Drama Socratic Seminar Notes

Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay, Final Draft

Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay, Draft 1

A pivotal moment in Zora Neale Hurston’s bildungsroman, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is when Janie realizes she won’t automatically love Logan, losing her idealism regarding the institution of marriage while continuing to pursue love itself with unrealistic expectations. This quest shapes the remainder of the novel, as Janie aims for true love with Joe and Tea Cake.

The bildungsroman navigates the protagonist’s journey from innocence to its binary opposite, experience. Janie’s initial “innocence” as a fifteen-year-old girl is defined by her naïve belief that “husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant” (21). Thus, she adheres to the hope that the institution of marriage alone will cause her to begin to love the much older, overweight Logan. Hurston links this naiveté to Janie’s bask under the pear tree at the beginning of the novel, as Janie claims that she “wants sweet wid [her] marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think…”(24).  The pear tree, like idealism itself, bursts with freshness and optimism, as evidenced by the bee’s fertilization causing the tree to become “frothing with delight” (11).  Pollination is the iconic pastoral image of novelty and rebirth, therefore it is only fitting that Hurston characterizes Janie’s idealism regarding marriage as a springtime pear tree.

In continuation with the pear tree’s “rebirth” motif, Hurston regards Janie’s hopeful perspective on marriage as a living (and thus, mortal) being. When months pass and she realizes that in spite of their matrimony, she will never love Logan, Hurston states: “Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25). In monolithic terms of the concepts of “innocence” and “experience”, Janie has crossed the threshold between the two, transitioning to a knowledgeable, wiser state. Hurston applies a more nuanced version of the opposition, however, by shifting Janie’s optimism from a belief in the power of marriage to a belief in the power of true love: she retains her unrealistic expectations, but they are manifest in a different dream.

The alteration of Janie’s hope is evident after she has given up on her relationship with Logan and becomes enamored with Joe. Hurston claims that Janie no longer tries to cram her intimate relationships into the original naïve “pear tree” mold, but seeks to embrace their differences when she writes that “…[Joe] did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance” (29). She is in the process of contorting her expectations to suit reality, as epitomized by one of the initial passages of the novel, stating, “Women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly” (1).

Hurston illustrates the completion of this shift by likening Janie’s initial optimism with Joe to having “flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything. A bee for her bloom. Her old thoughts were going to come in handy now, but new words would have to be made and said to fit them” (32). The hope of the childhood pear tree has returned, but has taken on a new form: the starry-eyed pursuit of true love, rather than complete faith in marriage. One can observe this in her aforementioned optimism about her union with Joe, and her leap of faith that her connection with Tea Cake was “no race after property and titles…uh love game” (114).

Janie transitions from innocence to experience regarding her perspective of marriage when she fails to connect with Logan. Her blossoming, springtime naiveté lives on, however, throughout the rest of the novel, as seen in her journey for love with Joe and Tea Cake.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Fishbowl Discussion Preparation

"Terence, this is Stupid Stuff" Analysis

2009B Poem: “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff”
Prompt: The following poem makes use of the story of Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, who developed an immunity to poison. Read the poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Housman employs literary devices in adapting the story to address concerns of the late Victorian period.

Original Essay (Score: 5)

In his poem “Terence, this is Stupid Stuff”, A.E. Houseman alludes to British culture and literature as well as implements informal diction to assert that one should not seek solace in religion or literature when confronting late Victorian issues such as effects of industrialization. Rather, one should face such issues with the consumption of alcohol, as Mithridates eagerly downed poison.
In line 7, Houseman cries, “The cow, the old cow, she is dead.” The cow is a livestock animal and therefore a symbol of agriculture, an industry which Britain deviated from in the late Victorian era in favor of manufacturing. Thus, Houseman alludes to the ire of British society due to such abandonment of the “weary land” (l. 52) such as poor wages, derelict working and living conditions, and child labor. He then alludes to another cultural staple as the cure for such woes: the “Ludlow fair” (l. 29), a beer-tasting festival. Houseman argues that drink is a better antidote for worldly sufferings than poetry, for British brews are a “livelier liquor than the Muse” (l. 20). He also alludes to religion as an ineffective aid when confronting industrial problems, for one can only “look into the pewter pot,” as if seeking otherworldly omen or prophecy, “to see the world as it’s not” (ll. 25-26). Houseman refers back to alcohol as an alternative to literature when seeking solace as well: he discredits Milton’s claim in Paradise Lost that poetry will help readers understand God, asserting that “malt does more than Milton can / to justify God’s ways to man” (ll. 21-22). Houseman argues that one should not refer to religion or literature during industrialization, but rather, follow Mithridates’s lead and “get their fill” of alcohol, or even poison, “before they think” (l. 61). Houseman parallels Mithridates’s poison to modern malts, and claims that because he eagerly drank, “he died old” (l. 76). Thus, he believes late Victorians will find similar success if they follow suit.
Houseman supplements this argument by discrediting his own verse as a form of solace. In his opening line, he admits that a man’s poetry “is stupid stuff” (l. 1). He employs additional informal diction to damage his own ethos as both a writer and an upstanding man, relaying how at the Ludlow Fair he “left [his] necktie God knows where” and had to be carried home (ll. 30-31). Houseman selects slang to once again contend that alcohol, or Mithridates’s poison, is the best cure for industrial ire, for “if the smack is sour, the better for the embittered hour,” or modern struggle (ll. 53-54). These colloquialisms denigrate lofty abstractions such as literature and religion and revert the reader back to basic drink as the solution for struggle.
Mithridates “sampled all [the] killing store” and was satisfied. Houseman argues Victorians should do the same.

