The Stranger: Journal Entry 1

Plan of Attack for Tabbing

With the turquoise sticky notes I am marking every time Meursault comes up with an excuse for something. I noticed he seems to frequently come up with excuses for things.

The light pink tabs represent society and the clash of different societies. This seems to be important because of the shock Maman went though when she moved to the home.

Light green sticky notes represents the selfish impulses and id like nature of Meursault in his life. In contrast they also represent when he seems to have feelings for things due to his selfish impulses.

With the orange sticky notes I am marking the change of various characters like Meursault throughout the novel.

Symbols are represented on orange sticky notes with gray on the ends. This show different symbols throughout the novel that are or seem to be significant.

 Light yellow sticky notes represent the amount of power held between the people in the book. In the first chapter it seem Meursault and the director.

The pink with gray at the end sticky notes represent the judgement of the people in the book.

Journal Entry #10

Theme

Opportunities are found in dreams. If one waits they will find opportunities. To make dreams reality one will fight for it and it will cause conflict between ones dreams and another's.

• Opportunities is very vague.
• Do people only find opportunities when they wait?
• What type of conflict?

Quotes:

1.  "Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road and..." (Hurston 23)

2."But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gate and was gusty and short. She know things that nobody had ever told her... The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janies first dream, was dead so she became a woman. (Hurston 25)

3. "But springtime reached her in there so she moved everything to a place in the yard where she could see the road... She had been there a long time when she heard a whistling coming down the road." (Hurston 27)

4."He always wanted to be a big voice..." (Hurston 28)

5. " "... Ah'll be down dis road uh little after sunup tomorrow mornin' to wait for you." (Huston 29)

6. "A feeling of sudden newness and change came over her. Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south. Even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to be good." (Hurston 32)

7."He done called a meetin' on his porch tomorrow." (Hurston 38)

8. "A day was named for roads and they all agreed to bring axes and things like that and chop out two roads running each way." (Hurston 41)

9. ""...Ah thold you in de very first beginnin' dat Ah aimed tuh be uh big voice."" (Hurston 46)

10. "The store itself was a pleasant place if only she didn't have to sell things." (Hurston 50)

11."She was allways in the store for him to look at, not those others." (Hurton 55)

12. ""Yo' wife is uh born orator, Starks. Us never knowed dat befor'..."" (Hurston 58)

13.""...But the mayors wife is somethin' different again... You ain't goin' off in all dat mess uh commonness. Ah'm surprixed at yuh for asking."" (Hurston 60)

14. "Here he was just pouring honor all over her ; building a high chair for her to sit in and overlook the world and she here pouting over it!" (Hurston 62)

15. "Then Jody ruined it all for her." (Hurston 69)

Journal Entry #9

Mini-Pastiche #2

Annette sat tall on the park bench waiting for Benjamin. Time had slipped from him and Annette was becoming impatient. The black birds were scavenging for food stealing from all the other ravens for the food on the other side of the pathway as Benjamin came. He was walking nonchalantly up the side walk as if he had all the Time in the world, as if the world was bowing down to him as their leader.

" Well it took you long enough to get here." Annette murmured as he floated down to take a seat beside her without making any noise. He didn't respond. "Hello??" Annette asked ticked off when she spotted the ear buds in his ears. Annette tried to reason out in her head a way not to be furious with Benjamin because he was not an easy person to be angry at.

She took a deep breath and right when she was about to explode her thoughts, Benjamin took out an ear bud and exclaimed "Guess what? I got the job in Tillamook."

Annette was  absolutely speechless. Her anger was slowly slipping away like the waves of the ocean out in the distance. She stammered "That's great." She tried to sound enthusiastic but she couldn't fake emotions easily, it just didn't come naturally to her. They sat in silence for a minute. It looked like Benjamin was trying hard to think of what to say.

"I saw Peter on the way here," Benjamin began, "he wanted me to give him the money I don't have for his groceries."

"He's broke again? Goodness when is he going to learn to stop waisting in on gum. He's not a teenager anymore."

