Thesis Statement for 'Their Eyes'

The mule symbolizes Janie and her struggles in Eatonville.

That's my thesis.

Scene Response #2

The scene I chose to respond to was the seen where Janie and Vergible Woods, aka Tea Cake, are playing checkers. Tea comes into the store and buys some cigarettes, then asks her why she isn't at the ball game, to which she coolly replies, "Well, Ah see somebody else besides me ain't there." He then challenges her to a game of checkers and says that she looks like she'd be could at it. Janie says that she can't play at all. So they play and converse, until Tea tries to take Janie's king. Janie grabs his hand to stop him because she worked so hard to get it. She tells him to take any other piece, but not her king. They "upset" the board, which I assume means spilled the board. She gets them Cokes and he introduces himself.

This scene is significant because it shows Janie once again falling for another man who could very well ruin her life again, which she promised she wouldn't do. This shows Janie's inability to keep a promise, even if it is to herself. Tea Cake may seem nice enough, but he could be just like Logan, or even worse, like Joe. She fell for this man almost immediately, just like Joe, and seems to be planning to leave with him, just like Joe. Will it end up the same way? Only the book will tell.

TEWWG Response 2

I found the scene where the town was preaching for the dead mule. Joe got this donkeys funeral all hyped up and energized. People were talking about the mule riding people, and the devil using Matt Bonner to plow. They made the mule seem like it was the most important person in town on that day, and gave it a grand ceremony. Janie was left behind by Joe to tend the shop, even though everyone was already at the funeral, which seemed a little sad, but Joe wasn't exactly treating her well to begin with. At the funeral, they preached about the mule, and sang, and did everything that you would do for a human funeral. They even had an obituary.

Their Eyes Were Watching God #1

Quote #1:
"Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly." (page 1).


This quote talks about how Janie immediately begins the story, or at least chapter 2, by recounting her past. It goes with the part of the quote about the memories of women, and Janie can remember exactly what she wants to. She can recount her story clearly, and tells it to get a point across. In a vague way it could also refer to her being a wish on board a ship for men, like Tea Cake, who gladly take her. It could also refer to men dreaming about the many reasons she could have left, and how those thoughts may always "sail forever on the horizon".

Missing Huck Quote Responses

CURRENTLY UNDER WORK

Pages 35-69:

1. "I was powerful lazy and comfortable- didn't want to get up and cook breakfast."

This quote kind of speaks to the fact that the hard-working Huck, who had just escaped, had a lazy side. Huck usually pushes himself in every possible way to get the job done, but this scene speaks to the fact that Huck does have a side that people can really relate to. Huck says he's feeling lazy after escaping by sawing through a roof and killing a pig, quite contradictory.

2. "Well, I b'lieve you, Huck. I-I run off.
"Jim!"

This is the first sign of Huck questioning Jim's running off, not a second after he found out. If Huck were supportive or just didn't care he might not have reacted as such. Huck continues to struggle with the morality of not turning in Jim, at that time considered the right thing to do. Huck seems to know that if he doesn't tell, he's an accomplice, so he eventually accepts this and accompanies him, still questioning right and wrong along the way.


Pages 71-91
1. "Watchman your grandmother!"

This comes outright and says that Huck knows how to diss someone. This seems to be related to the modern phrase of "your mom," considering he is actually using a female member of a family to ridicule a statement made by someone else. This truly displays Huck's inner rebellious teen, and this comment surely shows his angst.

2. "Pap always said it warn't no harm to borrow things if you was meaning to pay them back some time; but the widow said it warn't anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it."

Huck battles here with the opinions of his abusive father and his adoptive widow. Somehow he continues to choose his father's opinions over what seems right, "borrowing" goods withot giving back anything, much less with permission. Huck takes chickens, watermelons, corn, and all kinds of things. However, there is a reason to this, and it is because this food is necessary to keep him and Jim alive, therefore it is wrong in less aspects.


Pages 109-134

1. "He didn't ever have to tell anybody to mind their manners- everybody was good-mannered where he went."

Huck shows respect for high authority figures here, this particular example being Colonel Grangerford. Huck is usually rebellious when it comes to authority figures, but when he meets one that is so high up in the ranks he simply feels inclined to respect him, and it shows in Huck's description of him. Unlike many other people, Huck turns his somewhat bad qualities, like the undeniable anger that he often shows, into good ones.

2. "Well," says he, "dat's all right, den. I doan mine one er two kings, but dat's enough."

I found this Jim quote quite funny, as he says that he doesn't want to meet any more kings because of the already had such an odd experience with them. I'm sure I might react the same way, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't find it funny. Jim seems to have a sense of humor that even he doesn't seem to know of.

Huck Finn Quote Response

1. "I reckoned he beleived in the A-rabs and he elephants, but as for me I think different."

This quote refers to Tom getting his friends together to make a band of robbers, and, more specifically, their greatest heist, stealing diamonds, gold and other valuables. After pulling the heist, which was actually on a group of Sunday School children, Huck tells Tom that he doesn't believe him, and Tom makes a fuss about them only looking like Sunday school kids because wizards made them look like it. This is a clear sign the Huck does not always trust his friend's judgement.


2. "I've seen it in books; and so of course that's what we've got to do."

