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Page 1: Their Eyes Were Watching God - Brewer's College Prep - Blogmsbrewercollegeprep.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/0/1/1701… ·  · 2015-04-061 Meeting Janie ... Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Their Eyes Were Watching GodZora Neale Hurston

Curriculum UnitDorothy M. Hill

ContributorMary Anne Kovacs

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Curriculum Unit AuthorDorothy M. Hill, who earned her D.A. at Carnegie-Mellon University, has distin-guished herself in the secondary English field and is the recipient of numerous awards. She also teaches at the university level and has authored The Center for Learning novel/drama curriculum units Song of Solomon, A Doll’s House/Hedda Gabler, and Frankenstein.

Editorial TeamMary Anne Kovacs, M.A. Rose Schaffer, M.A.Mary Jane Simmons, M.A.Bernadette Vetter, M.A.

Cover DesignKrina K. Walsh, B.S.I.D.

Copyright © 2008 The Center for Learning. Reprinted 2012.Manufactured in the United States of America.

Printed on recycled paper.

The worksheets in this book may be reproduced for academic purposes only and not for resale. Academic purposes refer to limited use within classroom and teach-ing settings only.

ISBN 978-1-56077-879-0

www.centerforlearning.org

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Contents

Introduction ............................................................................... v

Teacher Notes ........................................................................... vii

1 Meeting Janie ......................................................................1 ............................... 1, 2, 3

2 The Tree of Life ....................................................................7 ................................... 4, 5

3 An Image Shattered ...........................................................13 ................................... 6, 7

4 Mr. and Mrs. Mayor ...........................................................17 ................................... 8, 9

5 A Glance from God .............................................................21 ......................... 10, 11, 12

6 The Everglades ..................................................................27 ............................... 13, 14

7 Surviving the Flood ............................................................33 ............................... 15, 16

8 The Crisis ..........................................................................37 ..................................... 17

9 Loss ...................................................................................41 ..................................... 18

10 Like a Pharaoh to His Tomb ...............................................45 ............................... 19, 20

Supplementary Materials

Creative Projects ................................................................48

Making a Portfolio ..............................................................49

Critics’ Comments .............................................................51

Writing Topics ....................................................................52

Quiz ..................................................................................53

Quiz Answer Key ................................................................54

Test ...................................................................................55

Suggested Responses to Test Questions .............................57

Bibliography .............................................................................59

HandoutsPage

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Introduction Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston’s third pub-lished full-length work (1937), was written in the middle of a career rich in recognition and variety. Her work of writing fi ction and essays, researching black communities, and conducting fi eld studies in anthro-pology was rewarded by an honorary doctorate and other awards.

Zora died, however, in poverty and obscurity. It was another writer, Alice Walker, who, discovering Zora’s grave in 1973, launched a Hurston revival which has lasted to this day.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is valuable as a notable and historic example of black fi ction, a powerful evocation of feminine self-knowledge, and a superlative reading experience.

Materials in this guide include a complete set of lessons, lists of essay questions, additional activities, and, as a supplement, directions for fashioning a portfolio.

The virtual reality of a novel may lead the reader into happen-ings never yet experienced. It is better to live through a hurricane in fi ction’s pages than to suffer from calamitous winds. In this novel Zora draws her readers into the pain of growing up without parents and the disappointment of loveless marriages. Quite as vivid, however, are the camaraderie of a work crew’s labor and play in the Everglades and the days and months of true love.

Hurston’s heroine, Janie, does more than live through her expe-riences. As she retells her life’s events to her friend Pheoby, Janie meditates on the meaning of the past, knowing that facts are useless without understanding.

Hurston, the spellbinder, enriches her narration of Janie’s life with interpretation. The singing style, rhythmical and euphonious, is fi lled with metaphor, an understanding of which appeals to new depths in the reader’s imagination.

Janie is unforgettable. At sixteen she awakens to life’s sweetness. Then she develops from romantic to realist to seer. The reader may well share Pheoby’s belief that she grows just from listening to Janie’s story.

Janie is modern in her feminist sense of herself, her way of moving on when circumstances would otherwise condemn her to an inauthentic life. She attends to the movements of her own consciousness even when the result causes her pain.

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The values stressed in this novel are

• the importance of choosing life, being involved in life, rather than being a bystander

• the growth of inner strength with one’s advance in self-knowl-edge, as one realizes that self-awareness and detachment are both necessary qualities

• The contrast between a practical business outlook and the in-dependence of a creative spirit

• three special human concepts

—resilience helps one cope with loss and disaster

—men and women are of equal worth

—one needs to be valued and accepted as oneself

• the profi t gained from the guidance of others, but the necessity of not being unduly subservient to others

• the importance of having a full life but also of experiencing something more

• the spiritual relationship of individuals to the natural world

• the presence of God in people’s lives

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Teacher Notes This novel uses two literary techniques with which students need to be familiar:

• the frame device for telling a story (A narrator begins by declar-ing, “This is the experience I have undergone,” and ends by summarizing in a return to the present.)

• the use of dialect to establish a sense of intimacy between reader and speaker, implying the idea, “This is how I talk; this is the language of my people.”

Zora Neale Hurston separates her own literary, narrative voice, which uses standard English, from the dialogue of the characters, who speak in the accents and vocabulary common to their locality.

Throughout the reading, students should be able to do the following:

1. recognize and remember the frame inside which the action is set

2. move with understanding from the standard English of the author’s narration to the dialect English of the characters

3. analyze character development; recognize where it deepens enough for the reader to meet what seems to be a real person

4. distinguish realism from fantasy in the narration to recognize when the characters are spinning off, as they talk, into another world

5. understand the connotations suggested by the fi gurative lan-guage which is so rich a part of the novel; see that metaphors underline the awareness of Janie’s understanding of people and Pheoby’s understanding of Janie

Portfolio writing is an interesting and valuable way for students to develop their perceptions of literature and their understanding of them-selves. It is explained in this guide as an activity which may expand to a greater degree as needed, depending in part on the independence of the student and the receptivity of the teacher.

Separating the portfolio directions to the student into reading, writ-ing, format, presentation, and evaluation is meant to give some form to the portfolio work for both student and teacher. Naturally, the plans will be modifi ed according to class needs.

Reading assignments for Their Eyes Were Watching God are as follows:

Chapters 1–4 for Lesson 2

Chapters 5–6 for Lesson 3

Chapters 7–9 for Lesson 4

Chapters 10–13 for Lesson 5

Chapters 14–17 for Lesson 6

Chapter 18 for Lesson 7

Chapter 19 for Lesson 8

Reread chapter 19 for Lesson 9

Chapter 20 for Lesson 10

Answers will vary unless otherwise indicated. Students may need additional paper to complete some handouts.

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Lesson 1

Meeting Janie

Objectives• To approach this vivid story with curios-

ity and interest, accepting the fact that it contains elements in common with our own experience

• To study carefully the frame of the story as it is laid out in chapter 1 so that the rest of the narrative will be seen as existing inside that frame

• To form some early opinions about Janie’s nature so that her later actions can be ac-counted for against this background

Notes to the Teacher Two facts of Janie’s return to her home are worth remembering: that she has been greatly fulfi lled by passing beyond the horizon of this town—people who never leave, never grow in that special way from the experience of being a stranger somewhere else—and that she knows the meaning of her ordeal. She is not merely retelling her experience; she has studied its signifi cance and is ready to communicate it. The continuous narrative gift with which Janie tells her story and the power of her interior life are established in this fi rst chapter. We learn to anticipate not only the newest adventure but also the writer’s interpretation of the action.

In this lesson, students focus on the frame, in which a survivor returns to tell a story. They then read chapter 1 of the novel and be-come acquainted with Janie, as well as with the contrasting voices of the narrator and the characters. Attention is given to the challenges and values of dialect as an asset in creating vivid local color. To complete the optional activ-ity, students need art materials.

Procedure1. Announce that this is a story about a sur-

vivor. Set the stage for chapter 1 and the frame of the story by having students read and discuss Handout 1, which asks them to imagine a situation like Janie’s.

2. Have students put the scenario into writ-ing either as a class effort or as a series of group efforts. Distribute Handout 2.

3. Have students share the results of Handout 2 with the class by reading the scenarios aloud.

4. Have students read chapter 1 silently. When they have fi nished, elicit responses and questions. Lead them to recognize the use of dialect and the contrast with the author’s poetic narrative voice, as well as Janie’s status as a person returning to share her story of survival.

5. Distribute Handout 3, and direct small groups to complete the exercise.

Suggested Responses:

1. The narrative voice is relaxed, with perfect control of both language and situation. Images and fi gures of speech abound.

2. Men seem to be big dreamers, with their hopes on the far horizon, and are often disappointed. Women remember what they want to remember; they identify the dream with reality and pursue it.

3. Paragraph 3 indicates that Janie survived a situation in which many people drowned, perhaps a fl ood. Imagery stresses the condition of the casualties.

4. A few key images clearly depict the condition of the bloated bodies. The sun is personifi ed. In the fi fth paragraph, the conversation is an instrument of torture and even murder.

5. With the day’s work behind them, the people come alive and empowered; they are judges, and the object of their judg-ment is Janie.

6. Hurston painstakingly presents the people’s dialect; readers can actually hear the conversation and are drawn into it. (Note: You may want to have volunteers read aloud various sections of the dialogue. Depending on their

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backgrounds, students will differ widely in their ease with and responses to the dialect. Point out that in everyday speech, we all elide words so that they sound very different from what they look like when written in standard English—“I dunno”; “How are yuh?”)

