It's Late...figured i'd have one than none! :)

So far, I'm not sure how I feel exactly about the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. In the reading we've done so far, it's interesting to read the different dialect but completely throws me off! I have to re-read every once in a while to make sure I know what they're saying and even sometimes say it in proper English just to make sure I understand it!
The characters so far are pretty interesting. The beginning confused me a little and there's always someone new coming in it feels like. But with Janie, I feel she is more independent than we see in the novel. When the mule died on page 59, I was somewhat angry that she wasn't allowed to go. I felt that she really wanted to but Joe felt it better that she didn't. In a way, I felt he did it so she didn't have to see something like that but I don't think she likes being the "mayor's wife" and being put up on a pedastal. She wants to let her hair down; she doesn't need Joe to be jealous either. I like the novel though so far, it's interesting and fun to read! It will be interesting to see what happens with the characters throughout the rest of it!

Their Eyes Were Watching God

I was excited to read a novel again in our class. However, when I started to read When Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, I realized that it wasn't as easy as I thought. From the start of the story, the southern dialect was strong. When Hurston speaks about women on the first page stating, "women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget", I couldn't help but wonder where she was going next. Then she mentioned the women whos "eyes flung wide open in judgement". As soon as the women on Pheoby Watson's porch saw Janie walking down the street, the judgement started. They not only judged what she was wearing and how she looked, but what she had done with her life and her reasons for returning. It was non-stop. Then when she walked by them without telling them all about her life, there was even more judgement. Although they had no idea about why she was returning and how things ended up with her, they assumed that the man (Tea Cake) she was with left her for a younger woman after taking all of her money. They envy Janie for her looks and keep assuming things as she continues into her house. Finally, Pheoby stands up for Janie. It wasn't very clear at first but then both Janie and Pheoby refer to Pheoby as Janie's grandmother. I'm not sure if the women outside knew Pheoby was the grandma or not. Regardless, they were being very disrespectful and making assumptions about things they didn't even know.
While Janie and Pheoby were in the house talking, I felt that out of no where Pheoby freaks out on Janie and smacks her. I felt that was kind of random but then again she was telling Janie what she had wanted for her. I like the story so far and I like how "Nanny" was telling Janie that she just wanted her to be safe and that she had prayed to God to keep her here until then.

Hughes

Reading the Langston Hughes poems, once again is not the easiest reading for me. I do, however, like Hughes' poems. I felt Hughes' poems were a little more straight forward than Cullen's poems. When reading them, I just read right through rather than stopping at every sentence or stanza to try to understand what he was saying. It's a lot harder to comment on Hughes' poem because of the fact that what each poem is about is obvious in just about every poem.
I really liked the "Aunt Sue's Stories" Poem. I felt the respect the child had for his Aunt Sue. The second to last stanza states that "the dark-faced child, listening, knows that Aunt Sue's stories are real stories, He knows that Aunt Sue never got her stories out of any book at all, but that they came right out of her own life". I could sense the respect and the attention that child gave to Aunt Sue and I really enjoyed reading it.
I also enjoyed reading "Mother to Son" on page 30. I got the sense of perseverence from the mother and that she was trying to inspire her son to do the same. It was like she was telling him that no matter how hard it gets, he must persevere and he will get through it. My favorite part was where she told him "Dont you fall now- For I'se still goin' honey I'se still climbing and life for me aint been no crystal stair". This actual life of his mother and the perseverence she shows can be a major inspiration for her son to get through anything.

Is the poem "Shadows" like an imagery? Is it an imagery to break away from their troubles? The shadows being their troubles and to find the sun which means to get out?

While reading some of Hughes' poems, I had alot of ideas for some of them. Since most of them that we read were pretty straight forward I feel that the ones I'm questioning must be the same. I feel that maybe I'm reading too much into them. I'm not sure! For example, The Weary Blues, I felt the blues were an imagery for his unhappiness. In "I, Too", I got the sense that tomorrow meant when slavery ended. The last stanza that says "They'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed--I, too am America" I felt that Hughes was talking about no matter the color, we are all America and they will be ashamed for the hatred they have had on African Americans.