This quote actually points out that popular culture still influenced people back in the days of Tom Sawyer. He wants to ransom people because they do it in books, whcih can be compared to a modern child wanting to do something because it's in a TV show or movie. It also points out that Tom Sawyer himself, though a leader, can be just as influenced by media as anyone else.

Topic for Essay #2

And The Scott's choice is....:

Essay Topic #3) Look closely at either “Young Goodman Brown” or “The Minister’s Black Veil” and identify the dominant tone (the author’s attitude) of the short story. Then set about answering how Hawthorne goes about achieving this tone. When writing this paper, you may find it helpful to discuss literary devices and techniques such as foreshadowing, irony, figurative language, narrative pace, etc. Please include a number of quotations to back up your answer.

Song of Myself

Quote #1: "The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum a confirm'd case, (He will nevre sleep any more as he did in the cot in his mother's bed-room;)"

This quote has almost no deeper meaning, as it basically comes out and says that it is about an insane criminal being convicted and proven guilty being taken to the asylum. Although there's a lack of deeper meaning, there IS a moral to the story. Th moral is that crime doesn't go unpunished, shown in the line "(He will never sleep any more as he did in the cot in his mother's bedroom;)" which means that he will never have as good living conditions as he did before he commited a crime.

Quote #2: "The past and present wilt - I have fill'd them, emptied them. And proceed to fill my next fold of the future."

This is probably my favorite quote in the book so far, because it's so deep but so understandable. He means what he say, that the past and present do not matter to him, only what the future holds. Yet it is much deeper. It says that Whitman refuses to look back on his past because there's obviously something horrible that he never wants to think about again, and he had to be going through a tough time because he's trying to forget the present as well, and he's looking to the future to stop his sorrow.

Young Goodman Brown Quotes

Quote #1: "With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!"

I think that, though the direct meaning is that he will do what he must to resist the evil that may happen, this quote has a far deeper meaning. I think that, though he is mostly refering to Faith as his wife, he is probably also refering to his supposedly devout religious faith as well. This is also stated when he refers to heaven and Faith together in the same quote.

Quote #2: In truth, all through the haunted forest there could be nothing more frightful than the figure of Goodman Brown.

This line, although it has a bit of deeper meaning, basically comes out and states that he is imagining all these horrifying things happening. It says that he is the most frightful thing in the forest not because he is frightfu,l but because there's not actually anything else there. It also means that he is afeared of himself, which was why he was so scared.

Topic for Paper #1

I am going to do Topic #3: Would Emerson and Thoureau approve of Proctor?

2 Qoutes from Henry David Thoreau

Quote 1: "Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself."

I believe this quote means that you should awake every morning without any worries or stress, only intent on the day ahead, no unnatural emotions in your head. You should also be happy with the simplicity of waking up, when nothing clouds your mind and nothing is happening. It also means that you should be in tune with nature whenever you have a free minute.


Quote 2: "Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep."

I think this goes in conjunction with an earlier statement: "To be awake is to be alive." It basically says that people are trying to justify their existance by putting guidelines into place. It pokes fun at laws and codes and says that it doesn't prove that the creators of these laws are alive. The moral reform tries to supress nature, and Thoreau doesn't like it at all.

Four Quotes: An Ode to Ralph Waldo Emerson (Not Really)

Quote #1 (Self-Reliance): "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." I beleive that this quote talks about how many people have trouble trusting themselves and they just need to relax. I beleive that 'iron string' is a metaphor for the tension of trusting yourself, a very hard thing to do at times, being that an iron string is very strong and will most likely not break. 'Vibrates' is also a metaphor in my eyes, symbolizing the process through which tension is gradually released and you trust yourself far more.

Quote #2 (Nature): "To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society." I beleive this means that to be independent and different, not following the flow of others, you must distance yourself from society, mentally even more so than physically. I believe that this remains a pertinent issue even today, where people are even more easily swayed to join a social group, sometimes a person must distance themselves so that they can better themselves, much like I attempt to do during the Summer. To become aware of oneself, you must be by oneself is how I would sum it up

Quote #3 (Self-Reliance): "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." This probably means that when you think everything is going wrong and life stinks, your own mind is always a retreat from the world. Escaping to your mind is a useful thing to be able to do, it's calming and it releases much stress. Your mind is also the most private part of the world, nobody can see what's going on in there.

Quote #4 (Self-Reliance): "Your goodness must have some edge to it,- else it is none..." This means that being kind and caring without any self-defense always ends with no goodness left. When you are kind, you may feel good, but if people pick on you and you have no edge, that kindness will eventually be replaced completely by anger. I believe that "edge" may also refer to kindness being a double-edged sword, the kinder you are, the more kinder you must be to feel good, and eventually it overwhelms you and you crack, like a drug addiction.

The Scott Spot

Apparently it's not an original name... I'm such a lamer, but whatever, I'm cool with that. So, this is my blog for my American Literature Class. The Day 1 homework, actually. So, I guess I'll post here later!

EDIT: I'm supposed to have goals for the year set in type, so here we go: I want to even further develop the ability to write papers on assigned topics and learn to write rough drafts better. I would also like to learn to take better notes, which will not only help me in English but in my other classes as well.