Hello!
For my blog this week we were assigned to blog on our book. My book is still "Their Eyes Were Watching God" but this past Wednesday night we had our community reading event where we discussed the book in detail. I felt uncomfortable about the meeting before arriving, but when I got there it was very chill and we could talk about whatever we wanted, and go at a pace that worked for our discussion.
Surprisingly our discussions were quite natural and didn't need to go onto questions and everything flowed quite nicely. Some of my questions we talked about were:
- What is one theme that seems to travel beginning to end including in the frame story?
- How would Janie's life be different if she would have chosen a love she actually wanted to love, rather than following what her grandmother wished of her?
- I think she may have been happier with someone like Tea Cake, but she wouldn't have a lot of wealth.
- If Joe had not gotten sick/or would have lived, do you think Janie would have ever left him?
- I said yes, because she left Logan, so it's not like she's unable to do so. But I also said no, because she was being abused and I think she was scared he would have killed her or abused her more if she attempted to leave him.
As we talked I never really had to say those questions like we do in socratic seminars just jumping from question to question. We instead started chapter by chapter just analyzing and talking about important pieces. And when the questions fit best in our discussion I would pop them in, or even some of my group members had some of the same questions.
Some of our major talking points were Chapter 2, specifically the pear tree. One of my group members thought the tree symbolized Janie's feminine features, well not exactly that but something around that sense. Which was a great accusation that I never had thought of prior. My view of the pear tree was quite different. The tree's life cycle and her life cycle are similar. Tree's start off with roots and make them who they are, Janie really has no roots from her parents instead her roots are her grandmother. As trees grow they branch out into different ways. If Janie was a tree she would have probably 4 branches. One branch with her life with Logan, one with Joe, another with Tea Cake, and lastly and one branch for what she's always wanted (like her freedom, dreams, and her independence). That was my view of the tree and there's plenty of other views of many things in this world. That's what I liked about this community book event, I got to envision others views of this scenario and many others. I liked my group especially because everyone's answers were taken calmly and they felt appreciated.
Another talking point that was focused on in our group was when we met Tea Cake in chapter 10 and what we thought of him. We all thought his name was funny! More importantly we all kind of thought he was after her money, especially when he took the $200. And the world wasn't like it is now where you share locations on a cell phone, or can just call them to see where they are, we as the readers were just as worried as Janie waiting patiently to see if he'd come back. But we were wrong, though the end of their relationship took us for a loop and they had their ups and downs of jealousy issues, they had one of the strongest relationships she had ever had.
And one of our last talking points was about Janie herself. We all kind of liked Janie, but I didn't love her as a character and with her decision making, but I feel that is because I don't connect with her as a character. She does what others want, and I don't like that about her. In modern days we are always told to follow our hearts, and I wish Janie would have done that. Her life could have been so much better. Despite her bad decision we all agree that she's like a survivor. All that she's went through has made her a stronger and more independent woman.
Now I need to reread to use for the AP test and also watch the movie to see even more views of this book.
I felt the same way about the how the group discussion was going to! But like you said it was really chill, I feel like we did better in our small group and I'm glad we weren't in a big group. I also enjoyed your interpretation of the pear tree, I felt like mine was more of the obvious and yours was different, more like out of the box which is a good thing! I also felt like it was a more depth interpretation . One question I wanted to ask was if you felt it was necessary for Janie to have suffered a relationship with Joe? Like do you think she would have ended up the same, or was it necessary for her to experience? I noticed how Janie always listens to others, but it didn't bother me too much. Because I feel like sometimes in life we try to please others and that leads us to understanding the world doesn't work that way.
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