Journal 3: Stylistic Elements

1. "The rest of the town looked like servants' quarters surrounding the 'big house'." (page 47) Allusions to slavery are common in Hurston's narration because it's such an important part of black history.
2. "Said it was a spittoon just like his used-to-be bossman used to have in his bank up there in Atlanta. Didn't have to get up and go to the door every time he had to spit. Didn't spit on his floor neither." (page 47) The use of fragmented sentences in the narration mimics Joe's style of speaking, which lends itself to the omniscient qualities of the narrator.
3. "Her hair was NOT going to show in the store." (page 55) Hurston breaks normal grammar rules by capitalizing random words for different reasons. In this case, it's to emphasize Joe's position on Janie's hair. Other times, though, Hurston capitalizes words like "Mayor" to show the power of the mayor in the town, even when the town doesn't have one. When used within the same sentence of a lowercase "god", it seems to indicate the Mayor has a more official and powerful position than God.
4. "The flock had to wait the white-headed leader, but it was hard. They jostled each other and pecked at heads in hungry irritation." (page 61) Hurston uses parallelism in her story to show the similarities between two different ideas. For instance, in this quote the vultures are descending onto the dead mule to feast, but they must wait for their leader. This mirrors the community in Eatonville, who wants to have a 'dragging-off' party with the mules' dead body, but wait for their leader, Mayor Starks (Joe). The parallelism here compares the citizens of Eatonville with beasts, vultures, which is an idea which can be seen later in the story with the women who sit on the porch waiting for someone to come by who they can 'tear to shreds' with gossip. 
5. "She wasn't petal-open anymore with him." (page 71) This refers to the pear tree in bloom from the second chapter, when the petals of all the blossoms were opening up and Janie had her first revelations about love and marriage, etc.

Journal 2: Dialect

Asian (Korean) dialect

1. The "th" sound is turned into an "s" in many instances (Think=sink, etc.), and "d" sounds in other instances (That=Dat, etc.)
2. Misuse of the word "no" to make an action negative (You no do that)
3. Many words are discarded altogether from a sentence.
4. Phrases are clipped and to-the-point.
5. Almost always use present tense form of words (June not sophisticate like you; I get nice sweater [yesterday], etc.)
6. The ends of abbreviated words are dropped (Don't=Don', We're=We, etc)
7. Often use exclamations of emotion (Aiyaa!, Tahh!, etc.)
8. The "v" sound becomes a "b" sound

 My pastiche (more of a true story) is based on the section of TEWWG from the end of page 12 to the middle of page 13.

  "Hah, I know, I am pretty special."
  The words came out of my mouth without a thought to how Aunt Helen would react. I hoped for the best.

  Aunt Helen frowned and looked between my cousin and I in disapproval many times, before before voicing her disapproval.

  "Aii, Olibiya, you too self-center. I can hear in da word you say. You say, 'I know.' You no say dat anymore, okay?"

  "What? Wait, Aunt Helen, wait. What do you mean?"

  "You no say dat, 'I know.' Tah! You s'pose say 'Sank you, but I no sink so.' Okay? It call be modes'. You be modes'."
   Aunt Helen's words made my casual joke feel like a lead ball in my stomach.
  "Ah, Olibiya, it be okay. You no know better. But now know better. Good Korean girl be modes'. " She patted me on the knee and TJ muffled a chuckle. "You too, Tee-Jay. Good Korean boy be modes' too. So you bosse know say 'Sank you, but I no sink so' nex' time."
  "Aunt Helen, but– I mean, I didn't mean to be like that."
  "I know dat, dat why it okay. You good girl, you just need learn be modes' more. 'Special because you so beautiful. Tah, you so beautiful Olibiya."
  "Um, thank you. But I don't think so?"
  "Dat much better."

Journal #1

The narrator, from the beginning, seems to be omniscient. The narrator speaks with a lofty tone, stating (in the first two paragraphs) an inherent difference between men and women. (S)he states this as fact, although it is not proven. This omniscient presence is apparent through the rest of the chapter, as the narrator describes the actions and motivations of the other characters. The narrator notes how the men stare at Janie for her body; the women stare at her because of her clothes; Pearl laughs only because she doesn't know what else to do; etc. Only an omniscient, godlike character can be all-knowing like that.