Cullen Poems

I like reading the Cullen poems so far. Although, once again, poems are not my best, I like the flow of the poems. The rhyme scheme that we havent really had that much throughout our readings before makes the poems a little more easier to read. I started reading the poems and the first one that stuck out to me was "Saturday's Child". The first thing that came to mind was the contrast between white and African American children. "Some are teethed on silver spoon" reminds me of the more upper class white children as opposed to "swathed limbs in a sackcloth gown" seems to be of the more lower class life. It also made me think that if it wasn't contrasting black and white children, there was a definite difference between the two families...the children being wanted and not wanted (which is horrible) but the father said it was just "one mouth more to feed". There was no excitement or love with the birth of his child.
Another poem that really stuck out to me was "Incident". As an eight year old, it must have been one of the first, if not the first, racial comment this child has heard. These two children were obviously raised differently, the white child raised against African American people. The child was in Baltimore for 8 long months with tons to see and all this child could remember was a horrible comment that they could never possibly forget. What a horrible feeling.

Readings for Oct. 29

I really enjoyed reading The Best of the Brownies' Book. It was really interesting reading the Jury with writings from the children as well as The Grown Ups' Corner by the parents of children. It was interesting seeing the views of the children as well as the parents specifically in how they explain certain things to their children. I found it quite sad when the child said, "Well that's just stories. Didn't they ever do anything in a book?". Unfotunately the mother couldnt give her an answer. Meanwhile, there were many African American people who did great things. The pictures of the kids were so cute...called "little friends" which showed the importance of these children in the Brownie Book.
I really enjoyed the story "The Heritage". The ending was very inspirational especially when Mother Mason said "No, it aint all over" and continued to explain how young kids dont really appreciate what their parents had done and what opportunities they have. I really liked the response from Julie and realized that she had something to work for.
The Dolly story was also nice to read. I liked how she appreciated who she was and what she has. She didn't have to have the bright blue eyes and blonde hair to be loved; she had her family and friends who had loved her just the way she was.
I really like how they have the Little People of the Month thing which is always nice for children when they are rewarded for good deeds. It gives them a sense of worth I guess you can say.

So far, I really enjoy reading the Brownie Book! I like that it is segmented with different stories but I also like how it focuses alot on the kids which gives us a different view of African American rather than adult males and females.

Passing

I really enjoy reading Passing so far. It's nice to take a break and read another novel; to me they're alot easier to read. Clare is an interesting character. She somewhat annoys me at times. I can definitely see that maybe she's ashamed of who she really is and passes as white all the time. Her husband seems like a jerk and he doesn't even know she has any black in her at all. I wasn't a fan of him at all. The novel is very interesting so far. The whole thing with Irene and Clare is somewhat interesting, you can see how "bossy" I guess Clare is. I thought it was really interesting that while they were all together...Clare, Irene, and Clare's husband, he was talking about the blacks. I guess because that is how Clare chose to live her life...but I feel that she should not have put Irene in that position. It was also interesting how Irene had to not say anything about the truth for both her and Clare.

Ethic Notions Film

I feel as soon as the film started, African Americans were portrayed as dumb and poor and nothing else. A lady stated in the film that the African American figurines were placed in white American's homes as "amusement and to make us laugh". I just thought it was quite weird. Honestly, I was bothered by how the African Americans were portrayed throughout the film, both as cartoons and figurines as well as in life. They had to blacken their face even more to be in the plays...the whites started plays based on African American figures. They were imitated and in a way made fun of for their dances and other things. I felt the way they were portrayed was very devastating...people who had never seen an African American bought the crazy hair, bulged eyes, large lips as a real African American person.
It's odd how Jim Crow was a lighthearted figure was something that became a huge part of the African American history. This ended up being a major part of the African Americans and their lives based on their rights as American citizens...based on a lighthearted figure.
The worst part for me was that the African Americans were portrated as "happy" slaves. The old plantation was shown as paradise. The African American slaves were happy doing things for their white masters. The "mammy" was a larger woman who loved the white masters of the household as well as entertaining the whites' children. The general public actually thought slavery was OK when in reality these people were being seperated from their families and were beaten as well as many other horrific things.

I enjoyed watching the film in class, it was a nice change of pace. I liked being able to actually see how things were rather than just reading it. Overall, it was a good film and it's just interesting to see all the things in the film.