"He's not broke Annette. He is currently not spending money on groceries to save up for the race on Saturday." Benjamin stood up taking Annette's hand and led her to the nearest building. "Do you think you could spare $5?"

"For Peter? Never. Do you know how much of money he has borrowed from me and never returned? $200. That is a lot of money and I need to pay off my student loans. There is no way I am lending $5 to Peter. It adds up over time."

Peter walked out of the restaurant as Annette and Benjamin were walking in. "Hey Annette!" Peter greeted trying not to sound to needy, "Do you happen to have 10 dollars on you? I'm just a little short on my bill for groceries right now."

"Peter, I..." Annette began, "I just don't have the money anymore. I have my own bills to worry about."

"Annette, you know how much I want to go to this race this weekend more then anyone. Please I have a pay check coming in on Monday." Peter pleaded giving her his desperate look.

"Alright. Here is the 10 dollars. I expect all the money you owe me on Monday though. That's 210 dollars." Annette yelled as Peter ran over to the grocery.

On Monday she never received any money. The time had made no difference.

Theme: Women are inferiority to men's pride and dreams causes internal conflict within them.

Stylistic elements: foreshadowing, symbol, and rhetorical question.

I used foreshadowing with animals like Hurston does. Hurston uses animals as well as other techniques to foreshadow events. In my pastiche I used black birds as the people stealing like Peter, and the ravens as the people being stolen from like Annette. My symbol was time. The time had not made any difference nor had the time changed though out the passage, and time represented the way men take advantage over women, by making them wait and not giving them what they need. My rhetorical question got the readers attention to the reason why no one ever gives Peter money, it temporarily gets the reader on Annette's side.

Journal Entry #8

1. " Me scramble 'round tuh git de money tuh take yuh - been workin' lak uh dawg for two whole weeks-..." (Hurston 109). Janie has just asked Tea Cake if he really wanted to take her to the picnic and this is what he responded. The literary technique used here is foreshadowing. Hurston is foreshadowing the death of Tea Cake by a mad dog trying to save Janie. It affects the text by showing that Tea Cake is willing to work hard for Janie and that will lead to his downfall.
2. " "Less us go fishin'." (Tea Cake) "Fishin'? Dis time uh night?" (Janie) " Unhhunh, fishin'." (Tea Cake)" (Hurston 102). Janie and Tea Cake are staying up very late past 11 on a pretty moon lit night. The literary technique used here is motif. Hurston uses this motif to symbolize power. It affects the text by evolving over the time. When Janie first went to Eatonville she couldn't be won with no fish sandwich and now Tea Cake is willing to show her how to fish which gives her more power. It affects the plot because Janie felt pleasure in going fishin' during the night because she felt it was "breaking the rules" which is not done lightly.
3. "" He ain't never ast de first penny from me yet, and if he love property he ain't no different from all de rest of us. All dese ole men dat's setting' round me is after de same thing. They's three mo' widder women in town, how come dey don't break dey neck after dem? 'Cause dey ain't got nothin' dat's why."" (Hurston 112). Pheoby is trying to convince Janie that goin' with Tea Cake is a bad choice and this is Janie's response to her. The literary technique used in this passage is rhetorical questions or syntax. This affects the text because Janie is trying to get everyone to agree with her that the other widows in town aren't sought after because they don't have no money. This gets the reader to side with Janie by using this rhetorical question.

Journal Entry #7

Mini Pastiche

Then Ginger began to think of Vengeance. Vengeance, that terrible being with huge fiery hair who lived way in the east. The terrible one who lived in the fiery furnace like a container that compresses it, and without a way out. What need does Vengeance have for a vent, and what rain could put him out? He stands in the heart of every soul observing emotion. Stands watchful and waiting all day with his fire kept within, waiting for the emotion to arise telling him to expand. Been waiting there before there was a feeling or an emotion or a thought. She was liable to find a skin from its body lying on her hopes any time now. She was angry and sad too. Destitute Simon! He ought not to have condemned himself with his actions. She tried to persuade him not to do it, but he would not be swayed. The jury wuz all right with the fury of others, but they couldn't understand a case like his. He'd be alright as soon as the deciders had decided what he had done. He wasn't going to get convicted at all. Or so he thought. But the Jury had said different, so she understood. And then if he hadn't, she was bound to know this afternoon, for people of the jury wore grim faces of the lonely mountains. People who normally were stones had a sudden sadness draped upon them. They just slumped in the benches and heard the sentence. Grief, that the venomless snake, had seeped into her conscience. 