As for Janie, at first, I expected her to somehow be better than the other women. The other women were jealous of her, as the omniscient narrator stated, and so I expected her to be more intelligent or higher status or special in some way. But, while she is better-looking and richer than the other women, she does not seem to be more educated or more cultured or much different than the women. She speaks in the same dialect and tells 'rough jokes' and doesn't seem altogether very different than the other women, even though the narrator sets her up as being someone worth envying. This surprised me. Despite her money and her looks, she doesn't seem to be (at this point) much different in nature. This could lead to some thematic ideas later.

Mini Test

1. The bulk of the plot in Their Eyes Were Watching God takes place during a ______ of Janie's.

2. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet's nurse serves as her ________.

3. "It had been a long time since I had been out in the country" (Camus, 12) is an example of this type of narrative.

4. In Othello, the character of Iago is an example of a(n) ________.

5. The use of the letter S in the phrase "sanity is not statistical" (Orwell, 194) is _______.

Ambiguity

Ambiguity, in general, is when there is something that is vague or has dual interpretations, and generally has a negative connotation. For example, when someone says, "Your parents are very interesting," it could be interpreted as a good thing or a bad thing. Ambiguity can cause teenagers a lot of stress over whether or not a winky-face in a text means something, or whether saying "I like you" means "...as friends" or "...as more-than-friends" (We all know what that's like).

It can be applied similarly in literature. When an author uses words or phrases that are ambiguous, it leaves the reader wondering exactly what they meant. The phrases or words have multiple meanings, which leaves a feeling of uncertainty in the reader. It is part of the authors' style, and their intent with the story they are telling. Shakespeare was really big on ambiguity. He used it all the time, man, like every single time. For example, the scene in Romeo and Juliet when Juliet is talking to her mother about Tybalt's death. Juliet's lines are all very ambiguous (is she saying she loves Romeo or that she hates him?) so that the mother won't find out that Romeo and Juliet were in love.

Ambiguity can apply to whole parts of a plot, or a character, not just a word. Like in 1984, the reader is constantly left wondering if O'Brian is a good guy or a bad guy, because the narrator/the author is so ambiguous about a stance on him. He is constantly described as being brilliant, kind, paternal, etc., but then he is also described as being insane, torturing people, double-crossing, etc. The reader is left feeling a huge amount of uncertainty toward him, because he is such an ambiguous character.

Here, this is one of those pictures that you see all the time that is very ambiguous:

Post #2: Persona

A persona is kind of like the voice that the author uses when they speak to the reader through a literary work. Sometimes, an author will insert themselves into a work by using a certain voice, which almost makes them into an actual character. This can allow the reader to find out things about the plot without having to infer. Instead, the author can tell the reader something directly, using the 'fictional voice' called a persona. It is not often used but can add a very interesting element to a story.

A good example of a persona is Lemony Snicket's narration in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Summer Reading

I read Eyes first, which was my favorite because I found it the most compelling and interesting. Maybe it was because this was the only book with a female protagonist, or because I simply found her story more active and engaging than The Stranger/1984, but I liked it. I read it quickly and even (shockingly) tabbed the whole thing with color-coded stickies. I think I liked the nature motifs quite a bit (the pear tree and others I can't remember right now) because they were kind of blatantly obvious. Oh, and I liked Tea Cake's character a lot too, so that made me more interested in the book.

On the other hand, I did not like the Stranger. I mean, in general, I liked all these books more than the usual summer readings we get for English. They were more compelling with thicker plots and language that was easier to understand without being too easy, you know? But the Stranger was, well, boring. It took me a very long time to finish, despite how short it was, because I just couldn't get into it! I mean, how does an author make a murder and a death sentence boring? But Camus succeeded! I totally understand that it was translated from French and that the sentence structure/word choice is supposed to reflect the tone and psyche of Meursault, but that was the most chore-like read of the entire summer.

Finally, the leftover one is 1984. I also highly enjoyed this book but found it hard to get into in the beginning. For an essay, though, I think I'd really focus on the different themes presented that surround children/marriage/families, and love/hate. A lot of interesting parts of the story lend themselves to those ideas. The horrible children, for instance, reporting on their parents or starving their siblings. And there was a lot in the novel that centered on 'hate'; hating each other, hating Goldstein, hating another country (no matter what country it was). Opposite that, though, was this idea that everyone must 'love' Big Brother, the one creating all this hate. Another aspect for an essay, I think, would be the constant internal conflict that is present all the time with all the characters, and is even given a name: 'doublethink'. It was such a complicated idea that it took me, like, over half the book to really understand it. But the confusion that the concept created in the reader was a reflection of the insanity and confusion within characters such as O'Brian, and, well, the rest of the society in the novel.