Taking a Chance in Hurston’s Novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God and Seraph on the Suwanee
“‘All right then, you name somethin’ and we’ll do it. We kin give it uh poor man’s trial anyhow.’”
“‘Anyhow Ah done got rested up and de bed bugs is done got too bold round heah. Ah didn’t notice when mah rest wuz broke. Ah’m goin’ out and look around and see whut we kin do. Ah’ll give anything uh common trial.’”
pp. 168-69; Their Eyes Were Watching God
“Arvay woke up next morning with hope and determination. Nothing beats trial but a failure, Arvay decided. She might not win Jim back, but she meant to give it a poor man’s trial. That is the best that she could do. If she failed, it was not going to be because she never tried.”
p. 316; Seraph on the Suwanee
The first passage shows no sign of weakness or unsureness; there are only bold declarations of fact. Janie tells Tea Cake to “name somethin’” and they would be capable of doing it (168). Tea Cake shares the same attitude with Janie, telling her that he is rested and that he is “goin’ out” too “look around” for something for them to do (168-9). The indecision lies not with the two of them but instead with the outside world. The use of active, present-tense verbs makes the passage vibrant and lifelike. It is clear to the reader from this passage that the couple is happy and confident in themselves; they will give most anything “a poor man’s trial” (168). They are not worried about their future, and the impression is that they “kin do” practically anything and still be happy (169).
In the second passage, there is sureness tainted with uncertainty. Arvay has “hope and determination” to accomplish her goal, but she is unsure about its outcome (316). She thinks that “she might not” regain her status with her husband (316). She is not positive that Jim will take her back. Because she is willing “to give it a poor man’s trial,” the extent of her resolve is shown (316). However, her lack of confidence shows in the next sentence, where she admits that there is a possibility for failure. Arvay has resolved not to lose Jim “because she never tried” (316). While the sentences are active in this passage, the past tense lends them an air of resignedness and doubt.
Hurston, Zora N. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1937. Print.
Woman’s Search for Identity in Hurston’s Seraph on the Suwanee and Their Eyes Were Watching God.
A narcissist is one who believes “he or she is ‘special’ and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special” people. They exploit others for their own advantage, lack empathy, and are “preoccupied with fantasies” or ideals that can be unrealistic. They believe they are the “primary importance in everybody’s life”. (“Narcissistic Personality”) Henry James’ theme in his short story, “The Beast in the Jungle”, is about a man, who is so egotistical and self-absorbed that he misses what life has to offer him, in particular, love, because of the narcissistic behavior he is doomed to live a life of loneliness and misery. John Marcher, the protagonist of “The Beast in the Jungle”, is about a narcissistic upper-class man who believes his life is to be defined by some unforetold event. He focuses only on himself and as a result, he neglects everything and everyone in his life. Marcher meets May Bartram, a woman who knows his secret, and instead of pursuing a romantic relationship with her, or even a genuine friendship, he uses her for his own benefit. Henry James utilizes a variety of literary devices to convey this theme in his story, such as the title, symbolism, dialogue, and the use of a limited third-person narrative. Henry James leaves us our first clue to the theme in the title, “The Beast in the Jungle”. When one thinks of a beast, they typically imagine something big and ferocious; Marcher’s ego was just that.
"Sex without Love" is a poem by Sharon Old, who states in the opening line "How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?" It starts out with judging those, who have sex outside of having feeling for one another. It describes the sex in the third line as without feeling more as a techniques, which is describe "beautiful as dancers.. over each other like ice skaters." Sex without love to the author is described more as an act, which is performed instead of two people in love, who sex is in love not because of the act but instead of the love of the person. The author seems to climax in the literal sense at line nine : come to the Come to the … then God comes in picture after the act is done. Judgment and sin is the mood of this poem of how two people can commit an act of a heart and soul without disappointed God.
Sex is more than just a physical act. It's a beautiful way to express love. When people have sex just to fulfill a physical need, as the poet believes sex outside of love-based relationship only harms and cheapens sex. In the beginning of the poem, Olds brilliantly describe the beauty of sex, and then in the second half of the poem, she continues reference to the cold and aloneness which clearly shows her opinions about causal sex. Through this poem, Sharon Olds, has expressed her complete disrespect for those who would participate in casual sex.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel illustrating the life of an African American woman that finds her voice through many trials and tribulations. At the heart of the story, Hurston portrays a protagonist who moves from a passive state to independence, from passive woman with no voice who is dominated by her husband to a woman who can think and act for herself. Hurston achieves the greater theme of Their Eyes Were Watching God, of self-expression and independence through her use of three basic southern literary elements: narrative structure, ¬¬¬¬¬allegory, and symbolism. A brief inspection of these three basic elements will reveal how Their Eyes Were Watching God achieves its inspiring effect.
