DJ's 1-20 Their Eyes Were Watching God

Blake Fletcher

AP English

DJ 1-20

DJ’s 1-20

1.     pg. 1 “Now women forget all those things they don’t want to remember…”

The way that this paragraph is written makes it sound like it is the womens job to forget and remember what is important and not important. Would this apply to like if they where hit, is it their job to forget the abuse and move on with life? Or is it their job to remember recipies for diner. I just don’t understand the word choice in this section.

2.     pg. 1 “The people all saw her come because it was sundown. The sun was gone, but he had left his foot steps in the sky.”

This section shows that the power still may be with “the bossman” because clearly they can’t talk about things they want so this shows that maybe the class system is messed up and possibly racism is still in effect. Why should people have to wait until the sun goes down to be able to talk?

3.     pg 2 “It was weapon against her strength and if it turned out of no significance, still it was hope that she might fall to their level some day”

This quote shows that the speaker seems to think that she is above or better then these ladies who sit on their porches and talk gossip. She really hopes that she never falls to their level. She is above the porch talk. Her overalls show how she is different then them.

4.     pg. 6 “Ah don’t mean to bother wid tellin’ ‘em nothin’…”

This is another section that shows she is above the gossip talk that the other older ladies partake in. She tells her friend to say what she feels is necessary. Other than that she has no interest in being like them. She doesn’t see any benefit in talking about people behind other peoples back about them.

5.     pg. 7 “Time makes everything old so the kissing, young darkness became a monstropolous old thing while Janie talked.”

This quote shows the significance of time. The time they are taking to talk is long. As shown by the young darkness becoming a monstopolous old thing. This means a great amount of time has passed since the beginning of teling the story.

6.     pg 8 “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.”

The fact that Janie sees herself like a great tree is an interesting idea. Trees live long great lifes generally and depending on the tree blossom in the spring. This could be interesting because maybe the spring is like her getting married or growing up in general.

7.     pg 9 “’Aw, aw! Ah’m colored!”

This quote is interesting because it shows that it is still thought of badly to be colored. She spent some much time with white folk that she truly believed or wanted to be white. It must be hard to realize that you are black just by seeing yourself in a photograph.

8.     pg. 9 “Us lived dere havin’ fun till de chillun at school at school got to teasin’ me ‘bout livin’ in de white folks back-yard.”

This shows that racism is still a problem. The children pick on her for living around the white folks. Maybe because they are jealous. Janie really benefits from living there because she gets clothes a safe place to live, food, etc. It really wasn’t that bad of a thing to have people pay for everything for you and give you a place to live. But the children obviously had a problem with it.

9.     pg 10 “Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard”

The blossoming could be a symbol of Janie coming into her own as a woman. She is thinking about love and marriage and is starting to grow up at the same time as this tree is blossoming into a beautiful pear tree. This is a pretty strong image showing the curiosity and the wonder and the beauty that is developing as a young adult.

10. pg 11 “She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom;…”

This is a good passage that shows her wondering and discovering as a young adult. She is looking for answers and she sees them everywhere. She sees marriage at the end of the rest of that passage. This is a big deal especially because she is growing up and soon enough she will be married. Mostly I see that Janie is wondering about love. She sees all of these different parts of nature working together to create harmony. In order to grow each of these small pieces of the story whether it be the bee or the blossom she sees the role they play for each other and thinks “this is marriage”.

11. pg 11 “Oh to be a pear tree- any tree in bloom”

She sees the beauty in nature and the “marriage” the blossoms have with the honey bee and she is envious. She is a young lady and she is ready to face the struggle and the hardships of life and love and it just isn’t happening yet so she is envious.

12. pg 12 “That was before the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags and her eyes”

This shows that all this envy and excitement and discovery has clouded her judgment of this boy who before she thought was rather plain, now she sees him as exciting and tall and lean. She has kind of a set of beer goggles but it is more like wonder goggles.

13. pg 12 “Nanny’s head and face looked like the standing roots of some old tree that had been torn away by storm…”

Again trees come up. This time in a little darker of a situation. At the same time as Janie is blossoming like a pear tree in bloom her grandmother is looking more and more like an old weak tree that could be torn down at any minute. This could be a foreshadow to possibly her getting sick or dying.

14. pg 12 “Ah wants to see you married right away”

I didn’t see a lot of meaning in this quote I just think it is very odd that her grandmother is telling her to get married. She is single and doesn’t really have any experience with dating but her grandmother wants her to get married. Clearly there is more going on here.

15. pg 13 “He look like some ole skullhead in de grave yard.”

This shows that clearly Janie isn’t very excited with her grandmothers proposal. She sees all of the discovery, magic, romance, love, and excitement fall behind as her grandmother is telling her she has to marry this man. She is a young girl who wants love and is instead getting forced into a marriage.

16. pg 14 “The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree.”

This further supports my idea of Janie seeing all of her feelings and hopes just kind of torn away from her because she is being forced into this marriage. She clearly does not love this man and she sees her idea of marriage being thrown out the door.

17. pg 14 “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see”

This is Janie’s grandmothers reasoning for pushing her into marriage. She sees hardship and men who beat women and lack of money and racism. So she worries about her granddaughter because her daughter made many mistakes and she doesn’t want Janie to make the same mistakes. This makes sense although I do think she is going about it the wrong way.

18. pg 15 “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, its protection”

The fact that her grandmother admits that she really doesn’t care if it was this Logan Killicks or some other gentle men who will treat her right really shows that her main concern is strictly Janie’s well being. She knows that it may not be true love but at least she knows that Logan Killicks will provide for Janie.

19. pg 23 “cause you told me Ah was gointer love him, and, and Ah don’t”

Janie sees the feelings that she wants to have when she thinks about sitting under the tree. Then she has the feelings she doesn’t want to have and she is trying to find a way to love Logan. She doesn’t see her marriage like the “marriage” between the bee and the blossom. It bothers her.

20. pg 25 “So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time. But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gate and expect things.”

This section relates back to why she kissed Johnny Taylor. My 12^th DJ states that the pollen somehow changed her feelings about Johnny. Maybe she was confused or excited or something, but this isn’t happening for Logan. There is no change when the pollen falls. She does not feel any different about him no matter what and this bothers her. So she waits and waits, but the change never comes.