notes
“It was a spring afternoon in West Florida” (10). The framed
narrative begins here – you will notice the narrative from
Janie is not in first person. Also notice – it’s a spring day.
What does spring symbolize?
“She thought awhile and realized her conscious life began at
Nanny’s gate”(10). Another indication that this is the
beginning. Gate is a symbol of choice, change, freedom
Look carefully over pages 10-12. Highlight all the words
that relate to the pear tree and nature. Study these
paragraphs and in your journal write about their symbolic
significance. Janie is describing love; physical and
emotional intimacy shared in marriage.
Tuesday, April 22
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Bellringer
Announcements
Continue dialectical journal
with Chapter 2 notes (10
minutes)
Focus:
Tree imagery – regarding
Janie’s “awakening”
Nanny direct and indirect –
tree imagery there as well
“Family” tree imagery
regarding Nanny’s ideas
about “roots” and the plight
of blacks – animal motif
Books for sale: $7
Friday: formative
quiz over Ch 1-2;
Thursday: Ch 1-2
study group
before or after
school – extra
credit.
Chapter 2 Notes – Johnny Taylor’s kiss
The importance of Johnny Taylor’s kiss:
“Through the pollinated air she saw a glorious being coming
up the road. In her former blindness she had known him as
shiftless Johnny Taylor, tall and lean. That was before the
golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags and her
eyes” (11). Symbols - motif
“Ah don’t want no trashy nigger, no breath-and-britches, lak
Johnny Taylor usin’ yo body to wipe his foots on” (13).
Imagery.
“Ah wanted yuh to school out and pick from a higher bush and
a sweeter berry”(13). metaphor
Chapter 2 Nanny
Notice the description of Nanny on page 12 – “Nanny’s head
and face looked like the standing roots of some old tree”…Note
the significance of the symbolic imagery in this paragraph
Nanny: “Every tear yo drop squeezes a cup uh blood outa mah
heart”(15). Descriptive language
“us colored folks is branches without roots” (16). metaphors
“De nigger woman is de mule uh de world as fur as Ah can see”
(14). Symbols; Here are the first of many comparisons of
women to farm animals.
“ah didn’t want to be used for a work-ox and a brood-sow and Ah
didn’t want mah daughter used that way neither”(16).
Chapter 2: Nanny cont’d
“So Ah wrapped Leafy up in moss and fixed her good in a
tree” (18). Symbols - motif
“Ah don’t want yo feathers always crumpled by folks throwin’
up things in yo’ face. And I can’t die easy thinkin’ maybe
de menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit cup outa you:
Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie,
Ah’m a cracked plate”(20). metaphors
Wednesday, April 23
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You will need your Springboard book and pick up a
glossary from the table.
Complete reading of Ch 2
Read Langston Hughes’ poem, Mother to Son, on
page 314 in your Springboard book.
Identify the key metaphor and then
compare/contrast the voice of Nanny to the voice
of the narrator of Hughes poem
How would the poem change if it were written from
the son’s point of view? Rewrite a few lines
Chapter 3&4 Objectives
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Analyze characters, plot and irony
Identify the effect of diction on tone
Differentiate between different points of view
Recognize motifs and their purposes
Chapter 3: There are years that ask
questions and years that answer.
Quick Write: Write a speculative response on what
the upcoming year will hold for Janie. Will this
year be the year that asks questions or one that
answers them? Will this be the year that does
both?
Janie’s idea of love:
“She was back and forth to the pear tree continuously
wondering and thinking”(21).
“Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit
under a pear tree and think”(24). symbol
“She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first
dream was dead, so she became a woman”(25). reality
Logan Killicks
Start with his name – Killicks; what is he going to kill?
“He looks like some ole skullhead in de grave yard”(13).simile
“Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree”(14). metaphor
Logan does not have a sexy or even a pretty pear tree in his
yard. His home is a “lonesome place like a stump in the middle
of the woods” (21). simile
“Some folks never was meant to be loved and he’s one of
‘em”(24).
“…his head is so long one way and so flat on de sides and dat
pone uh fat back uh his neck”(24). imagery
“his belly too big, and his toe-nails look lak mule foots” (24).
Seasons, Roads and Gates
How long after Nanny died did Janie wait before she
began thinking of leaving Logan Killicks?
“Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an
orange time” (25). Symbols/ epistrophe, parellism
“But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted
down on the world she began to stand around the gate
and expect things” (25). Freedom, choice, change
“She hung over the gate and looked up the road towards
way off ” (25). - horizon
Questions for Chapter 3
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1. What ideas does Janie have about love?
2. What does Janie believe will happen after she
and Logan get married.
3. How does Janie describe Logan?
4. What is Nanny’s advice to Janie when she tells
her how she feels?
5. What do you think is meant by “Janie’s first was
dead, so she became a woman”? How does this
relate to the opening statements of Ch 1 that we
discussed.