7. Pheoby and Janie are old friends; Janie has been gone for a year and a half. Janie seems to have run off with a younger man she calls Tea Cake. It seems as if he has died. Their relation-ship was a good one; the people are wrong in thinking he was just after her money. Janie knows that she has been on a real adventure in life; Pheoby is eager for a vicarious adventure.

8. The night begins as “fresh” and “young”; as Janie tells her story, it becomes “monstropolous.”

6. Direct students to read chapters 2–4 of Their Eyes Were Watching God in preparation for Lesson 2.

Optional Activity Create visuals, either representational or

abstract, to depict chapter 1. Share your work with the class.

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Survivors

Directions: Read the following information. Use the graphic organizer to brainstorm possibilities.

Literature is full of stories in which one person who has been through an ordeal returns to the place that he or she knows. Think about the messenger in the Book of Job who declares in chapter 1, “I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”

Imagine some situation in your world in which a person like that messen-ger—a survivor of a crash, a refugee, a combatant in a military action, a crime victim, etc.—returns to your city or neighborhood. How would people react to this survivor? Would they be curious? resentful? uninterested? fearful?

What about the survivor? What would he or she think about the contrast be-tween the life he or she observes now and the life he or she has experienced?

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Survivor

Ordeal Others Involved

Means of Survival Audience

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 1Handout 1 Date ________________________

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Scenario—The Survivor Returns

Directions: Using Handout 1, discuss among all the members of the class a possible series of actions in a scenario. As one class member makes notes on the board, decide on the facts in the scenario. Take notes below as you think through the action. Add some of your own ideas.

1. Event from which the survivor escaped

2. Survivor (identity, age, sex, physical description)

3. Location to which the survivor escaped

4. Other characters (names, descriptions)

5. Sample dialogue

6. Notes on further action

7. Survivor’s closing words (comments about the return and about memories of the past)

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 1Handout 2 Date ________________________

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Meeting Janie

Directions: Use the following questions to process chapter 1 of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

1. Reread the fi rst fi ve paragraphs of the chapter. How would you describe the narrative voice?

2. According to the narrator, what are some essential differences between men and women?

3. What do we learn of the ordeal which Janie survived?

4. How does the narrator use fi gurative language to convey intense impressions?

5. What does the narrator stress about the people in the town?

6. How does the language of the characters differ from the voice of the narrator? What does the use of dialect add to the novel? What challenges does it pose?

7. What do we learn about Janie, Pheoby, and Tea Cake?

8. How does the narrator characterize the darkness in which Janie and Pheoby are talking?

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 1Handout 3 Date ________________________

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Objectives• ToexamineNanny’sroleinJanie’slife,the

reasonswhyJaniemarriedLoganKillicks,andthereasonswhyshelefthim

• To understand some of the agony causedtoblackwomenbytheheritageofslavery;to understand also the personal strengthwhichhelpedthemsurvive

• To develop an appreciation of the poetic/philosophical Hurston style, a depth ofreflectionexpressedthroughmetaphorsofthenaturalworld

Notes to the Teacher Janiebeginsherstory,aspeopleoftendo,by searching for a place to start. To explainwhosheisandwhatshehasexperienced,shegoeswaybacktothebeginning.Wehearabouther childhood, about Nanny, and about thecircumstances that led to the marriage withLogan Killicks. Figurative language makesclear Janie’s yearning for vitality and love.WhensheleftLoganforJoe,Janiewastryingtochooselife.

ItisimportanttoconceptualizethemotivesbehindJanie’sactions.Beforebeginningadis-cussionofchapters2,3,and4,studentswillhavesharedtheirviewsofJaniefromthinkingaboutchapter1.Handout 4willhelpthemtomovetowardanunderstandingofJaniethesur-vivorwhosetsuptheframeofherstory.Theywill also consider the effects of her survivingonbothherselfandherobservers.Bytheendofchapter4theywillprobablyhavebeguntonoticeontheirownZoraNealeHurston’suseofmetaphortomirrorperceptionsandfeelings.

Procedure1. Ask a volunteer to read aloud the first

paragraphofchapter2.Leadstudents tointerpret the simile. (Janie sees her life as something big and as a mix of good and bad. She seems to value both kinds of experiences.)

2. Askavolunteertoreadaloudthesecondparagraph,andpointoutJanie’squandary:she gropes for a place to start her story.

3. Distribute Handout 4. Discuss with stu-dentsquestions1,2,and3.

Suggested Responses:

1. What happened to Tea Cake? Where was the flood? How did Janie manage to survive? What has she experienced and seen?

2. For men, the author says, dreams are vitally important. They either materialize in fulfillment or they mock the dreamer by his disappointment. Women, to the contrary, deal with truth only, she says. What does not work out, they forget. What they care about, they hold in memory. For us today, when women are able to expand their dreams of per-sonal accomplishment in the world, the substance of dreams will have changed from what it was in the thirties.

3. Janie in her physical beauty and psy-chological independence is threatening to the townspeople who have never been anywhere else. To Pheoby, Janie is a real, individual person whose life is a fascinating lesson.

4. Askstudents todoa focused freewriting,usingHandout 5.

5. Divide the class into pairs of students.Havepartnersexchangetheirwritingsanddiscuss the ideasexpressed.Take time tosummarizetheactivitytogetherafterwards.Thisproceduremayextendtoasecondclasssession.

6. Directstudents’attentionbacktoHandout 4. Have small groups discuss the rest ofthequestions.

Suggested Responses:

4. Janie is bold and independent; she is very pretty and physical, at home in her own body. She does not fear the neighbors, and she scorns their criticism, as well as their minute experience of life. She has a story to tell, and she wants Pheoby to hear it.

Lesson 2

The Tree of Life

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5. Janie longs to reveal herself and her wonderful story; she needs a sympa-thetic ear. Pheoby marvels at the story and lives through the model Janie’s life presents to her.

6. There is ironic humor in Janie’s early unawareness of her difference from her white playmates and in her response to the photograph.

7. Nanny was born into slavery, and her own daughter was a disappointment. She raised Janie and was always very protective, seeking safety as a top priority. Nanny obviously loved Janie but emphasized limits, not the wide horizon.

8. Joe Starks was well dressed, cocky, and ambitious. He was not just using Janie; he wanted to marry her.

9. Marriage with Logan was loveless drudgery; he was not a bad man, just very limited. Janie wanted more in life, and she went after it. Joe seemed to represent the “something more” that she sought. Unlike the townspeople, the author does not impose a judgment. She does seem to affi rm the choice to pursue life as a top value.

10. Answers are likely to include the emphasis on trees budding and in bloom, especially the pear tree, and on experiences of air, dark, and light. Note Janie’s romantic hopes near the end of chapter 4: “From now on until death she was going to have fl ower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything.”

7. Instruct students to read chapters 5–6 of Their Eyes Were Watching God in prepara-tion for Lesson 3.

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Questions for Discussion and Review

Directions: Use the following questions as a basis to discuss the fi rst four chapters.

1. Chapter 1 begins with a dramatic situation—the return of a woman with a story to tell to whoever cares to listen. What suspense does the situation arouse in your mind? Enumerate the questions which occurred to you as you read.

2. Look again at the fi rst two paragraphs of chapter 1. Account for the author’s distinction be-tween how men and women view what happens to them. Account for the differences in how this section would have been viewed in the 1930s, when the book was fi rst published, and now in the present.

3. The people on the porches criticize Janie, whereas Pheoby begins to listen to Janie’s story with sincere interest. How do you account for the difference in attitudes?

4. What sort of person is Janie? Quote lines from chapter 1 to support your judgment.

5. In what sense do Janie and Pheoby need each other, as teller and listener?

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 2Handout 4 (page 1) Date ________________________

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6. What was Janie’s early experience with her own blackness? What does this detail add to the story as a whole?

7. What seem to have been Nanny’s main experiences and characteristics?

8. What words would you use to describe Joe? Provide textual evidence.

9. What were Janie’s reasons for leaving Logan Killicks? Does the author seem to approve of her action?

10. Janie feels close to the natural world. Quote some lines or phrases from chapters 2, 3, and 4 in which she unfolds her perceptions of her life in metaphors drawn from nature. Interpret these quotations.

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 2Handout 4 (page 2) Date ________________________

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© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Focused Free Writing

Directions: Spend fi fteen or twenty minutes on a free writing in which you react in a relaxed, open manner about Janie the survivor.

Choose one hardship of Janie’s early life as a focus. Think about her (and yourself) having to deal with such a hardship. Tell a story about your own life, and relate it to Janie’s experience. Use the Venn diagram to generate some ideas. Write for an audience of your classmates.

Janie’s Life

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 2Handout 5 Date ________________________

My Life

Differences Differences

Similarities

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Objectives• To understand the growth that Janie

achieveseventhroughdisillusion

• Toobservetheeffectofexcessivecontrolonthedevelopmentofthecontrolledindividual

Notes to the Teacher Janie’s growth, fosteredbyhermisadven-turesinlove,camestepbystepasshebegantounderstandwhatshecouldaskforherself.She accepted her grandmother’s choice ofhusbandforher.ShethenlivedtounderstandthatwhatNannyconsideredtreasures—house,possessions, land—lefther feelingempty, tiedasshewastoamanlikeLoganKillick.

WhenLoganlefttobuyamule,sheheardwhistling and feasted on the sight of Jody,stylish and citified. When she left Logan forJody,sheexpectedtohavebothloveandlife.Unfortunately,Jody’slovedidnotfulfillherasshethoughtitwould.Aftermonthsofsubser-viencetohim,shedrewclosertorebellion.Inthislesson,studentsfocusonthedeteriorationoftheirrelationshipandtheimpactonJanie’scharacter.