I chose Vengence because that is what I was feeling after reading the "hellhounds" reading for history. I portrayed vengence with fiery hair who lived way in the east to show vengence is an anger about something that has happened before, in the past. Vengence lives in a furnace because it is difficult to put out once it has been activated. I chose to make this a dark trial to show that Simon had difficulties with vengence and to connect it to the grief (my second abstract noun) of Ginger.To match Zora Neale Hurston I had to stay within the confinement of the sentence structure which is difficult for me because I have a unique way of writing with my own voice. To maintain her way of speaking I had to compress some ideas and elongate others. To convey the right effect I had to find the appropriate words to send message.

Journal Entry #6

Death Passage

• Decision: Hurston described Death with characteristics of a human.
• Effect: This gives death more of a strange human feeling. Hurston says Death lived in the west giving the effect that there is something beyond Death.
• Decision: Hurston uses the setting of Death's home to compare it to Joe's power over the town as governor.
• Effect: This gives the effect that Joe and Death are similar. Hurston does this to show that in Jody and Janie's marriage, Joe had become all powerful and his pride became more important than their marriage is because Joe had no "winds blow against him..." (Hurston 84). Joe had been standing in "his high house that over looked the" town, where Death looked over the world (Hurston 84).
• Decision: Zora Neil Hurston connects the characterization of Death and Janie. In the novel Janie says she is waiting for Jody to die, which is the exact same thing as Death's job. Death waits for the messenger to come and tell him to go to someone.
• Effect: This gives the effect that Hurston wants the reader to see Janie as a watcher who watches things happen but feels like she can't do anything about them.
• Decision: The symbolism of the feather represents what Death leaves behind.
• Effect: This gives the effect that Death is a materialistic thing 
• Decision: Zora Neil Hurston creates an internal conflict within Joe which is Joe vs his pride.
• Effect: She makes Joe look like a self centered person who is too high for his own wife to come see. This gives the effect Joe needs no help when he really does which leads to his death.
• Decision: Zora Neil Hurston uses external conflict to show why Joe got sick. Joe got "Godly sick". "Godly sick" symbolizes him getting sick because of his job as mayor. This is because God looks over everything as does Joe in his town but unlike God, Joe gets very sick for being a God like figure in his town.
• Effect: Hurston tells us that no one person can have absolute authority.
• Decision: Zora Neil Hurston uses the symbolism of the two-headed man to represent to portray to two sides of Joe.
• Effect: This portrays Joe as a person who leads two lives, the life where he is sick, and the life where he is the mayor hiding that he is sick letting himself get worse. Hurston does this to show that the two-headed people will refuse help themselves, they think they are invincible.
• Decision: Hurston uses the palm and china-berry trees to represent the passing of Joe.
• Effect: This creates a noble effect in the passing of Joe.
• Decision: Hurston uses the location of the setting to show that Joe while he was dying had no more authority over the towns folk, "who would not have dared to foot the place before crept in".
• Effect: This gives the effect that Hurston is saying that when a authoritative figure is gone the authority is gone from the people which is why the towns folk came into the yard.
• Decision: Zora Neil Hurston uses the phrase "shadowed over the town".
• Effect: This gives the effect at the time the town is darkened by the dread of Joe passing.

Journal Entry #5

Thesis statements: Plot

1. Hurston manipulates exposition to introduce ideas that are key to understand the theme and plot of the novel.

2. Hurston uses the internal conflict of Janie to portray through the plot the effect of key events throughout the novel. Hurston does this to express that the beginning of internal conflict can stem from ones self and to resolve it first look to ones self.

