Tragic Flaws

Brutus: selfless, impulsive, extreme, nieve, guiltish, and trusting.
Caesar: ambitious, dramatic, reckless, power-hungry, and self-centered.

25 Random Facts About Me

1.      I live on a farm.

2.      I play the bagpipe.

3.      I did the pole vault for 7 months.

4.      I have 6 pets.

5.      I hate mayonnaise.

6.      Foghorn Leghorn is my favorite cartoon character.

7.      Russian is my favorite class.

8.      I’ve never left North America.

9.      The Hobbit is my favorite book.

10.  I like climbing anything.

11.  I’ve always wanted to go skydiving.

12.  I like springtime.

13.  Friday is my favorite day of the week.

14.  I like writing with pen more than pencil.

15.  My cousin and I gave the UVA lacrosse coach his boat back.

16.  I like corn.

17.  My dog can almost shake hands with a person.

18.  Green is my favorite color.

19.  I was at the rally to restore sanity.

20.  Soda is soda, not pop.

21.  I like the number 21.

22.  I think Maryland has the best state flag.

23.  I think Hawaii has the best license plate.

24.  I like playing Pac-Man.

25.  I hate canned peas.

Shakespeare's Tragic Hero

Both Julius Julius Caesar and Brutus are considered to be tragic heroes in Julius Caesar, however they are character foils and therefore have different character traits that make them heroes. 

Julius Caesar (ambitious)

·         He won great battles as a general in the army.

·         He was  a senator in Rome

·         He became a part of the Triumvirate with Pompey.

·         Defeated Pompey and drove his influence out of Rome.

·         Was considered a god by many Romans

·         Almost became Emperor of Rome. 

Brutus (selfless)

·         He does what he thinks is best for Rome, not himself.

·         He defends the Republic in times of need.

·         He is true, sincere, and has integrity; even in hard times.

·         He is kind and gentile to others, including his wife.

Shakespeare Trip

Our English class to a trip to the Floger's Shakespeare Theatre. There was a big room that looked like the inside of the globe theatre. I thought we were going to see a play, but then four people came out and started talking to us about why we should like Shakespeare. I thought it was just a little prelude to the play, but an hour later I finally realized that this was the show. It went on for another hour or so of us being told why Shakespeare was important, relivent, etc. I was dissapointed because I wanted to see a play, but that didn't happen. One of my main problems was that four people took two hours to impose a point of view on us. They said it was relative, but relativity is contingent on perspective. Not everyone sees things the same way. For example, snow is made of water vapor. There is water vapor in the air in this room. Does that mean that there is snow in the room? There are modern or timeless ideas in Shakespeare's plays, but does that mean the plays themselves are relatively modern or timeless. The opinion that Shakespeare's plays are relative to modern life is just that, an opinion. Trying to make it right or wrong simply doesn't work. Regardless, that was what we saw and it was a good trip.

Final Thoughts on Their Eyes Were Watching God

                The book Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, was a book that has a dynamic enough plot that many different people could enjoy it. People who like coming-of-age stories, adventures, love stories, or African American history would enjoy this book because it can fit into these genera. It has a good plot that carries through the book and can keep readers deeply enthralled.

            I enjoyed the book because of its constant changes in tone, mood, and setting. As Janie progress through her life, the story changes with her; especially when she goes to different places with different people. This could keep any reader on their toes as well as constantly wondering what might happen next. Watching Janie’s life unfold is also interesting read. Overall I think the book was pretty good.

Symbolism in Their Eyes Were Watching God

Pear tree- Janie’s blossoming womanhood and future in general.

Mule- The plight of the black woman during this era.

Gate and Road- Looking beyond to your dreams from behind a barrier.

Lamppost – The light of the first Black Town shining as a beacon of hope to the rest of America.

Janie’s Hair/ head rag- Joes want to own Janie like she is an object.

Checkers- Game for the socially superior, or so Joe thinks. Only the men can play.