Procedure1. Remind students of Janie’s expectations

of “flower dust and springtime” near theendofchapter4.Askthemtoexplaintheirony in those hopes. (Joe quickly became absorbed in his own ambitions for wealth and power; he took Janie for granted and tried to dominate her, even slapping her when dinner was not well prepared. The romance faded, and Janie became resentful.)

2. Distribute Handout 6. Divide the classinto groups. Allow time for discussion ofindividualquestions.

Suggested Responses:

1. Romance faded out. Both men did not relate to the real soul of Janie but used her to fulfill their own agenda: Logan to run his farm, Jody to have a reflection of his power.

2. Jody got the idea to buy Matt Boyner’s yellow mule, teased and tormented as it was, overhearing Janie’s pity for it. He saw this as a new way to be admired.

The mock funeral, the buzzards, and the chorus all constitute a parody of the meaning of life and death.

3. We see Jody’s character through his relationship with other men. The em-phatic proof of their unsuitability lies in his statement that his stature was the source of her stature.

The remarks of the townspeople at the end of chapter 5 presage Janie’s flight, from what we know of her nature. She worked hard but never received any credit from Jody. His insistence on her wearing a head-rag so that her beauty would be disguised and his banishing her from the porch to take care of busi-ness make her fight back.

She realized that her image of Jody, now broken, never was real.

3. Askstudentstoimproviserole-playsoftimesin Janie’s life when a crisis occurs. ThecrisescouldinvolveJaniewithNanny,thephotograph,Logan,orJody.Invitetheclasstocommentontherelationshipsportrayed.

4. DistributeHandout 7,anddirectstudentsto complete the writing assignment.

Suggested Responses:

Suggested responses may include but will certainly go beyond the following ideas.

1. This is a bucolic tribute to Janie’s beauty and classiness. Students may relate it to everyone’s desire to be more than just a cheap date.

2. Joe’s assumption of his own masculine superiority is offensive, but he was totally unaware of his boorishness.

3. Envy and jealousy are universals tran-scending time and place.

Lesson 3

An Image Shattered

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4. This is a refl ection on the dynamics of power.

5. Mathematical challenges in store-keep-ing frustrated Janie, but Logan insisted she could do it if she wanted to. Janie was stuck in her position.

6. Janie’s receptiveness to Joe died. “Flower dust and springtime” were over. Most people can identify with the evaporation of romance.

7. Janie realized that the Jody she loved was not the real Joe Starks; it was what she had imagined him to be. That dream was shattered beyond repair.

5. Instruct students to read chapters 7–9 of Their Eyes Were Watching God in prepara-tion for Lesson 4.

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Questions for Discussion and Review

Directions: Use the following questions to examine Janie’s change by the end of chapter 6.

1. In describing Janie’s deteriorating relationship first with Logan, then with Joe, the narrator refers to the disappearance of rhymes from their conversations. What does this mean? Why does it happen with both men?

2. What does the mule-baiting incident show you about human nature? Why does Jody buy the mule? What significance do you attach to the mule’s funeral?

3. In chapters 5 and 6, Janie’s expectations crest but then fall. Detail each point of her disil-lusion. How much is she able to rebound from each disillusion?

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 3Handout 6 Date ________________________

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Writing

Directions: Choose one of the following and do a focused free writing, or use one or more of the references to write about Janie’s disillusion and rebound.

Chapter 5

1. the comment about Janie and a fi sh sandwich

2. Jody’s statement about being a “big voice”

3. power, property, and hatred

4. the town, Joe, and power

Chapter 6

1. Janie, mathematics, and the rock

2. “She wasn’t petal-open anymore with him.”

3. “[S]omething fell off the shelf inside her.”

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 3Handout 7 Date ________________________

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Objectives• ToexamineJanie’srealizationthatshedoes

notreallyloveJoeandtoexploretheimpactofthisrealization

• Torecognizethepotential forself-develop-mentwhichexistsinJanie

Notes to the Teacher Chapters 7, 8, and 9 chronicle the dete-rioration of a relationship. The strength anddominancepassfromonepartnertotheother.AfterhertwentyyearswithJoe,Janiecanfallonly so far.The insults escalate inpowerbe-tweenthem.WhenJoestrikesher,hecausesadividetobeopenedbetweenthem.Itcanneveragainbebridged.Shestandsononeside,heontheother.

ThechaptersalsobringanendtoaphaseofJanie’slife.Somestudentsmaybeshockedby her apparent callousness in the face ofJody’sdeath. Ithelpstonotethecommentatthebeginningofchapter7 thatJanie lostallher “fight.” Joe’s death brought her freedom,andJaniewastoohonesttoparadeagriefshedidnotfeel.

Inthislesson,studentsbeginwithdiscus-sion questions on chapters 7–9. They thenfocus on a section from chapter 9 that canstandonitsownasashortstory,fromJanie’spreparationforthefuneraltoherappreciationforlonesomeness.

Procedure1. Askstudentstosharetheresultsoftheirfree

writingonHandout 7 (Lesson3).Conductageneraldiscussionoftheirinsights.

2. Discusswithstudentstherelativeeaseordifficulty of Janie’s accepting Joe’s death,especially considering the nature of theirlastdaystogether.

Suggested Responses:

Some students may be shocked at the way Janie treated Jody’s fear in his last mo-ments. Others, however, will defend her, feeling that Jody’s callousness to her over the years broke any relationship they had. Most students will agree that she was ready for a new life.

3. Distribute Handout 8, and have smallgroups complete the exercise.

Suggested Responses:

1. Janie was depressed and seemed to give up on life for a while. The narra-tor indicates that Janie’s experience is a universal one; people do experience misery, and they desperately try to escape it.

2. She enjoyed a fantasy of freedom under a tree on a breezy day.

3. Joe was ailing, and as he sickened, he got meaner.

4. Janie began to fight back.

5. She shamed him in front of others in the store.

6. Janie began by trying to effect some kind of reconciliation, but the conversation be-came a bitter exchange of accusations.

7. She saw an attractive woman with beautiful hair. Then she played the role of a dutiful new widow.

8. Janie felt free and was in no hurry to become involved with another man. She confided in Pheoby, and we realize that the Pheoby Janie is talking to in the frame story was an actual witness to much of what Janie has said about her life with Joe.

4. Refer students to the second paragraphin chapter 9, and point out that the fol-lowing section of the novel can easily beexcerpted as a self-enclosed short story.Have volunteers read aloud through thephrase,“Besidesshelikedbeinglonesomefor a change.”

5. Distribute Handout 9, and have smallgroups complete the exercise.

Suggested Responses:

1. The laundry metaphor emphasizes that Janie presented an appropriate facade at the funeral.

Lesson 4

Mr. and Mrs. Mayor

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2. She felt free and joyful, as if in the rebirth of spring.

3. She had no desire to return to the past. Her real feeling for Nanny was resentment.

4. The horizon stands for the realm of opportunities. Some people, like Nanny, narrow their focus to their immediate close surroundings and focus only on possessions and security. Janie sees that repression as a stranglehold on her life.

5. People are joyful, shining spirits encased in earth; these spirits seek life and love but are often frustrated.

6. Many men were interested in marrying a wealthy and pretty widow.

7. Janie felt free but was in no hurry to act on her feelings. She was in an in-terim period of reassessing things and moving toward the future. Being alone was an opportunity.

8. Janie always sought joy, vitality, and love. Perhaps she was just waiting for a response from another “mud-ball” whose spirit sang back to her own.

6. Instruct students to read chapters 10–13 of Their Eyes Were Watching God in prepara-tion for Lesson 5.

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Questions for Review and Discussion

Directions: Use the following questions to examine chapters 7–9.

1. How would you describe Janie’s state of mind at the beginning of chapter 7? What does the narrator mean by the reference to the dung hill?

2. What coping strategy did Janie adopt?

3. What happened to Joe?

4. How did Janie’s behavior toward Joe change?

5. Why did Joe strike Janie during the incident described at the end of chapter 7?

6. What happened during Janie’s last conversation with Joe?

7. What did Janie see when she looked in the mirror? How does chapter 8 end?

8. What was Janie’s main reaction to Joe’s death? To whom did she confi de it?

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 4Handout 8 Date ________________________

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© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

“Each Little Spark”

Directions: During and after Joe’s funeral, Janie experienced renewal and insight. The passages are replete with fi gurative language to strengthen the novel’s themes. Consider the following points.

1. What metaphor describes Janie’s preparation for the funeral? How does the comparison work?

2. Behind her funeral veil, how did she feel?

3. What self-discoveries did she make?

4. What is the meaning of the references to the horizon?

5. The story includes a little creation myth. What does it convey?

6. Why did Janie have so many visitors?

7. Why did Janie enjoy being alone?

8. How does the creation myth relate to Janie’s sense of herself?

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 4Handout 9 Date ________________________

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Objectives• Toevaluate thepossibilities inJanie’s life

set into motion by Jody’s death and hernewfreedom

• Toclarify thenatureof thebondbetweenTea Cake and Janie, a foundation uponwhichthelasthalfofthenovelrests

• Tocontrastthisrelationship,evenaccom-panied as it is byhardships,with Janie’sothertworelationships

Notes to the Teacher Inchapters10–13,Janiedescribesmeeting,being captivated by, and marrying Tea Cake.In spite of doubt, she found herself comingalive.Itisimportantforstudentstoseeallthedimensions of her love, tounderstand that itwasnotmerelyatemporarysexualfascination.Thiswillbecomeclearerasthestorycontinues.

