haj7’s Blog

I found this poem to be quite aweing. It seems that Edgar Lee Masters is writing from a man who ’s (obviously) awaiting his birthday, yet he is just looking back upon his life. He talks about being naive in his younger years “As yeasty heroes in their braggart teens Spout learnedly of war, who never saw A cannon aimed.” He deals with the teenage spirit of being cocky and wanting the excitments (war) that an older and experienced man. Drink after drink, the man in this poem just keeps on looking back on with his friends about the constraint of his soul with its “imprisoned wings.”

In the poem, the speaker also deals with love problems. Almost all of his problems have to do with love in some way or another with “The woman is somewhere, And that’s what tortures, when I think this field
So often gleaned could blossom once again If I could find her.” But I love it how at the end of the poem that even though he has delt so many issues in his life, all he wants to do is just “walk and hear the lark” which is something that I find worthy of putting on a head-stone.

Afred Moir – “Where I chanced to see the book in a window, With its garish cover luring my eye? And why did my soul respond to the book, As I read it over and over?”

The quote in this poem stood out because it kind of reminds me of tragic flaws. The book represents a recorded memory in which the “luring eye” cannot avoid. Responding to the book is like trying to repeat the past or make things right again like how Gatsby and Ahab tried to do. Reading it over and over represents how the menacing memory can just linger in your mind again and again while damaging your conscience. Sometimes a memory is best left alone instead of being revisited over and over again. Nostalgia can lead to much anguish in one’s soul.

One of the poems that I found interesting was Mrs. Sibley.  In her poem it’s just describing the blatent truths behind everthing like earth- rock, stars-gravitation, etc. However, the thing that seemed to intregue me the most was when she said, “My secret: Under a mound that you shall never find.” The reason why this brief poem seems to hold so much meaning is that I can relate it to my life. One of the biggest mysteries isn’t the physical world, but more or so the human mind. The human mind seems to be one of the biggest mysteries of all. The will of a human being can seem so spiratic than anything witnessed in nature. I love it how “secrets” are compared with such cosmic things as the sun and earth.

“Never to be told, robbed me of my youth and my beauty; Till at last, wrinkled and with yellow teeth, and with broken pride and shameful hummility; I sank into the grave”- Ollie McGee pg. 2

I found the relationship of the McGee’s to be quite an interesting one. From what we can tell from the headstones, we know that they weren’t really a happy couple in life. It seemed that Fletcher drained the life out of Ollie and took away her youth. When someone’s youth is taken away, it could mean that their younger years were wasted or that they’ve basically been stressed to the point in which it physically drainds them.

Deacon Taylor’s headstone was also one that I found interesting. It was about how a deacon of the church died from a bad liver from drinking too much in private. I think this applies to life that even the “purest” of us has to indulge once in a while. Taylor seemed to be going almost against human nature by living a pure life but a human being and not God, we will always succumb to basic desires and wants. It’s kind of ironic that such a man in a holy position died of something from something that contributes to a “sinful” lifestyle.

“The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizen like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, we find a tragic ending with Janie being forced to kill Tea Cake. In the end, after the trial, we have Janie laying in bed and thinking about Tea Cake. With Tea Cake dead, we see that he still lives on in Janie’s heart. It must take a strong being to still love a person after they have tried to kill you. Janie was able to see that it was just a part of the insanity of Tea Cake’s disease. Janie doesn’t really seem to be that lucky when it comes to marriges. The first two people she was married to just became jerks and wanted to control her. The one person who she actually loved ended up dying by her hand in self-defense.

The quote above holds significance in life. When it’s someone who has died, or you just never see anymore, it seems that we hold them in our memories. With Tea Cake dead, Janie still found peace within her love for him. The memories of him keep him alive. Many of us do this with loved ones who have passed. We can get weighed down with all of the grief from death, but thinking about the good times you’ve had with that person seems to make it more bearable. Janie seems really strong in the sense that she can get over things. Many characters we have read about, (such as Gatsby) have trouble letting go of things. Janie can find true gratification with her memories and love. Compared with all of the other characters that we’ve read about in this course, Janie seems to be the strongest and most enduring.  

“All gods despence suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped.”

In chapter 16, I found this quote and it was being used to relate to Janie’s character and how resistant she is to what people say about her. I think that this quote characterizes the American dream in that we all have dreams or “gods” that we try to please and fulfill. The pursual of these dreams can cause us so much suffering without any reason and yet we strive for them more. We have seen this same attitude in Moby Dick and the Great Gatsby. Now, we can see it with Janie just tring to live her life as a strong woman in a society that tells her that she can’t.