Joe’s House- Joe’s desire for power, separation from the rest of the town.

Spittoon – Joe is above the towns people because he has a place to spit is tobacco.

Color Blue- Janie’s rebirth of happiness with Tea Cake.

Guitar- Tea Cakes playful love for Janie.

Overalls- Janie is done with being classed of, they symbolize her true self.

Hurricane- The awesome power of God and the inability to escape it.

Packet of seeds- Tea Cake’s dreams that he never accomplished.

Fishing- Janie and Tea Cake going through their lives together and doing everything together.

Imagery in Their Eyes Were Watching God

1.  “The great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume,” Description of Janie’s hair, which is a big symbol in the novel. Page 2

“She had come back from the sodden and the bloated; the sudden dead, their eyes flung wide open in judgment,” A graphic description that exhibits just how sudden the loss of Tea Cake really was. P.1.

2.    “time makes everything old so the kissing, young darkness became a montropolous old thing while Janie talked.” Time loomed on as Janie told her story to Phoeby. Page 7

“In her former blindness she had known him as shiftless Jonny Taylor… that was before the golden dust had beglamoured his rags and her eyes.”

Love is blind, and it really blinds Janie in this scene. P. 12

3.    “She had glossy leave and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her.” This compares Janie to the blooming pear tree and how it is blooming as she is growing up and becoming a woman. Page 11

“It was a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where no one had ever been. The house was absent of flavor too.” Logan’s house is a dull, dreary place that Janie doesn’t like. P.22

4.    “Mind- pictures brought feelings, and feelings dragged out dramas from the hollows of her heart.” Nanny is trying to raise Janie while remembering the past things from her life, and trying to do better this time. Page 16

“Logan held his wad of tobacco real still in his jaw like a thermometer of his feelings while he studied Janie’s face and waited for her to say something.” Conversations between Janie and Logan become tense, and long periods of silence pass. P.27

5.    “They sat on the boarding house porch and saw the sun plunge into the same crack in the earth from which the night emerged.” This is symbolizing the start of a new day, and Janie has a new start for happiness. Page 33

“Joe noted the scant dozen of shame-faced houses scattered in the sand and palmetto roots…”

The town where Janie goes is a glorified shanty town to say the least. It looks rough, but Joe intends to make the best out of it. P. 34

6.    “The fact that the thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen.” Listening to stories and talking makes life seem a lot better than it is to Janie; it idealizes things. Page 51

“So he picked out the eyes in the ceremonial way and the feast went on.”

The mule was taken out into the field and consumed by the impatient vultures who feasted upon his decaying flesh. P.62

7.    “The new moon had been up and down three times before she got worried in mind.” It had been a long time before Janie started to worry that she wasn’t falling in love with Logan as she hoped she would with time. Page 22

“The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul.” Joe’s constant snuffing of Janie has put her in a bedraggled, submissive state of misery. She doubts if she can ever break the system.

8.    “She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether.” Life is fast changing and constantly moving. Page 25

“Finish. End. Nevermore. Darkness. Deep hole. Dissolution. Eternity.” Joe was gone and dead as a door nail. Janie’s abusive husband was gone and she was again set free.

9.    “Joe’s funeral was the finest thing that Orange County had seen with negro eyes. The motor hearse, the Cadillac and Buick carriages; Dr. Henderson in his Lincoln; the hosts from far and wide.” Joe is going in like he came out; in such a grand way such as the town hasn’t ever seen before. P.88

“Most of the day she was at the store, but at night she was there in the big house and sometimes it creaked and cried all night under the weight of the lonesomeness.” Although she didn’t really like Joe she is now alone in a community that didn’t really know her without him and she is lonely. P.89

10.      “At five-thirty a tall man came into the place. Janie was leaning on the counter making aimless pencil marks on a piece of wrapping paper. She didn’t know his name, but he looked familiar.” A perfect scene to introduce Tea Cake. The slow mood follows his smooth personality.