Janie’srelationshipwithTeaCakedidnotmeet with the townspeople’s approval. LikeGranny, they wanted her to choose safety,security, and wealth, and she had plenty ofsuitorswhoofferedthosethings.Janietookabig chance in going off with Tea Cake; therewas the warning example of Annie Tyler, fi-nanciallyruinedandpersonallydevastatedbya con man. Events in Jacksonville show TeaCake’s love for gambling, andhis injury in afight shows the possibility of involving Janiewith somevery roughpeople.She, of course,followedherheart.

Inthislesson,studentsrevieweventsandpeople inchapters10–13.TheythencompareandcontrastJanie’sthreemarriagesanden-gageincharacteranalysis.

Procedure1. Askstudents tobrieflysummarizeevents

described in chapters 10–13. (Janie and Tea Cake met, fell in love, and married. Janie left Eatonville and went to join him in Jacksonville.)

2. Distribute Handout 10, and have smallgroups complete the exercise.

Suggested Responses:

1. Hezekiah worked in Janie’s store and sometimes seemed to be in charge of it. He took an interest in Janie’s welfare and warned her against Tea Cake.

2. Tea Cake (Vergible Woods) came into the store on a slow day when most people were off to a ball game. He and Janie had a playful conversation, and he taught her how to play checkers.

3. The people in the town were opposed to their relationship, especially so soon after Jody’s death. They believed that Tea Cake was just after Janie’s money. In terms of material wealth, he had nothing to offer her. In addition, he was substantially younger than Janie.

4. There was, of course, a physical attrac-tion, but more important to Janie was Tea Cake’s playfulness. She wanted to believe his attraction to her was real and enduring.

5. Annie Tyler was a wealthy widow in her early fifties who, spurred by loneli-ness, had a series of affairs with much younger men who were only interested in her money. Eventually, she became involved with Who Flung, who took off with all of her money, leaving her a broken woman. Her bitter experience is what the people expected for Janie if she continued her relationship with Tea Cake, and it was an experience Janie feared.

6. Janie had a little money in her purse and $200 hidden. Tea Cake found and took it; he hosted a party where Janie was not present, gambled, and bought a guitar.

7. Tea Cake went to a gambling game to win Janie’s money back, got in a fight, and was cut. She took tender care of him.

8. Tea Cake wanted to go with Janie to the Everglades to work on the farms. The goal was twofold: money and fun.

Lesson 5

A Glance from God

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9. Despite Tea Cake’s fun-loving nature and genuine devotion to Janie, his gam-bling and rough company could have posed dangers. Janie, however, seems to have loved him unconditionally.

10. The rhymes did not go out of their con-versations, and Tea Cake was not just using Janie for his own purposes.

3. Using Handout 11, encourage students to explore creatively the wisdom and effects of each choice of a mate which Janie has made. Schedule class time for presentations.

4. Distribute Handout 12, and review di-rections with the class. Allow time for small group brainstorming and individual writing.

5. Instruct students to read chapters 14–17 of Their Eyes Were Watching God in prepara-tion for Lesson 6.

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© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

A New Page in Janie’s Life

Directions: Use the following questions to clarify your understanding of chapters 10–13.

1. Who was Hezekiah? How would you describe his relationship with Janie?

2. How did Janie meet Tea Cake? Describe their initial encounter.

3. What were some of the barriers to their romance?

4. What attracted Janie to Tea Cake?

5. Explain the relevance of the story about Annie Tyler and Who Flung.

6. How much money was Janie carrying with her? What happened to it?

7. How did Tea Cake get hurt? How did Janie react?

8. Where did Tea Cake want to go? Why?

9. Was there a dark side to Tea Cake’s character? Explain.

10. How was Janie’s relationship with him unlike her previous marriages?

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 5Handout 10 Date ________________________

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Janie’s Relationships

Directions: In spite of the short duration of so many marriages today, the choice of a mate re-mains extremely important. Choose several people in class with whom to work. Discuss with them the differences in Janie’s three choices: Logan Killicks, Joseph Starks (Jody), and Vergible Woods (Tea Cake). Decide on one of the following means of communication. Present your findings to the rest of the class.

Role-Play

Portray the couple of your choice, Janie and one of her three husbands. Use dialogue from the text. Act out what you think was the true nature of their relationship. If possible, create a video recording of the dramatization.

Poster

Prepare a poster illustrating your interpretation of one of these relationships. Include a descrip-tive line from the text at the bottom of the poster.

Reading

Prepare a choral reading or a series of solo readings with musical background. Choose either lines of dialogue from the novel or lines of description explaining Janie’s experience with one of her husbands. Use recorded or live music for accompaniment.

Television Talk Show

Imitate a talk show format. One member of the group will be the host. Several will portray some or all of the four characters—Janie, Logan, Jody, Tea Cake—or talk about them as though they are relatives or friends. Others will be guests. Use anecdotes from the novel’s narrative to illustrate the judgments made by the panelists.

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 5Handout 11 Date ________________________

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Characters and Relationships

Directions: Choose one of the following characters to analyze.

• Logan Killicks

• Joseph Starks

• Vergible Woods (Tea Cake)

• Janie Mae Crawford/Killicks/Starks/Woods

Gather evidence to present specifi c features of the character’s relationship with one or more characters. Decide upon three or four effects of the relationship on the character you will analyze. Discuss each effect in turn, using the evidence you have gathered. Do you think the relationship was destructive or constructive in the person’s life? What would have been different if circumstances had not been the same? Develop your ideas into a coherent, clear essay that will be shared with the class.

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Character

Relationship(s) Positive Effects

Negative EffectsAlternative

Circumstances/Results

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 5Handout 12 Date ________________________

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Objectives• ToexamineJanie’sandTeaCake’slivesin

aworldverydifferentfromEatonville

• ToobserveandunderstandthedevelopmentinJanie’s characterasa result ofher lifeinthisnewworld

• To study the interaction of the naturalworld,social issues,andsocial life in thislocality

Notes to the Teacher Anewcharacternowenters—theEverglades,“groundsorichthateverythingwentwild.Peoplewildtoo.”TeaCake,knowinghowmuchcane,beans,andtomatoesgrowintherichsoil,tookJanie there for the picking season—for themoneybutalsoforthefun.Thiswasthetimeof fulfillment for both of them—through oneseasonofcane,onto themonthsof idleness,then to the start of a new season—days andweekscrowdedwitheventsandlearning.

The wild nature of the social interac-tion—fights, gambling, meanness—needs tobediscussed.TheworldforJaniewasnotthepatternedworldofthestorewithitsbusinessroutineanditsporch–sitters.Shewasopentoanewkindof learning.Shesawpeople “uglyfromignoranceandbrokenfrombeingpoor.”

Asshelearnedmore,asshespenttheday-timeaswellworkingalongsideTeaCake,shefeltdistancedfromEatonville.

The overt behavior of “life on the muck”movedintoJanie’semotionallifeasshewrestledwithTeaCakeandstruckhiminafitofrageoverhisflirtationwithNunkie.WhenTeaCakewhippedJanietoreassurehimselfthathepos-sessedher,shedidnotleavehiminindignationbut lovedhimasmuchas ever.This conceptneedsdiscussion asmany studentswill havestrongreactionstoJanie’sbehavior.

Procedure1. Distribute Handout 13. Divide the class

intosevengroups.AskeachgrouptoworkononeofthepointslistedinpartA.Aftertwentyminutes,lead(orhavestudentslead)adiscussionwiththeentireclassonlifein

the Everglades. Use the board to list thepositivesandnegativesof this life.DecideontheoverallresultsoftheexperienceforJanie.

Remindstudentsthatcitinglinesfromthenoveltosupporttheirjudgmentsisanim-portantpartofthecriticalprocess.

Suggested Responses:

1. The broad social mix—Bahamans, Seminoles, blacks, whites—was very different from that in Eatonville, giving Janie a wider perspective on life.

2–3. Hard physical work contrasted sharply with Janie’s work in the store in Ea-tonville and seemed to generate a very physical culture with tense sexual un-dercurrents, including the incidents with Nunkie and Janie’s first experience of jealousy.

4. The other workers seem to have admired and liked Tea Cake; at first, they felt distant from Janie, who seemed a more high-class person.

5. The jooks were lively and raucous, broadening experiences for Janie, but always potentially dangerous.

6. Mrs. Turner took a particular liking to Janie because she seemed more white than the others; Mrs. Turner’s overt racism ultimately led to the destruction of her restaurant and her flight out of the Everglades.

7. Janie had no desire to be anything but what she was—a black woman in love with a black man and experiencing life. The exchange of blows can be deeply troubling to many students, but neither Janie nor Tea Cake saw it as deeply problematic, and it did not hamper their love. It may have been a product of the very physical qualities of their daily lives.

2. HavestudentscompletepartBofHandout 13. Then conduct a discussion based ontheir judgments.

Lesson 6

The Everglades

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Suggested Responses:

Some students may rejoice in Janie’s new freedom and knowledge of this world of the Everglades and Tea Cake’s place in it. Others may be repelled by her life and argue that she is too subservient to Tea Cake and is not utilizing her own talents. Oppositions may create an interesting discussion.

3. Distribute Handout 14 along with newsprint or art paper, markers, and other graphics materials. Divide the class into teams of four or fi ve. Ask small groups to create a visual illustrating one scene or line in chapters 14–17. Direct groups to present the draw-ings to the class, and invite responses from the class.