3 comments: I commented on Isabel Harger, Kylee Rosette and Anthony Nguyen's blog.

Journal Entry #4

Patterns

1. The first pattern I noticed is the frequent mentioning of the "big road" through out these first six chapters. The big road along with the gate and other similar things are referring to the path to opportunity and to dreams accomplishments. When Janie had lost all hope with Logan Killicks she started to hang out at the fence post, waiting for something with hope of arrival (Huston 23, 25). Before leaving Logan, Jody gives her the opportunity to come with him down the road for a better life and she leaves Logan because of her mistreatment, the hope of a new life and opportunity (Huston 29, 32).  In the town Eatonville they started creating more roads for new opportunities (Huston 40-41).
2. The second pattern is oppression of the women. The women in this book are always dreaming, and are all ways wishing for something better. The women are not properly treated and all ways follow their husbands orders. The women are oppressed and neglected due to their husbands living the dream they have always wanted. Logan was living the dream of Janie doing all the work in the house and the fields (Huston 27). Jody was living the dream of his big voice, he previously had talked about how good he would treat Janie but the life of his dream got in the way (Huston 30). He had her run the store even though she didn't want to (Huston 44, 54). Since she ran the store he made her wear her hair up so other men wouldn't do anything inappropriate and he didn't tell her why making her further oppressed (Huston 49). He didn't want Janie to embarrass him and inconsequence separated her from the towns folk. He didn't let her take part in the porch conversations, and he didn't let her go to the burial of the horse (Huston 53, 56, 60). This created Janie's oppression of her feelings because she was not able to freely express them to her husband because he was the mayor and was busy (Huston 72).
3. After talking about Janie for some reason then fish ends up in the conversation (Huston 38, 39, 75). For example: "You can't git her with no fish sandwich." (Huston 39).

                               "You gettin' to moufy, Janie," Starks told her. "Go fetch me de checker-board and de checkers. Sam Watson, you'se my fish." (Huston 75)

Journal Entry #3

Step 1: Figure from Harlem Renaissance

Eulalie Spence was a black from the West Indies playwright, actress, writer and teacher. Spence had the belief that the theatre was a place to be entertained and not criticized by the current crisis of their society (the views of W.E.B. Du Bois). Du Bois took the prize money she won and used it to pay outstandings from the production however this did not pay her nor the actors. She also believed you can't read a script it has to be acted out.

Step 2: Rules to My Dialect

1. Pronunciation
• Add an "A" to every word that ends in "O".
• "I" changes to "E" when it is the first vowel.
• "C" changes to "QU".
2. Grammar
• No use of the past tense.
• Never uses abbreviations to express anything including contractions.
• Use long sentences.
• Uses way too many adjectives.
3. Vocabulary
• Zummazoom ~ is used constantly through out a conversation like um.
• References nature in conversation.
• Cabbadoo ~ seriously

Step 3: Dialogue

Setting the stage: Eulalie Spence and Elaine Montgomery are sitting next to each other in a theatre before the show is about to start.

"Helloa! E have hear thes es a spectacular, awesome, fantastec, fabulous theater. Would you zummazoom agree?" said Elaine Montgomery.

"I hope the plays are good. I wrote them." remarked Eulalie.

"Cabbadoo?" asked Elaine.

"What's cabbadoo supposed to mean?" asked Eulalie suspiciously.

"Oh sorry E am from out of town en the land of waterfalls... well E zummazoom doa not remember, E thenk et was Plutoa, where cabbadoo means sereously. Have you ever seen the beauteful, gorgeous..." Elaine began.

Enraged Eulalie demanded, "STOP using so many adjectives, as a writer you are driving me insane!"

"I'm so zummazoom sorry! The trees are just soa remarkably beauteful en my home land they are soa beautiful. Not leke the beauteful elegant leaves here."

"How long have you lived there?" inquired Eulalie.