Definition of Structuralism:

Structuralism is a movement of literary theory that analyzes a work’s patterns and basic elements, viewing each piece as a cog in the overarching literary system. Practitioners of structuralism study from a work’s simplest roots, such as sounds (phonology), to its higher-level nuances (pragmatics), such as deeper meanings. They also examine global phenomena in terms of binary oppositions, or direct contrasts. Structuralism’s theorists detected underlying cultural values. They divided the elements of a work into signs (or symbols expressing meaning), which they in turn split into the signifiers, or the conveyors of concepts, and the signified, or the concepts being conveyed. This practice is also the basic tenet of semiotics. In summary, structuralism is interpreting literature by breaking it down into its most fundamental units.

"Terence, this is Stupid Stuff"

Binary Opposites:

lovely vs. muck

good vs. ill

sun vs. moon

luck vs. trouble

birth vs. killing

dancing vs. moping

happy vs. sad

anew vs. old

white (purity) vs. poison

heart vs. head

dead head of cow vs. head enlivened by poetry

ephemeral high of beer vs. long-term benefits of poetry

living fast vs. dying old

mind-numbing drink vs. mind-stimulating poetry

Milton vs. malt

lain vs. woke

age of cow vs. youth of lads

worldview while drunk vs. worldview while sober

stupid vs. smart

Thesis:

In "Terence, this is Stupid Stuff", A. E. Houseman initially implements binary opposition to address the merits of Terence's friend's argument against somber poetry, then to refute them.

Sound Devices:

mad & lad

malt & Milton

stupid, chap, sleeps, poor, pretty, pipe

stupid & victuals

livelier liquor

faith, mischief, fair, left, halfway

lovely & lain, stem & scored, heart & head, pints & quarts

Thesis:

In "Terence, this is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman employs melodious consonance and alliteration to both soften and strengthen Terence's assertion that reading melancholy poetry is the best strategy for confronting adversity.

Morphemes:

"You eat your victuals fast enough." (l. 2) is a significant line because it indicates that although Terence's poetry is sad, he is well enough that he hasn't lost his appetite. His poetry may be sad, but he appears satisfied. "Victuals" are supplies of food, from the Latin "victus" (nourishment) and "vivere" (to live). This adds the implication that Terence not only devours food but also life, confronting its bliss and struggle head-on. This is the basic tenet of Terence's argument to acknowledge rather than ignore adversity.

Rhyme & Rhythm:

The poem is composed of rhyming couplets in iambic tetrameter. 

Thesis:

In "Terence, this is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman implements soothing iambic tetrameter and rhyming couplets to unexpectedly strengthen Terence's argument for the relief poetry provides, and to soften the bitterness of the debate between him and his friend.

Literary Devices (Schemes):

Anastrophe: inverted word order, creates emphasis or cadence

Antithesis: contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence, parallelism emphasizing contrast

Parallelism: similar patterns of grammatical structure and length, adding balance and rhythm

Polysyndeton: use of many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect

Climax: arrangement of order in increasing importance, builds momentum or expectation

Thesis:

In "Terence, this is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman applies rhythmic devices such as parallelism and anastrophe as well as engaging devices such as climax and polysyndeton to craft Terence's argument for gloomy poetry into a melodious yet heated rallying cry.