4. Instruct students to read chapter 18 of Their Eyes Were Watching God in preparation for Lesson 7.

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Life in the Everglades

Part A.

Directions: Think about the experiences of Janie and Tea Cake in their new life in the Everglades. Do you consider the effects of this life to be largely positive for them or largely negative? Consider the following issues.

Experiences Details/Quotations Effects

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

1. the social mix of people

2. the nature of the work

3. the sexual undercurrents

4. the attitudes of the other workers

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 6Handout 13 (page 1) Date ________________________

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© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 6Handout 13 (page 2) Date ________________________

Part B.

Directions: To what extent does Janie grow and benefi t in her new life in the Everglades? Do you see the effects as mainly positive or negative? Mark your position on the continuum, and write a paragraph defending your opinion.

Janie deteriorates.

Janiefl ourishes.

Experiences Details/Quotations Effects

5. the evenings at the jooks

6. Mrs. Turner’s racism

7. Janie and Tea Cake trading actual blows

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An Illustration of Janie’s World

Directions: Many strong images appear in chapters 14–17, making this section of the text especially appropriate for visual depiction. Reread Zora Neale Hurston’s description of each of the following, and take notes. Then use one of them or another vivid image of your choice as the subject of a poster. Your work may be either representational or abstract.

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

The Living Quarters Tea Cake Playing His Guitar

Janie in Blue Denim Overalls Janie and Nunkie

Image of Your ChoiceThe Incident at Mrs. Turner’s Restaurant

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 6Handout 14 Date ________________________

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Objectives• To focus on the action in chapter 18 as

preludetomorecatastropheandculmina-tionofalifelivedatrisk

• TothinkaboutthedepthoftheloveJanieandTeaCakeshare

Notes to the Teacher ThefightattheTurners’inchapter17pre-figuresthechaosintheworldoftheEvergladeswhenthedikebroke.Peoplehadtofindhighergroundtoavoidtheoncominglake.JanieandTeaCakemovedontothepivotalcatastrophe,thebiteofthemaddog,asTeaCakedefendedJanie.Thisevent,withthecircumstancesofthefloodandthestorm,determinedTeaCake’slaterdeathandJanie’slatersorrow.InPalmBeach,theyhadtimetotalkoverthismostdramaticmomentof their livesand theirvalue toeachother.

Inthislesson,studentsreturntoasubjectthey discussed in Lesson 1—what it meansto be a survivor. They use the Internet toresearchsurvivorstoriesandsharetheirfind-ings.(IfyourclassroomdoesnothaveInternetaccess, have students complete the researchandHandout 15priortothelesson.)Studentsthenconsiderthereferencestothenovel’stitleinchapter18andtheimpactofthestormonJanieandTeaCake.

Procedure1. Point out that chapter 18 describes a

dramatic and difficult effort to escape anatural disaster, and remind studentsof their discussion of survivors prior totheir study of Their Eyes Were Watching God.Askstudents tobrainstorma listofdisasters that people, individually and ingroups,seektosurvive(flood, earthquake, tornado, shipwreck, fire, avalanche, war, attack by a wild animal, etc.). Then havestudentsindividuallyorwithpartnersusetheInternettoresearchspecificexamples.Distribute Handout 15 for students torecord their findings.

2. Leadadiscussionbasedonstudents’ re-search,andpointoutcommonalitiessuchas a desperate turn to God, an ultimate

experience of gratitude, and the need toreturn to the scene of the disaster.

3. Point out that chapter18alludes severaltimestothetitleofthenovel.Askstudentsto point out and explain the allusions.

Suggested Responses:

Five or six pages into the chapter, the narrator comments, “Six eyes were questioning God.” Motor Boat, Tea Cake, and Janie huddled in the house just before the dikes broke, causing the Okeechobee to flood. A few pages later comes the exact phrase, “their eyes were watching God.” This time the watchers were Janie and Tea Cake, but also all of the other people huddling fearfully in their huts. This is the timeless situation of people who are helpless to save themselves and turn to Providence.

4. Distribute Handout 16, and conduct adiscussion of the items in part A.

Suggested Responses:

1. Both Janie and Tea Cake sound humble, serious, exhausted, and relieved. Their love was mature and deep.

2. The opening encounter was playful, flirtatious, and tentative.

3. Some students may pick up the foreshad-owing in the description of the incident with the dog, particularly its dread of the water and its terrible eyes, both characteristic of hydrophobia (rabies).

4. With Tea Cake, Janie found genuine love, which she learned is more than “flower dust and springtime.”

5. Have students work individually on thefree writing assignment in part B. Allowtime for volunteers to share their work,and encourage large-group discussion,

6. Instructstudentstoreadchapter19ofTheir Eyes Were Watching GodinpreparationforLesson8.

Lesson 7

Surviving the Flood

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© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Surviving a Real-Life Disaster

Directions: Use the Internet to learn about a specifi c instance in which a person struggled to escape from and survive a disastrous situation. Record your fi ndings below.

1. Nature, time, and place of disaster

2. Name and description of survivor

3. Details used to describe the disaster

4. Other people involved

5. Survival steps/attempts

6. Attitude of survivor, in retrospect

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 7Handout 15 Date ________________________

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A Closer Look at Janie and Tea Cake

Part A.

Directions: Use the following prompts to reflect on chapter 18.

1. Read aloud the conversation between Janie and Tea Cake at the end of chapter 18. What do you hear?

2. Read aloud the conversation at Janie and Tea Cake’s first meeting at the start of chapter 10. What do you hear?

3. Review the story of the fight with the dog. Decide on the most important details, and discuss their significance.

4. Discuss how far Janie and Tea Cake have come by the end of chapter 18.

Part B.

Directions: On a separate piece of paper, write a focused free writing on one of these topics:

• The Strength of “The Tie That Binds”

• The Disadvantage and Value of Risk in a Love Relationship

©COPYRIGHT,TheCenterforLearning.Usedwithpermission.Notforresale.

TheirEyesWereWatchingGod Name _______________________Lesson7Handout 16 Date ________________________

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Objectives• To examine in detail the progression of

eventswhichledtoTeaCake’sdeath

• Tomovetoaphilosophicalconsiderationoftheevents

Notes to the Teacher As they read, in chapter18, of JanieandTea Cake suffering from the storm, studentswillnaturally focusonthesurvivalofthetwoandbemovedbytheir feelings foreachotherastheysurvivedthenaturalcatastrophe.

In chapter 19, the consequences of theevents unfold. Students will ask themselveswhyJanieandTeaCakehadtobeenvelopedinthiscrisis.Theywillwonderwhythetwodidnotleavethelakeareaearliersothattheywerenotintheworstpossiblesituation.Dealingwiththese questions now rather than in Lesson 7willhelpstudentstofocustheirattentionevenmoresharplyonchapter19.Handout 17willhelpstudentstolinkeventandmeaning.

Thesamehumanbeingswhohadworked,rejoiced,played,andsuffered in theirchoicesmoved to the larger stage symbolized by thenovel’stitle.Theylostcontroloftheir livesbynotheedingsoonenoughthesignalsofcomingdisaster.Asenseofdestinyparalyzesthem.

Forced to help bury the dead, Tea Cakediscovered that white corpses were placed incoffins,whileblackcorpses(identifiedbytheirhair if by nothing else) were dropped directlyinto theground. In theEverglades,hemovedtomorecatastropheashedevelopedsymptomsofrabies.Janie,sufferingasshewatchedhimsuffer,wascompelledtoshoothimtosaveherownlife.TheobligatorymurdertrialafterwardgaveJanieacontinuing life,butshesufferedgreatgrief.

Procedure1. Askstudentswhethertheyweresurprised

by events in chapter 19, and conduct ageneral discussion based on responses.Include Tea Cake’s experiences buryingthedead,hisillness,Janie’sshootinghim,and the trial.

2. DistributeHandout 17,andhavestudentsdiscussthequestioneitherinsmallgroupsor as a whole class.

Suggested Responses:

1. The Seminole Indians left the area, as did the Bahamans. ’Lias offered Tea Cake and Janie a ride in his car. The animals and birds left as well.

2. The workers were accustomed to relying completely on the white landowners for safety.

3. Tea Cake, Motor, and Janie had no idea how to cope with the storm. Only God had the answer to their bewilderment, the same bewilderment Janie faced in Tea Cake’s illness and her trial.

4. Janie remembers the unimportance of her former life compared to the significance of her love for Tea Cake. He was truly a gift from God to her.

5. Janie remembers the hate in the dog’s eyes, a danger Tea Cake defended her from (which, the doctor told her later, must have been rabies).

6. As a black man, he had the worst jobs involving dead bodies. He saw the ut-ter disregard for the black people who died.

7. After the bite of the mad dog, Tea Cake’s only hope was medical attention. Although he and Janie reached Palm Beach, it was impossible immediately to find a doctor in the chaos after the storm. Later, his being impressed into service burying corpses was such a dreadful experience that he could think only of returning to the Everglades. There he had a little time but no serum to prevent the progress of the illness he did not know he had.

8. She shot in self-defense and to free Tea Cake.

Lesson 8

The Crisis

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9. In the eyes of the law, Janie may have been guilty of murder. She was acquitted.

10. To Janie, Tea Cake was everything.

11. The people’s ambivalence stemmed from their love for Tea Cake and lack of understanding of Janie’s actions. The funeral finery and their basic affection for Janie led them to forgive her.

12. For Jody’s funeral, Janie presented a carefully prepared image that dis-guised her inner feelings of freedom. She arrived at Tea Cake’s funeral in her overalls, too full of grief to care about appearances.