"I well leve there for 15 years. Thes theater es very beauteful, and there are twoa performances toneght I hear. One of them es on the reot that has happened, and the other es suppose to be funny" replied Elaine, "Whech one have you wrete?

"I wrote both." replied Eulalie, "although I wish I only wrote the funny one. I do not like the ones that are propoganda like my boss does."

"These must be very exceptionally good, then are you happy to see these plays?" Elaine asked curiously.

"I am very excited. It's nice to see the actors know how to act, for the past several weeks I have been starting to doubt them. It has been looking like all them have just been reading off the script which drives me crazy."

Elaine told Eulalie, "E thought that was what a play was all about the actors just readeng off lenes leke the revers goeng down the rever bank, that es how the theaters are leke in my quountry of Plutoa."

"Are you cabbadoo?" asked Eulalie. "I am coming to you're home country with you to show them how to act because that is obviously not how people act!"

"AH zummazoom the darkness leke the neght of a moonless sky! Where has the leght gone?" panicked Elaine.

"SHH! The play is now starting please be quiet people don't talk during plays here." whispered Eulalie.

"E know that, E am just as smart as an owl quatcheng ets prey!" whispered Elaine back as W.E.B. Du Bois came on the stage to welcome everyone to the show.

Journal Entry #2

"..."Well, Ah see Mouth-Almighty is still sittin' in de same place. And Ah reckon they got me up in they mouth now."
"Yes indeed. You know if you pass some people and don't speak tuh suit 'em dey got tuh go way back in yo' life and see whut you ever done. They know mo' 'bout yuh than you do yo' self. An envious heart makes a treacherous ear. They done 'heard' 'bout you just what they hope done happened."
"If God don't think no mo' 'bout 'em then Ah do, they's a lost ball in de high grass
"Ah hears what they say 'cause they just will collect round mah proch 'cause it's on de big road. Mah husband git so sick of 'em sometime he makes 'em all git for home"
"Sam is right too. They just wearin' out yo' sittin' chairs."
"Yeah, Sam say most of 'em goes to church so they'll be sure to rise in Judgement. Dat's de day dat every secret is s'posed to be made known. They wants to be there to hear it all."..." (excerpt Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston pgs 5-6)

• The talkers who are in power when God is not watching are talking about Janie. They are referenced as "Mouth-Almighty". These women judge everyone based on all the information they can obtain.
• Hurston characterized these talkers  as people who are jealous and envious and in consequence have treacherous ears. They believe in every thing they hope happened to a person.
• Hurston describes them as "a lost ball in de high grass" by a metaphor. This particular metaphor portrays these women are so caught up in their own beliefs they are lost in what is real and what is not. In the first passage Hurston said women forgot what they wanted to forget and didn't forget what they wanted to remember this relates back to this metaphor because it tells how the women of this time are portrayed by the author.
• These talkers go to places (i.e. Pheoby's porch and church) to find out all they can about others so they can judge them.
• At the church they go so they are seen in Gods better eyes and so they can hear everyones secrets because no one is supposed to keep their secrets from God.
• If one does not speak to these people then they are  judged because they did not stop to talk to them. In consequence the talkers create a background for these people don't stop.
• These women have an internal conflict in themselves because they have to know everything that goes on.
• Big road is repeated in this passage.
• Judgment in this passage is a symbol of God.
• Knowledge is powerful is one of the themes in this passage
• One will do anything for knowledge.
•  The sitters are going to church and wearing out Pheoby's sitting chairs for this knowledge.

Journal Entry #1

If I could tell my life story to one person I would probably tell it to Kendra because she is good at listening to things. My life story would require lots of listening because of the events that have occured in my life. So many things have happened in consequence to other things that no one would understand without listening to the complete story. I would also pick Kendra because she could probably make me feel better. Most of my life story I have not told anyone outside of my family because certain events would be better left unspoken. I would start my story at the family reunion in the summer between 5th and 6th grade because that was the last time my extended family and I have gotten along because my Grandpa died the following november. My world view was changed then because of the lies that can be created by one member of the family and easily believed by others about other people in the same family.