Their Eyes Were Watching God-Journal 3

Arna Wendell Bontemps

Arna Wendell Bontemps attended UCLA and began his writing career there by writing poetry.  Poetry was not the only form of writing he did; he also wrote essays, short stories, children’s books, fiction, and nonfiction.  Bontemps was a teacher in New York City and some of his poetry was published in important black magazines.  Many of his works, especially those that were published, highlighted the struggles and hardships that blacks went through.

Dialect: An American who lives in Ireland and is trying to fake an Irish accent so they seem like they belong, but they aren’t very good at it.

Pronunciation

·         Change the “or” sound to “oor”

·         The “oo” sounds becomes “oh”

·         The “a” sounds becomes “aw”

Grammar

·         Adding the “u”

·         Changing the “z” to an “s”

·         Nouns indicating measure and time are not plural

Vocabulary

·         Lads

·         Grand=great, good

·         Em=um

John crossed the street and bumped into a dark skinned man who looked a bit lost. “Hey there, can I help you?” he asked.

Arna, lost in Dublin, was desperate so he said, “Well, yes.  I seem to be lost.”

“Well you lohk like a smart pairson.  What are yoh doing lost?  Is it yohr first time to this, em, grawnd city of Dublin?” John said with a sly grin.

Arna looked at him, a bit confused, then said, “Yes, how did you know?”

Laughing to himself, John answered, “Lad, when a mawn is standing on a street corner looking at uh map, it’s quite, em, obvious.”

“Oh yes, I guess that is obvious,” Arna said.

“Other than being lost, hawareya today?” John asked the man.

Arna’s eyes lit up and he said, “I’m excited because I’ve come here to be inspired.  You see, I’m a writer and lately I haven’t been able to come up with anything to write about in New York.  So now I’m here.”

“Yoh’ve picked a grawnd city to come to foor inspiration.  This city is quite beautuhful and the country is full of coloour, well mostly green.” John gushed.

Arna, not really interested in seeing the country said, “Oh well that’s good, although I’m more interested in the city.”

John’s eyes widened and he said, “No, the country is grawnd.  Yoh HAVE to go see it.  Yoh HAVE to.”

“I’m just planning to stay in the city.  You see, I don’t have a car with me so I’m just going to walk everywhere that I need to go and I can’t get to the country by walking,” Arna said, starting to be freaked out by John.

“I’ll take yoh Lad.  Get in my cah.  I realise I’m awt uh gas, but it’s onluh 15 mile from herah.  We cawn make it,” John said quickly, “Come on! Get in!”

Nervously Arna looked around and said, “Well, um, that’s alright.  I’ll just…take a cab.  Don’t worry about it really.  I’ll just meet you there.  See you in 20 minutes!”  As he watched John drive away he ran in the opposite direction.