3. Instruct students to reread chapter 19 of Their Eyes Were Watching God in prepara-tion for Lesson 9.

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The Path to Death

Directions: Use the following questions to discuss the fate of Janie and Tea Cake.

1. Review chapter 18. What signals about impending disaster did Janie, Tea Cake, and other people fail to heed?

2. What is the signifi cance of the reference to castles and cabins in chapter 18?

3. Look again at the references to the title in chapter 18. What do they mean to you now?

4. How does Janie view God as part of her relationship with Tea Cake?

5. In retrospect, can you see foreshadowing in the description of the dog that bit Tea Cake?

6. How and why did Tea Cake encounter racism in the aftermath of the fl ood?

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 8Handout 17 (page 1) Date ________________________

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7. What choices did Tea Cake make that led to his death?

8. Why did Janie shoot Tea Cake?

9. Explain the reason for Janie’s trial. What was the verdict?

10. What is the meaning of the statement, “Tea Cake was the son of Evening Sun”?

11. Explain the people’s shifting attitude toward Janie.

12. How did Janie’s presence at Tea Cake’s funeral differ from her appearance at Jody’s?

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 8Handout 17 (page 2) Date ________________________

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Objectives• TofocusonJanie’slastmomentswithTea

Cake

• Tounderstandthecomplexityofherloss

• Torecognizethedynamicsofthetrial

Notes to the Teacher Counting the steps Janie and Tea Caketreaded toward catastrophe, we begin to seethestorm inseveralways. It isaplotdevice,movingtheactionanddisplayingthecharacters’innerworlds.Itisamercilessmoveofdestiny,dominatingchapters18and19,forcingJanietoletTeaCakego.

To see thedifferent levels onwhichJaniesuffered—physical, social, emotional, spiri-tual—is to recognize also her own personalstrength,thatsheisabletosurvive.Shecopedwiththetrialthroughthesameresourcefulnesssheonceusedtoleavesituationswhichcutherdown.Shecoped through thesame ingenuityand focusshe forcedherself tousewhenTeaCakewassoillandsuchahazardtoherverylife.

Procedure1. Distribute Handout 18. Have two vol-

unteers dramatize the dialogue betweenJanie and Tea Cake when she returnedhome from her visit to the doctor (aboutthirteen pages into chapter 19).

2. Askstudentstorespondtothefirstquestionon Handout 18. Lead them to recognizethe deep affection and respect the twohaveforeachother.ThiswasthelasttimeJanie could talk toTeaCake inhis rightmind. To her, he was a gift from God, asourceofsalvation.Tohim,shewasmorebeautiful than roses.On the otherhand,the gun under the pillow is ominous.

3. Have students work in small groups tocomplete the rest of the handout.

Suggested Responses:

2. Tea Cake was cranky, resentful, and bossy. Janie saw that the real Tea Cake was no longer there.

3. The words snarled, ferocity, loping,clenched,likehewassomemaddog,ferocious, and fiend link Tea Cake with the mad dog in the flood.

4. Janie had to pry his teeth off her arm; then she tenderly cradled him in a final goodbye.

5. Answers will be highly subjective de-pending on students’ experiences with love and death.

6. Janie lost the love of her life, and she herself pulled the trigger. With his death, she lost her spiritual anchor.

7. Judge, jury, and lawyers were white men, and there were some well-to-do white women who came to observe. The black people were massed in the back of the courtroom, and they were, for the time being, all angry at Janie.

8. Janie feared misunderstanding; to her, the really terrible thing would have been for people to think her shooting of Tea Cake was motivated by malice.

9. We do not hear Janie’s actual words, and the testimony is not presented in dialect. The courtroom response suggests that she was genuine and moving. She wanted Tea Cake to live, but the disease made that impossible. Her comments use the metaphor of a rabid dog inside of Tea Cake and re-mind us of his skill as a gambler, at the end involved in an awful game.

10. The only unreconciled area is inside Janie, who remains devastated by grief.

11. Eventually, time must part all lovers. The strength of Janie’s and Tea Cake’s love seemed to create eternity, but it could not. Note the vivid personification of an hour as a weeping human. For Janie, the sun had set; she was in darkness. The trial took place between sunrise and sundown.

Lesson 9

Loss

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12. We know from the story frame that she makes her way back to Eatonville. Did she go back to the home she shared with Tea Cake? Does she keep some special mementos of her life with him? Will she eventually marry for a fourth time?

4. Instruct students to read the very short chapter 20 in preparation for Lesson 10.

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Janie and Tea Cake: Final Moments

Directions: Use the following questions to examine Janie’s fi nal experiences with Tea Cake.

1. Reread Janie’s conversation with Tea Cake when she returned from her secret visit with the doctor. What insights do you gain?

2. How was Tea Cake different the next morning?

3. What specifi c word choices show what happened to him?

4. What happened immediately after Janie shot Tea Cake?

5. How effective is Zora Neale Hurston’s presentation of the scene? How did you respond as you read it?

6. Explain the complexity of Janie’s situation.

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7. Explain the racial differences at the trial.

8. What was Janie’s most pressing concern?

9. Describe Janie’s testimony.

10. To what extent does chapter 19 end with reconciliation?

11. How does Hurston use the idea of time? Consider the many references to the sun.

12. With the funeral over, what do you expect Janie to do next?

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 9Handout 18 (page 2) Date ________________________

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Objectives• To relate chapter 20 to the opening chapter

• To interpret the ending of the novel

Notes to the Teacher The novel ends with forgiveness and peace. Janie’s soul, once full of life as a pear tree blooming, has undergone the transformation great suffering brings. Tea Cake’s friends now realize that, far from meaning him harm, Janie shared with Tea Cake a powerful love in which both of them fl ourished.

Janie’s life has been a search, out to the horizon, for people. In the last lines of the story, we see great tenderness and peace, as well as gratitude.

In this lesson, students reconnect with the frame of the story, Janie’s return to Eatonville and her long conversation with Pheoby. They then recognize that Janie herself articulates some of the novel’s themes in her closing com-ments to Pheoby. They analyze the imagery and fi gurative language in the closing paragraphs. Finally, they complete an essay, either in class or as an at-home assignment in which they respond to Janie’s total experience.

Procedure

1. Remind students that Their Eyes Were Watching God is a frame story, and chapter 20 presents the other side of the frame. Ask them to explain the elements of the frame. (Refreshed by the meal brought by Pheoby and relaxing with her feet soaking in a pan of water, Janie is telling the story of her life, especially of what happened to Tea Cake, to her old friend.)

2. Distribute Handout 19, and have students discuss the questions either in small groups or as a whole class.

Suggested Responses:

1. Without Tea Cake, the Everglades just seemed like a whole lot of mud.

2. Janie has kept a packet of seeds Tea Cake planned to plant; she intends to plant the seeds around her old home in Eatonville.

3. No, Janie is not telling secrets. Pheoby is free to tell everyone what happened.

4. Pheoby feels empowered in a small way, as if Janie’s story has somehow conveyed new stature to the listener.

5. “Yuh got to go there tuh know there.” “Two things everybody’s got to do fuh theyselves. They got to go tuh God, and they got tuh fi nd out about livin’ fuh theyselves.”

6. The seed packet, a memory of Tea Cake, represents new life. A part of him will grow in Eatonville. True love, like the sea, adapts itself to the beloved; it is not like a grindstone, wearing the other person down. Tea Cake brought light to Janie’s life. The horizon represents to Janie both the ultimate that she can experience and the search for new endeavors. For now, she has pulled in her horizon and is ready to examine where she has been and what she has experienced. Janie is now middle-aged; one suspects that her pursuit of vitality, of the spark in other mud-balls, is not over.

7. Janie feels the consoling presence of Tea Cake always near her. She is aware of her own life as a combination of sor-row and joy. She is awed and grateful about what she has experienced.

3. Distribute Handout 20. Review the essay assignment, and establish your expecta-tions regarding length, format, and due date.

Lesson 10

Like a Pharaoh to His Tomb

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Resolution

Directions: Use the following questions as the basis to discuss the resolution of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

1. Why did Jane decide not to stay in the Everglades?

2. What has she kept as a remembrance?

3. Does Janie want her story to be held in confi dence?

4. How does Pheoby respond to the story she has just heard?

5. In her closing words to Pheoby, Janie articulates some of the novel’s major themes. What are they?

6. Explain the symbolism of the seed packet, the grindstone/sea, the sun, and the horizon.

7. What does Janie experience in the novel’s closing paragraphs?

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Final Essay

Directions: After thinking through the following topic, plan and write a substantial essay.

Reread the fi rst two paragraphs of chapter 1 and the last paragraph of chapter 20. In light of those three paragraphs, write an essay setting forth what you regard as the chief accomplishment of Janie’s life. Unfold the motivating factors which shape the course of events. Analyze the distance Janie travels. Assess the cost to her of all the sacrifi ces she has made. Convey your assessment of the value of Janie’s life.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Lesson 10Handout 20 Date ________________________

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Creative Projects

Directions: Choose one of the following activities as an end-of-unit response to the novel.

Video

Choose a minor character such as Motor Boat, Mrs. Turner’s brother, Pheoby, Sop-de-Bottom, a jury member at Janie’s trial, or a white woman in the courtroom at the trial, and write a monologue for the character. In it, review his or her experience with Janie, narrate a part of the action, interpret Janie, and share feelings about the significance of being involved in this drama. Present the monologue live or in video form.