“So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise. Soon its amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day.” Janie is really happy and content for the first time since Joe died. P.99

11.  “He frowned and struggled with the pegs of his imaginary instrument watching her out of the corner of his eye with that secret joke playing over his face.” Tea Cake is such a goofy, lighthearted character and no scene illustrates it like this one.

“But the fourth day after he came in the afternoon driving a battered up car. Jumped out like a deer and make the gesture of tying it to a post on the store porch.” Tea Cake’s light hearted humor is just the thing to cheer Janie up and drive off the loneliness that is inside her. P.108

12. “Done took the high heel slippers and a 10 dollar hat! Looking like some young girl always in blue because Tea Cake wanted her to wear it.” Janie is very happy with Tea Cake and wants to feel young and in love, so she doesn’t care what the townspeople say about her. P. 110

“That next morning Pheoby picked her way over to Janie’s house like a hen to a neighbor’s garden.” Phoeby wants to talk to Janie about Tea Cake, but she has to be real casual to keep Janie from being suspicious.

13. “The train beat on itself and danced on the shiny steel rails mile after mile.” A perfect image of Janie riding away from her past with Joe to her future with Tea Cake. P.116

“The room inside looked like the mouth of an alligator- gaped wide open to swallow something down.” Janie feels alone, and a bit scared in such a new, different place without Tea Cake there with her. P.118

14. “To Janie’s strange eyes everything in the Everglades big and new. Lake Okechobee, big beans, big cane, big weeds, big everything.” Janie has now entered a new stage of her life with Tea Cake that is unlike anything that she has ever known. P.129

“Day by day now, the hoards of workers poured in. Some came limping in with their shoes and their feet sore form walking.” The Everglades is drawing in thousand of people and its about to become the most hopping place in Florida. P.131

15. “Janie learned what it felt like to be jealous. A little chunky girl took to making a play out of Tea Cake in the fields and in the quarters.” Many people have been jealous of Janie, but it is a new feeling for her… and she doesn’t like it. P.136

“She cut him with a blow and they fought from one room to the other, Janie trying to beat him, and Tea Cake kept holding her wrists and wherever he could to keep her from going too far.” The issue with Nunkie causes one of the greatest fights in their marriage. P.137

16. “He claimed that she had been shaped by a cow kicking her from behind.” A great physical description of Mrs. Turner. She acts like a cow kicked her behind too. P.139

“Janie’s coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair made Mrs. Turner forgive her for wearing overalls like the other women who worked in the fields.” This is one of the first compact descriptions of Janie in the book. P.140

17. “No brutal beating at all. He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss.” Last time Janie’s husband beat her she never forgave him. Tea Cake better hope that he’s different. P.147

“It got so that the floor was knee-deep in something no matter where you put your foot down.” Mrs. Turner’s place was so trashed that they ran her clear out to Miami. P.152

18. “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” This hurricane was so powerful that it was only comparable to God Himself. P.160

“The dog stood up and growled like a lion, stiff-standing hackles, stiff muscles, teeth uncovered as he lashed up his fury for the charge.” That dog meant business and there is no doubt that he would have killed Janie if Tea Cake hadn’t saved her. P.166

19. “Some dead with fighting faces and eyes flung wide open in wonder. Death had found them watching, trying to see beyond seeing.” The fury of the hurricane had spared none in its path. The horrible, raw power of the storm was the last thing that they would see.

“She saw him coming from the outhouse with a queer loping gait, swinging his head from side to side with his jaws clenched in a funny way.” Tea Cake was gone, all that was left was a diseased animal in his body. He gave his life for Janie’s. P.183

20. “There was a finished silence after that so that for the first time she could hear the wind picking at the pine trees.” Janie’s story has been told, after looking so far back at her past she returns to the present. Time to carry on again. P. 192