“Janie, you’se yo’ own woman, and Ah hope you know whut you doin’. Ah sho hope you ain’t lak uh possum — de older you gits, de less sense yuh got. Ah’d feel uh whole heap better ’bout yuh if you wuz marryin’ dat man up dere in Sanford. He got somethin’ tuh put long side uh whut you got and dat make it more better. He’s endurable.”

This quote was said by Pheobe and it seems to summarize the town’s feelings towards Janie being with Tea Cake. It seems that this quote just isn’t limited to the town, but it can also be applied to society’s gender roles. The big issue that people have in the town with Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship is that Janie seems to be the one with more power. Janie, with the money that she made from previous marriges and her strong will, seems to flip the expected gender roles upside down. When Jody, a charismatic buissness man who actually buys a town gets an already married teenage girl who basically has nothing there seems to be no problem. However, when Janie (who is an adult with a decent amount of money) marries off with a young man who has nothing, the town basically flips and starts to ask her if she knows what she’s doing.

This kind of makes me think about how crazy society’s expectations are and what is acceptable and what not. In this book, it’s alright for a man who has established himself to marry a girl who has nothing, but the other way around causes so much contraversy. I wonder why these slight differences can be seen as such a big deal. Is it human nature to do this or is Western society just full of hypocrisy? It’s interesting to see how a difference in gender can completely change society’s prespective on something. As for western culture, the different gender roles seem to be rooted in Medeval times with the codes of chivarly and the overall strict atomosphere of the time. Western culture has such peculiar divisions on what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

“Uh woman by herself is uh pitiful thing. Dey needs aid and assistance. God never meant ‘em tuh try tuh stand by theirselves. You ain’t been used tuh knockin’ round and doin’ fuh yo’self, Mis’ Starks. You been well taken keer of, you needs uh man.”

This quote, to me kind of summarizes Janie’s main conflict with society and her past marriges. Logan and Jody kept on trying to put the idea of male dominance in her head, but the reason why their marriges failed was that Janie was too strong and these men couldn’t handle her. Here, after Jody’s death, there are a bunch of men telling Janie that she needs a man in her life or else she can’t support herself. Janie is pretty much an independent woman and based on what happened in the book with her previous marrige, she can pretty much survive on her own. I think that the main conflict with Janie and society is that society is basically trying to put her in “her place” as a woman but shey defys this by being strong willed and independent.

“Nature is de first of everything. Ever since self was self, nature been keepin’ folks off of the red-hot stoves. Dat caution you talkin’ ’bout ain’t nothing but uh humbug.”

This was a quote from when Janie was listening in on some of the conversations that go on outside of her and Jody’s store. The conversation was what has more power, nature or caution. This seems to bring up Zora Neale Hurston’s anthropological background in which if it’s instinct (nature) or culture (caution) that guides what we do and how we develop as humans. In this quote, “Nature is de first of everything.” which is true which leads to the fact that natural instinct can guide us from hot stoves. Many times with my friends I have had debates in what governs our actions in life. Many times I would find myself siding with the nature arguement, but also acknowleding the influence that caution (or more or so the cultural aspects of ones life) has a big part in life.

In a biological sense, our natural goals are self preservation and passing on our genetic legacy. Staying away from the hot stove would be a good example of self preservation. However, the cultural surroundings can change this. What if something like touching a hot stove was a right of passage in a culture? Even though there is no actual need to do it, it’s the idea of fitting in that can drive a person to go against their instincts. Or what about tattoos and body piercings as a more common example? These really don’t have that much of a biological purpose. In some cases, they can harm a person if proper sanitation isn’t used, but humans don’t care. These are common in our culture and we get them anyway. Nature and Caution are almost seemingly opposite forces that compose the harmonic song of life.

“You don’t need mah help out dere, Logan. Youse in yo’ place and Ah’m in mine.” “You ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh. Git uh move on yuh, and dat quick.”

In Chapter 4, Janie and Logan’s marrige seems to be falling apart. Logan keeps on complaining that Janie is spoiled because she doesn’t help him with the outside labor with the mules. Just the phrase of Logan telling Janie that her place is where ever he needs her kind of goes back to the expectations of women at the time. Logan seems to be more controlling and somewhat trying to enforce what society expects of women. However, it seems that Logan himself is going out of bounds with the traditional gender roles. As the man, he is supposed to be doing all of the work and providing for the household, yet he needs Janie’s help. If he really fufilled his societal role, he would be doing all of the work.

 Janie seems to be leaning towards Jody in her interests as her marrige with Logan is failing. Jody seems to be a much younger and more charming of a man than old and disgusting Logan. I think its this independence, youth, and ambition that causes Janie to go for Jody and leave Logan.