Art

Prepare a series of drawings or paintings illustrating scenes from the novel which you regard as specially significant. Bind your work in an album, or prepare a visual display in the classroom. Attach to each drawing a few evocative lines from the novel.

Audio

Prepare a recording of music which seems to you to echo the spirit of various chapters from the novel. (If you are a composer, record your own compositions which fit.)

Research

Investigate the natural history of the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee. Present your findings to the class.

Fiction Writing

1. Write a narrative giving Janie a new encounter in a new setting.

2. Write a fantasy in which Janie and Tea Cake see one another again and communicate their feelings.

Professor for the Day

Using Janie’s often quoted words, “Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves,” lead a class discussion of the novel. Encourage your classmates to unfold Janie’s movement toward God and her dis-coveries about living. Make sure the discussion stays focused. Require participants to support their assertions with specific references to the text.

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Making a Portfolio

Directions: What if the decision on how to approach Their Eyes Were Watching God were your decision? With what aspects of the novel would you want to deal: character study? historical back-ground? psychological study? What connections with your own life have you already made? Would the opportunity to direct your own learning teach you something new? change you?

The activities listed below will help you to make your own study plans. You could work in-dependently or form a team with several other students, helping each other to assess progress, growth, and understanding. You should fi nd the enterprise very satisfying.

Reading You will need to document your reading as you proceed. Here are some suggestions which

might help you.

1. Keep a reading journal. Be very specifi c, regularly summarizing chapters for yourself. If you add reactions that are immediate as you read, you will be interested later to com-pare them with additional judgments of the meaning of the story as you read on.

2. Do some periodic free writings. Choose a heading (a character name, place name, or a phrase from the novel). For at least fi fteen minutes, write in a free-fl ow style about whatever the heading suggests to you.

3. Every fi ve chapters, list basic messages the writer seems to be giving just to you. Com-ment on each message.

4. Reread what you have done for 1, 2, and 3 above. Think through what your writing tells you about your reading style and your philosophy of life. Ask yourself if you have changed your judgments as you progressed with your reading. Did your thoughtful read-ing push you to reread certain chapters? With what results?

Writing There are many different forms of writing: poem, narrative, essay, etc. Develop some of

these writings to follow the reading documentation detailed above. Here are some choices.

1. Write a series of poems. You decide on the subjects. For instance, write a poem to bring alive each of the characters in whom you are especially interested.

2. Write experience narratives. What events in your own life were brought to your mind as you read the novel? Of what events in a friend’s life were you reminded? Write a story with appropriate dialogue and description.

3. Comment on meaning. What philosophical phrases, like “the meaning of love . . . the importance of self-knowledge . . . developing and/or losing relationships” come to your mind from the pages of the novel? Write a series of essays or reveries which you tie to some quotations from chapters.

4. Make some imaginative projections. Write some narrative sketches of the next chapters in Janie’s life. What second story might she experience?

5. Write some dialogue between characters which is not included in the novel. There may have been times when you wanted to know what one character said to another, but the author chose to move into action instead of writing dialogue. Write what you wish you would have heard.

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Format

Combine your reading journals and notes with the writing you’ve developed. Using an album or a notebook, collect your portfolio writing in readable form. Supply a table of contents if you wish, and make use of photography and/or artwork to keynote your experience in working with the novel.

Presentation

In addition to showing your finished portfolio to other students, you might enjoy presenting it formally to the class. Here are several suggested ways. You may think of more.

1. Speech and reading—Present major portions of your portfolio. You might also ask someone in the class to record your presentation so that you can share it with others later.

2. Bulletin board in the classroom or school hall—Use photos representing events you have written about in your portfolio as well as drawings and/or computer-generated art.

3. Dramatized incidents from your portfolio or from the novel, acted out by you and some classmates—The dramatization might be live or a video recording. In the latter case, you could use some experimental film techniques.

Evaluation

Only you know what the portfolio has done for you; you may be surprised, however, at what others gain from reading or hearing about it. The following evaluations will help you to see the value of your work.

Self-Evaluation

Answer the following questions in your own mind and also in writing if you wish:

1. What did you learn about your own reading and writing skills from this work? Have you moved to a different level of competency? Describe where you began and where you ended.

2. What about the development of ideas? Were you more sure of yourself in this regard as you moved through your study?

3. With what phases of reading and writing skills did you need help? Where did you find the help?

4. If you were beginning a portfolio again, what would you do differently to simplify the process or enrich your experience?

Peer Evaluation

You should have some formal feedback from your classmates and teacher about your work on this portfolio. Design your own instrument of evaluation by listing questions you think the class would enjoy working on and/or questions about which you would like to hear others’ opinions.

Distribute this evaluation sheet when the others see your portfolio or hear you talk about it. Encourage them to be truthful but sensitive.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Supplementary Materials (page 2) Date ________________________

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Critics’ Comments

Directions: In the years since Alice Walker rediscovered Zora Neale Hurston, her work, especially Their Eyes Were Watching God, has received a lot of critical attention. Respond to the following questions on separate paper.

1. Alain Locke, quoted in a 1990 foreword to the novel, says Hurston created “pseudo-primi-tives.” What do you understand this term to mean? To what sections of the novel might he be referring? Do you agree with his term?

2. Alice Walker is quoted as saying that “while many women had found their own voices, they also knew when it was better not to use it.” The remark refers to Janie’s silence during her trial. What is some circumstance you have observed or experienced which this quotation would fit? To what degree does this circumstance parallel some circumstance in Janie’s life?

3. Mary Helen Washington ends her foreword to a 1990 edition by saying, “The novel represents a woman redefining and revising a male dominated canon.” She continues that such a revision needs to be made and that women have a place in the work. What do you think? Is it possible that even today men have set up the rules defining nature for both men and women? If not, why not? If so, do women still have to insist on a revision? Talk from your own experience and observation.

4. In a 1990 afterword to the novel, Henry Louis Gates Jr. cites Hurston as embodying a “problem-atic unity of opposites.” He continues with an explanation of why this complexity is interesting to black women especially because it was “generated to establish a maternal literary ancestry.” This statement relates especially to question 3. Gates continues that black women writers read Hurston “not only for the spiritual kinship . . . but because she used black vernacular speech and rituals. . . .” Summarize what the spirituality of the novel and the use of the black ver-nacular speech added to your appreciation as you read.

5. Gates also quotes Hurston’s term, “the sobbing school of Negrohood.” What black literature have you read which you would align with the term, “the sobbing school”? Do you sympathize with the latter, or do you prefer Hurston’s “sense of black people as complete, complex, undi-minished human beings”?

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Writing Topics

Directions: Write an essay in response to one of the following prompts.

1. Look at Janie’s changes. Study the perceptions of herself you hear from Janie at the beginning and then again later in the novel. Is there a change in the way she sees herself? Have you grown closer to her character as you watched her go through her ordeal? Analyze “change” in reference to Janie and yourself as a reader.

2. Make comparisons. If several of the characters in the novel remind you of persons you have known in real life, write some comparison paragraphs about these people, describing them and quoting appropriate phrases from the novel to make the connections with the fi ctional characters.

3. Analyze your reading style. Write some pages analyzing the way you read. How did you help yourself build an understanding of the characters? Do you normally read quickly, then reread for more depth? Do you always read slowly, watching for perceptions as you go? How much of the novel’s action were you able to predict? What events surprised you? Do you attribute your answers to these last two questions to your reading style or to the writer’s skill?

4. Henry Louis Gates Jr. states that Their Eyes Were Watching God is closely related to Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady and Jean Toomer’s Cane. Investigate the relationship of either of these works to Hurston’s novel. Delineate at least two similarities between the James or the Toomer work and Their Eyes Were Watching God.

5. Gates also says that Hurston’s novel has a concern with “language as an instrument of injury and salvation.” Looking at one of the following, write about language as an instrument of injury or as an instrument of salvation:

• your own life

• the life of someone you know

• one character’s experience in Their Eyes Were Watching God

• one character’s experience in your favorite novel

6. Reread chapter 13, Janie’s experience with Tea Cake in Jacksonville and his story about his experience away from her with his gambling friends. Some readers would describe this chapter as more fantasy than reality. What do you think about it? Write an analysis.

7. Trace through the novel the infl uence of Janie on Pheoby.

8. Describe the special closeness of Tea Cake and Janie after his death.

9. Enumerate the circumstances in which Janie suffers pain silently. What would you ask her about each circumstance if you could talk with her?

10. Look up Zora Neale Hurston’s autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, fi rst published in 1942. The simple chapter titles may draw you to read part if not all of the book. Make a special study of one or two chapters and write about your discoveries.

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Supplementary Materials Date ________________________

Quiz

Part A.

Directions: Match each character with his or her description.

________ 1. Hezekiah

________ 2. Nunkie

________ 3. Janie Crawford

________ 4. Joe Starks

________ 5. Vergible Woods

________ 6. Motor Boat

________ 7. Mrs. Turner

________ 8. Logan Killicks

________ 9. Pheoby

________ 10. Annie Tyler

a. the main character in Their Eyes Were Watching God

b. man who worked in a store in Eatonville

c. woman who was duped by a con artist

d. farmer whose wife left him

e. person who became a very powerful fi gure in Eatonville

f. loyal person who listens to a friend’s story

g. person also known as Tea Cake

h. bigoted woman who had a restaurant

i. person who fl irted with Tea Cake in the Everglades

j. person who will not leave an abandoned house during a hurricane

Part B.

Directions: Identify each statement as either true or false.