Mrs. Mallard?s freedom did not last but a few moments. Her reaction to the news of the death of her husband was not the way most people would have reacted. We do not know much about Mr. And Mrs. Mallards relationship. We gather from the text that her freedom must have been limited in some way for her to be feeling this way. Years ago women were expected to act a certain way and not to deviate from that. Mrs. Mallard could have been very young when she and Brently were married. She may not have had the opportunity to see the world through a liberated woman?s eyes and she thought now was her chance.
Eichmann was a simple man that thought of himself as always being the law-abiding citizen. Eichmann stated in court that he had always tried to abide by Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative (Arendt,135). Arendt argues that Eichmann had essentially taken the wrong lesson from Kant. Kant’s moral philosophy is so closely bound up with man’s faculty of judgment, which rules out blind obedience. Knowing this, we learn that Eichmann could not have just been going along with the Nazis without knowing anything that was going on or the consequences. Eichmann had not recognized the ‘golden rule’ and principle of reciprocity implicit in the categorical imperative, but had only understood the concept of one man's actions coinciding with general law. Eichmann attempted to follow the spirit of the laws he carried out, as if the legislator himself would approve. In Kant's formulation of the categorical imperative, the legislator is the moral self and all men are legislators. In other words, we are all taking on the roll of the leader. In Eichmann's formulation, the legislator was Hitler. Eichmann claimed this changed when he was charged with carrying out the Final Solution, at which point Arendt claims "he had ceased to live according to Kantian principles, that he had known it, and that he had consoled himself with the thoughts that he no longer 'was master of ...
The author presents a scenario towards the end of the book where Grange reminisces on a bygone time in which he failed to protect his wife from being dishonored by the man whose land he sharecrops on, ??Grange, save me! Grange, help me!? He had plugged his ears with whiskey, telling himself as he was not to blame for his wife?s unforgivable sin?he had blames Margaret he blamed Shipley, all the Shipleys in the world?
“One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On guard Rainsford.”
Love can sometimes be seen as a counterintuitive and unconventional sense of life. The irony in it all is love could either be as warm as the Sunday morning sun or as cold as a New England winter when touched by the heart or the skin. As we grow up, if we believe we are cherished by the most respectful and admirable person, we give up the most vulnerable parts of ourselves: the body. However, throughout modern society, people tend to use sexual intercourse as a form of personal pleasure and gain without the obligations of emotions. Henceforth, stated in Sharon Olds’ “Sex Without Love”, premarital sex may be against God’s intentions to be pure but at the same time people love the priest more the teachings and are willing to go against the Lord
I found both books, Seraph on the Suwannee and Their Eyes Were Watching God to be very well written, yet I found it very ironic and almost funny to compare the two. Although it may not have been intentional, Hurston uses, what can be called, race reversals to describe Janie and Arvay. Janie is a not-so-typical black woman who is confident and while she is somewhat submissive to her husbands, she has more integrity than her white counterpart, Arvay.
Appiah and Gates, 204-17. Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1990. Wright, Richard.
Tooby first developed the framework for his model when he was an undergraduate at Harvard. He found a steadfast companion in Leda Cosmides, and they married and undertook a 29-year collaboration. After obtaining a PhD in biological anthropology and an A.B. in experimental psychology, he helped form the Special Project on Evolutionary Psychology at Stanford. After an indeterminate amount of time, the intrepid anthropologist and his wife moved and became professors of anthropology at the University of California. Their brainchild, the volume The Adapted Mind: evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, was published in 1992. This text still serve as a staple in any cultural or biological anthropologist’s repertoire today, and the insights, suggestions, explanations, and research presented therein expose the work as a labor of love that further bolstered the public's understanding of his field (Tooby, 199...
The world and its people have been witnessing very painful misfortunes that have gripped the biosphere and its inhabitants for several years. Nuclear weapons are those armaments which have convoyed humans, since the Second World War until the days we live, in peace and in secure world. Nuclear weapons pose a threat to the world and its beings, which have a tremendous role in the improvement and fruition of life on earth. The history of nuclear weapons proliferations begins with the stressed political situation between the United States of America and socialist Russia, recognized in the world literature as the Cold War. This anxious political situation among United States, Russia and their allies, made the world to introduce for the first time with the destructive weapons that man has ever encountered. As Jim McCluskey argues that there are not any weapons that can homicide millions of people for a short period of time apart from nuclear weapons (McCluskey 1). Indeed, the proliferation and the usage of nuclear weapons have changed the world political leadership's, in order to get the world safer for people and the environment in which they live and function. McCluskey goes on to allege that the peace and security in the world would not prevail if nuclear weapons are existing (McCluskey 2). However, such individuals should be set to throwaway the usage of nuclear weapons, in order that life in this planet will continue even after our death, enabling other generations to live in a safety world. Several individuals and critics claim that the proliferation of nuclear weapons threatens the life of human society, and in meanwhile violating the human rights to live in a safe and peaceful world. Nuclear weapons are proficient of doing mass...