Passage from "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
For my AP English class we were assigned to choose a passage from our community reading book and discuss the effect on myself or the work as a whole. My book that I am reading is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Here is a picture of the passage I am using from the first chapter:
I am choosing to write about how this affected me I am more focusing on the first two paragraphs, but not the last one in the picture. I've noticed I tend to like the beginning of books the best. The beginning of books mostly are simple yet intriguing, just like a novel should be. I find myself getting hooked on the first thing the author says, rather than loving the rest of the book. I like the beginning of this book mainly for it is a way of looking at life, I love to read different ways to look at life, and hear other opinions about this complex world.
This piece is written in 1937 so life was slightly different and less complex in this era. The author first talks about the life of men. Her analogy she uses between the ocean and dreams confused me as a reader into thinking the setting was out on the ocean. The first line is "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board." The ships at a distance are the lives that are developing at different places and levels. The wishes on board are exactly what it says, basically their dreams and goals. Put it all together and it could be translated to mean different developing lives have the dreams stemming from the same place. In this case it's the ocean, but if I would have to say where this one place harnessing goals would be our souls within or God. Proceeding it says, "For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon." I like this a lot because it's first not just "the life of men" this is for women too. We all make dreams and goals and some peoples are handed to them or "come in with the tide" or it can also be taken as they "come in with the tide" as you work hard. But there are some of us who watch our goals get less tangible and they just reach an unreachable point because we give up on these goals.
The next paragraph is appointing the authors view of the life of women. Because this piece was in a previous time era the women role has changed a lot from todays society. In todays society women's power and feminists have became a large ordeal. But in this era men's power was really the average norm and women took their stereotype and role without any budging or fighting. It says, "women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget." But looking at my life as a woman it's really not that simple. Things I want to forget most is the stuff that taunts my mind. I see the same happening to other women like the women in the stories that are raped, do you really think they just forget that? No, because women put on an act that it looks like life is so simple and we are able to forgive and forget so easily, but in reality we always aren't. But we remember everything, at least I do anyways. I remember conversations word for word, if you treat me a certain way I'll remember how you made me feel, and I document anything worth saving. But the last thing that women, "act and do things accordingly." This would not fly with me if I was from this era, which is probably good I wasn't. I will not act in anyway that someone or some man wants me to. I am not suppose to act in any certain manner, I have the freedom to act in any certain way. I think this hits me hard with how actually much more free women are then they were back in the 30's. We are now able to do what we want. A very important thing that my mother and I say to my dad when we do men's work is "we are strong independent women we don't need no man." But basically my view of women is not the same as the authors I believe that women can do anything a man can do and the author should have related women to the same analogy because we are all the same.
This piece is written in 1937 so life was slightly different and less complex in this era. The author first talks about the life of men. Her analogy she uses between the ocean and dreams confused me as a reader into thinking the setting was out on the ocean. The first line is "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board." The ships at a distance are the lives that are developing at different places and levels. The wishes on board are exactly what it says, basically their dreams and goals. Put it all together and it could be translated to mean different developing lives have the dreams stemming from the same place. In this case it's the ocean, but if I would have to say where this one place harnessing goals would be our souls within or God. Proceeding it says, "For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon." I like this a lot because it's first not just "the life of men" this is for women too. We all make dreams and goals and some peoples are handed to them or "come in with the tide" or it can also be taken as they "come in with the tide" as you work hard. But there are some of us who watch our goals get less tangible and they just reach an unreachable point because we give up on these goals.
The next paragraph is appointing the authors view of the life of women. Because this piece was in a previous time era the women role has changed a lot from todays society. In todays society women's power and feminists have became a large ordeal. But in this era men's power was really the average norm and women took their stereotype and role without any budging or fighting. It says, "women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget." But looking at my life as a woman it's really not that simple. Things I want to forget most is the stuff that taunts my mind. I see the same happening to other women like the women in the stories that are raped, do you really think they just forget that? No, because women put on an act that it looks like life is so simple and we are able to forgive and forget so easily, but in reality we always aren't. But we remember everything, at least I do anyways. I remember conversations word for word, if you treat me a certain way I'll remember how you made me feel, and I document anything worth saving. But the last thing that women, "act and do things accordingly." This would not fly with me if I was from this era, which is probably good I wasn't. I will not act in anyway that someone or some man wants me to. I am not suppose to act in any certain manner, I have the freedom to act in any certain way. I think this hits me hard with how actually much more free women are then they were back in the 30's. We are now able to do what we want. A very important thing that my mother and I say to my dad when we do men's work is "we are strong independent women we don't need no man." But basically my view of women is not the same as the authors I believe that women can do anything a man can do and the author should have related women to the same analogy because we are all the same.
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