________ 1. Nanny always encouraged Janie to pursue new horizons.

________ 2. Janie did not realize she was black until she saw herself in a photograph.

________ 3. As a young girl, Janie liked to sit under an apple tree.

________ 4. Logan Killicks was physically abusive to Janie.

________ 5. Jody was elected mayor of Eatonville.

________ 6. Jody’s death left Janie severely depressed.

________ 7. Tea Cake taught Janie how to play checkers.

________ 8. Tea Cake and Janie went to work in the Everglades.

________ 9. Tea Cake became ill after being bitten by a rabid skunk.

________ 10. At the end of the novel, Janie is packing up to move on to new horizons.

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Quiz Answer Key

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Supplementary Materials

Part A.

1. b

2. i

3. a

4. e

5. g

6. j

7. h

8. d

9. f

10. c

Part B.

1. false

2. true

3. false

4. false

5. true

6. false

7. true

8. true

9. false

10. false

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Test

Part A.

Directions: Answer each question with one or two complete, detailed sentences.

1. How does the title of this novel relate to an event or events in the story?

2. With whom did Janie live during her childhood years? Why?

3. Janie reflects, near the end of the novel, that she hates her grandmother. What is the reason for her hatred?

4. To whom does Janie tell the story of her life, and why?

5. What effect does Janie’s tale have on this listener?

6. Joe Starks seemed an attractive man to Janie when she first met him. What is one change in him that later made her realize he was not a desirable mate after all?

7. How do the events which follow the teasing of the yellow mule relate to Janie’s discovery of Jody’s real character?

8. After Joe Starks died, Janie spent six months in black. When she began to wear mourning white, how did the townspeople react to her?

9. When Tea Cake and Janie were seen together, what facts made people predict that the two would not get along and therefore would be a bad match?

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Supplementary Materials (page 1) Date ________________________

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Part B.

Directions: Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Write a detailed sentence or two explaining your position.

1. The fi rst quality that attracted Janie to Tea Cake was that he knew how to play.

2. Young Hezekiah, who helped Janie in the store, distrusted Tea Cake and thought he was bad for her.

3. Janie feels close to the natural world.

Part C.

Directions: Write a few detailed sentences in response to each of the following topics.

1. Describe briefl y, with details, the life in each of these places so important to Janie:

a. Eatonville

b. The Everglades

2. Give an example from anywhere in the novel of white racism causing suffering for blacks.

3. What is one reason for the presence of the Turner family as an element in the plot?

4. When Janie shot Tea Cake, she had to be tried for murder. The blacks in the community turned against her. Why?

5. Why did they forget their hostility after Tea Cake’s funeral?

© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Name _______________________Supplementary Materials (page 2) Date ________________________

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Suggested Responses to Test Questions

Part A.

1. As the hurricane gathered force and the wind picked up again, Tea Cake, Janie, and Motor Boat sat inside Tea Cake’s house watching the wind shake the wall. They had no plan to save themselves and no one to help them.

2. Janie never knew her mother and father; she was raised by her grandmother.

3. After she is mature enough to refl ect on her past, Janie hates her grandmother for encourag-ing the subservience that resulted in her marriage to Logan Killicks, a dreary man. She does not learn until much later how to value herself.

4. The novel begins at the point when Janie returns, after Tea Cake’s death, to Eatonville. Meet-ing her old friend Pheoby, she spends the evening recounting not only what happened to her after she left Eatonville with Tea Cake, but also the story of her earlier life.

5. Pheoby feels immeasurably enriched by Janie’s telling of her story. She says she has grown ten feet taller from listening to Janie and is now no longer satisfi ed with herself. She apparently grows inwardly now, as has Janie.

6. Joe Starks began to dominate Janie, forcing her to dress less attractively (wear a head rag) so as not to appear desirable to men. He stopped talking to her in rhymes. He forced her to work inside the store and not participate in the porch dialogue. He lost his playfulness.

7. Jody rescued the mule by buying it, but only because he saw the action as a way to be admired by the townspeople. Janie saw that he wanted to be regarded as a king.

8. Janie had a host of admirers.

9. Tea Cake was taking her away from church. Janie was older than Tea Cake. He was probably after her money.

Part B.

1. When Tea Cake and Janie played checkers, she felt happy that someone thought it natural for her to play.

2. Hezekiah said Tea Cake had no money. He implied that Tea Cake was tricky. (He cannot know about Tea Cake’s other quality—the ability he had to make Janie feel valuable as a person.)

3. Janie habitually notices and delights in details of the natural world. Her discussion about her experiences and about the meaning of life is related, often, by metaphors drawn from the natural world.

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Supplementary Materials (page 1)

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© COPYRIGHT, The Center for Learning. Used with permission. Not for resale.

Part C.

1. a. Eatonville was only a raw place in the woods when Janie and Jody arrived, but he saw the possibilities of building it up. It remained small in every sense of the word; the people exhibit their pettiness and rivalries in their attitude toward Janie.

b. The Everglades called people from many places to work; black, Seminole Indian, Bahaman, white. There was no social pretension. There was hard, physical work, but in the evening there was relaxation at the jook. There were strong sexual undercurrents and some physi-cal aggression. Natural beauty was/is everywhere.

2. Blacks had to bury the dead in Palm Beach after the hurricane, only to see that white bodies were given coffi ns.

Blacks fl ed for their lives from the hurricane after the dike gave way and found at the Six Mile Bend Bridge that this higher ground was monopolized by whites.

3. Mrs. Turner, who was obsessively anti-black, gave voice to white bigotry. She exhibited social hypocrisy, taking money from blacks at her eating-house but then talking about them with contempt.

The infatuation of Mrs. Turner’s son with Janie adds interest to the plot because of Tea Cake’s interest in the fact.

4. The author says they blamed Janie for Tea Cake’s death in an example of their own powerless-ness.

5. They saw the death scene in a new light after the court testimony; also, they loved her too much to stay angry with her.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Supplementary Materials (page 2)

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BibliographyWorks by and about Zora Neale Hurston

Awkward, Michael, ed. New Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Cambridge Uni-versity Press, 1990.

Bloom, Harold, ed. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Modern Critical Interpreta-tions. New York: Chelsea House, 1987.

Glassman, Steve, and Kathryn Lee Seidel, ed. Zora in Florida. Orlando: University of Central Florida Press, 1991.

Hurston, Zora Neale. The Complete Stories. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. Introduction, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sieglinde Lemke.

———. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row, Perennial Library, 1990. Series Editor, Henry Louis Gates Jr. Foreword, Mary Helen Washington. Selected Bibliography. Chro-nology.

Plant, Deborah G. Every Tub Must Sit on Its Own Bottom: The Philosophy and Politics of Zora Neale Hurston. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995.

Tanksley, Ann. Images of Zora. Exhibition catalog. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 1992.

Walker, Alice. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1977.

———. All About Zora: Views and Reviews by Colleagues and Scholars at the Academic Conference of the First Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts, January 26–27, 1990, Eatonville, Florida. Edited by Alice Morgan Grant. Winter Park, Fla.: Four-G Publishers, Inc., 1991.

———. Zora! Zora Neale Hurston: A Woman and Her Community. Compiled and edited by N. Y. Nathiri. Orlando: Sentinel Communications Company, 1991. Illustrated.

Portfolios

Hewit, G. A Portfolio Primer: Teaching, Collecting, and Assessing Student Writing. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1995.

Murphy, S., and M. A. Smith. Writing Portfolios: A Bridge from Teaching to Assessment. Markham, Ontario: Pippin Publishing Limited, 1992.

Yancey, K. B., ed. Portfolios in the Writing Classroom. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1992.

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The Publisher

All instructional materials identified by the TAP® (Teachers/ Authors/Publishers) trademark are developed by a national network of 460 teacher-authors, whose collective educational experience distin-guishes the publishing objective of The Center for Learning, a nonprofit educational corporation founded in 1970.

Concentrating on values-related disciplines, the Center publishes humanities and religion curriculum units for use in public and private schools and other educational settings. Approximately 600 language arts, social studies, novel/drama, life issues, and faith publications are available.

Publications are regularly evaluated and updated to meet the chang-ing and diverse needs of teachers and students. Teachers may offer suggestions for development of new publications or revisions of existing titles by contacting

The Center for LearningAdministration/Editorial29313 Clemens Road, Suite 2EWestlake, OH 44145(440) 250-9341 • FAX (440) 250-9715

For a free catalog containing order and price information and a descriptive listing of titles, contact

The Center for LearningCustomer Service590 E. Western Reserve Rd., Unit 10-HYoungstown, OH 44514(800) 767-9090 • FAX (888) 767-8080http://www.centerforlearning.org

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Common Core

English Language Arts

Standards

© The Center for Learning • www.centerforlearning.org

Their Eyes Were Watching God ISBN 978-1-56077-879-0

Entire Unit

9-12.1 Read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace, and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

9-12.2 Read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

9-12.3 Apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate text. Draw on prior experience, interactions with other readers and writers, knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, word identification strategies, and understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

9-12.6 Apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

9-12.9 Develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.

9-12.11 Participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

RL.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

RL.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

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Common Core Standards: Their Eyes Were Watching God — Page 2

© The Center for Learning • www.centerforlearning.org

RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

RI.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

RI.11-12.2 Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

RI.11-12.3 Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

RI.11-12.5 Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

SL.11-12.1a Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas.

SL.11-12.1c Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.

L.11-12.1b Resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting references (e.g., Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, Garner’s Modern American Usage) as needed.

L.11-12.4c Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, its etymology, or its standard usage.

Source

Common Core State Standards (Washington, D.C.: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010)

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