African American Literary History (See Gates's Afterword)
Homework Questions (See Q's for Part Two
Part Three )
Chapter One:
What, according to Hurston, is the difference between men
and
women?
Explain: "These sitters had been tongueless,
earless,
eyeless
conveniences all day long" (1).
Chapter Two:
Why can't the young Janie find herself in the photograph
(9)?
Explain the Alphabet nickname (9).
Why does Hurston switch from 1st person to 3rd person
point of
view
(10)? How does Hurston's use of language change with
this switch?
Explain the "revelation" Janie has beneath the pear tree
(10-11).
Explain: "De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so
fur as
Ah
can see" (14).
Chapter Three:
Explain: "Janie's first dream was dead, so she
became a
woman"
(25).
Chapter Four:
Explain: "He did not represent sun-up and pollen
and
blooming
times, but he spoke for far horizon" (29).
Explain: "You ain't got no particular place. It's
wherever
Ah
need yuh" (31).
Other Discussion Questions:
Chapter One:
Explain: "Ships at a distance have every man's wish
on
board"
(1).
Explain: "Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah
tongue is in
mah
friend's mouf" (6).
Chapter Two:
How does Johnny Taylor's kiss "lacerate" Janie (12)?
Why is Nanny so anxious to see Janie married (12-13)?
Explain: "He look like some ole skullhead in de
graveyard"
(13).
Explain: "Us colored folks is branches without
roots" (16).
Why does Nanny's baby, Leafy, have gray eyes and yellow
hair
(17)?
Explain: "Ah can't die easy thinkin' maybe de
menfolks
white or
black is makin' a spit cup outa you" (20).
Chapter Three:
Explain: "Dat's de very prong all us black women
gits hung
on.
Dis love!" (23).
What is an "infinity of conscious pain" (24)?
Chapter Four:
Why is Logan buying a second mule (27)?
Explain: "He had always wanted to be a big voice"
(28).
Explain: "You ain't got no mo' business wid uh plow
than
uh hog
is got wid uh holiday!" (29).
Explain: "Her old thoughts were going to come in
handy
now, but
new words would have to be made and said to fit them" (32).
Part Two
Homework
Questions:
Chapter Five:
Explain: "They bowed down to him rather, because he
was
all of
these things, and then again he was all of these things
because the
town
bowed down" (50). What literary technique is being
employed here?
Chapter Six:
Explain: "The thought pictures were always crayon
enlargements
of life" (51).
Explain Janie's speech at the end of Chapter Six (75).
Chapter Seven:
Why does Jody begin to obsess about Janie's age (77)? How
old
are they
at this point?
Explain: "When you pull down yo' britches, you look
lak de
change
uh life" (79).
Chapter Eight:
Why does Death have "huge square toes" (84)?
Chapter Nine:
Why does Janie hate her grandmother (89)?
Chapter Eleven:
Explain: "He was a glance from God" (106).
Explain: "Have the nerve tuh say whut you mean"
(109). Why
is this a significant statement?
Chapter Twelve:
Explain: "Ah done lived Grandma's way, now Ah means
tuh
live mine"
(114).
Other Discussion Questions:
Chapter Five:
How, according to Lee Coker, do "us colored folks . . . .
keeps
our
ownselves down" (39)?
Why does Jody prevent Janie from making a speech after he
is
chosen
mayor (43)?
Does Janie like being "Mrs. Mayor" (46)? Explain.
Explain: "Any man who walks in the way of power and
property is
bound to meet hate" (48).
Chapter Six:
Why is Matt Bonner's mule "next to the mayor in
prominence" (53)?
Why does Joe force Janie to wear a head rag (55)?
Is Janie's comparison of Joe and Abraham Lincoln (58) a
valid
one?
Explain.
Explain: "They mocked everything human in death"
(60).
Explain the buzzards' behavior (61-62). What is the
purpose of
this episode?
Who is Big John de Conquer (66)?
Explain: "Somebody got to think for women and
chillun and
chickens
and cows" (71).
Explain: "Something fell off the shelf inside her"
(72).
Explain: "She had an inside and an outside now and
suddenly she
knew how not to mix them" (72).
Chapter Seven:
Explain: "She got nothing from Jody except what
money
could buy,
and she was giving away what she didn't value" (76).
Chapter Eight:
Explain: "The stillness was the sleep of swords"
(81). Can
a connection be made here to "Sweat"?
What does it mean to suggest that Joe was "fixed" (82)?
Chapter Ten:
Why is Janie so excited when she is asked to play
checkers (96)?
Chapter Twelve:
How is Pheoby like a chicken (114)?
Part Three
Homework
Questions:
Chapter Thirteen:
Why does Tea Cake take Janie's money (122)?
What is a "self-crushing love" (128)?
Chapter Fourteen:
How does the description of Janie in this chapter (see
esp. 132)
compare with
that of Missie May at the beginning of "The Gilded Six-Bits"?
How does Janie's house on the muck compare to the store
in
Eatonville?
Chapter Fifteen:
How does the description of Janie and Tea Cake's
lovemaking
(137-38) compare
with Hurston's earlier description of the pear tree (11)?
Chapter Seventeen:
Why does Tea Cake beat Janie (147)?
Chapter Eighteen:
Explain: "Their eyes were watching God"
(160). Why
is this
the title of the book? (See also 178).
Chapter Nineteen:
Is Janie's shooting of Tea Cake (184) justified?
Explain.
Explain: "Uh white man and uh nigger woman is de
freest
thing
on earth" (189). How does this compare with Nanny's mule
metaphor
(14)?
Chapter Twenty:
Explain: "She pulled in her horizon like a great
fish-net"
(193).
How does this image relate to the discussion in the first
paragraph of
the novel (1)?
Other Discussion Questions:
Chapter Sixteen:
Explain Mrs. Turner's view of Booker T. Washington (142).
Explain: "All gods who receive homage are cruel"
(145).
Explain: "Real gods require blood" (145).
Chapter Seventeen:
Is there really a fight at the Turners' place (150-52)?
Explain.
Chapter Eighteen:
Why doesn't Tea Cake heed the hurricane warnings (156)?
Chapter Ninteen:
Why is Tea Cake forced to help bury the dead (170)?
Why do the workers need to separate the white and black
bodies
(170)?
Explain: "It's bad bein' strange niggers wid white
folks"
(172).
Why do the other Blacks think Janie is guilty (186)?
How does Tea Cake's funeral (189) compare with
Jody's (88)?
Chapter Twenty:
How is love like the sea (191)?
Explain: "You got tuh go there tuh know
there" (192).
