Saturday, February 12, 2011
Their Eyes Were Watching God-Journal 5
Zora Neale Hurston uses the motif of the porch to show the closeness between Janie's life and the life that Joe does not allow her to live; the life that she can't live is just outisde of the door. Hurston does this to show the change in Janie's character from when she arrives in the town to when Joe dies.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hey! So I definately agree with your thesis and I think that it is significant, how the life that Janie wants is just out of reach. However, I think that you can be a little more specific about the changes in Janie's character. What exactly are the changes and how does that tie into the life that she wants?
ReplyDelete(P.S. I think that "outside" is spelled wrong, but no biggie. :) )
That is such a good thesis! And it totally works in the end too! (Or the very beginning) She doesn't even care about the porch, so the motif continues. You said what stylistic choice she used, and why, but you should add what effect it produced.
ReplyDeleteSomething that I noticed that could relate to this is how the porch is compared to a stage. When the townspeople are joking around, the narrator talks about the audience laughing at the appropriate times and the people on the porch acting and putting on a show, so I think that this could relate to Joe making Janie act the way that he wants her to out in public. Also, could the motif of the porch extend throughout the novel, instead of just in those few chapters?
ReplyDeleteI like your thesis a lot! :)