Semantics & Pragmatics: 

"And down in the lovely muck I've lain" (l. 35) has the semantic meaning of lying down in beautiful filth. The pragmatic meaning is that Terence admits to wallowing in his cheerful, idiotic drunken state.

Induction & Deduction:

Terence's friends structure their argument deductively because they draw a specific conclusion (that Terence's poetry is stupid) from specific examples (their belly aches and the death of the cow). Terence's argument is inductive because it draws a general conclusion (that poetry helps remedy sorrow) from limited observations (alcohol's failure to console him and the myth of Mithridates).

Darkly Gothic Poem

untitled

what have you wrought?
a black cloud of betrayal as perceptions writhe.
once we drank of paradise,
virginal and childlike,
but your desire soured.
a painful pool of bitterness -
tears follow bone, follow blood,
love ground to dust.
in a storm of hatred,
i condemn you.

I chose words with "harsh" phonemes such as "p" and "b" to characterize the vitriolic tone of my poem. This is evidenced with the "black cloud of betrayal" (l. 2) and the "painful pool of bitterness" (l. 6). Additional tone words to describe my poem are acrimonious, acerbic, inflammatory, and condemnatory. I'm trying to evoke the mood of one incensed by betrayal. Binary opposites in my piece are the corruption of betrayal and the purity of virginity, the liquid of the pool and the dryness of the dust, love and hatred, as well as the black cloud and paradise.

Fairy Tale Allusion Poetry: "Will" by Jane Yolen

Yolen directly alludes to WWII and her father’s role in it by saying, “compound near Kiev” and “white against the Russian snows”. As the poem goes on, Yolen directly ties the wolf in Little red riding hood to her father, William, saying he is neither “ William, not Will, but Wolf.” revealing that her father’s identity is not “William”, a more formal way that people outside of family address him as nor “Will”, a less formal and more familiar way people who are family and friends address him as, but, “Wolf”, his true identity. In this line, Yolen alludes to  both the war and the wolf to symbolize that the loss of innocence her father faced as it  was devoured by the war.  Yolen further accentuates the lasting effects of the war by saying, 

“ Why grandfather, my children cry,

what great teeth you have,

before he devours them

as he devoured me,

all of me,

bones and blood,

all of my life.”, to exemplify that her father’s PTSD driven “wolf” identity has betrayed them by forever stealing the innocence and the happiness from their family and hers. The post- WII families were tainted by  the sinister of the war.  

In Jane Yolen’s “Will”, repetition underlines the pain and betrayal the speaker feels at her father’s choice to obscure his past and furthers the notion that in the modern day, the concealment of one’s past will invariably hurt one’s loved ones. The repetition in “that name”,  “that place of birth”, “that compound near Kiev” gives the speaker a mournful tone and emphasizes how she feels excluded from a huge part of her own loved one’s life. Then in the line “Not William, not Will, but Wolf.”  the repetition of the short and terse word “not” makes the line seem biting, as if the speaker now resents her father’s concealment of his past. Finally, in the lines “all of me” and “all of my life” the repetition of “all” shows the extent of which the concealment hurt her. Through this use of repetition, Yolen comments on how, especially with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder prevalent in the present day, it is more harmful than helpful to conceal the past from your loved ones.

Yolen immediately launches the reader into beastly imagery, detailing “little bones and teeth”, or scraps of prey left behind by a predator that has eaten its fill. Although the predator attempted to hide these remains by burying them, as her father and other veterans try to conceal their military pasts, Yolen asserts that the detritus will one day be “harrowed from grave’s soil”, or violently exposed for others, such as his family, to “tell different tales”, to inflict the family with painful secrets.

When bones and sinews are splitting and hair is growing, it indicates that a creature’s body is rapidly swelling. When her father’s war past is revealed, her impression of him transforms from her tender caregiver, who she fondly refers to as “[her] old wolf,” into a vile predator with mangy and rough “coarse” hair. Yolen’s pain is so potent, she describes it as a monster about to burst.

After she had previously perceived Will as her guardian, Yolen’s shock and pain at discovering her father’s past warps his image into that of her killer, who “devoured...all of [her].” She deepens this sense of betrayal by describing Will as gorging on her “blood”, a symbol of family unity. The blood motif also shapes Will into a vampire figure, whose unearthed secrets destroyed Yolen and drained her of her innocence. The corruption of the pure is a quintessential theme of vampire literature, and also ties back to the wolf’s consumption of Red Riding Hood.