Modern World Thesis

When Jim and Huck’s raft is crushed by the steamboat, Mark Twain is showing the negative aspects of modernization. Because Mark Twain looks so fondly back on his childhood on the Mississippi he sees the sterilizing influence of the modern world as a threat to his former lifestyle.

Thier Eyes Thesis

Because Janie starts to follow her transcendentalist values, she is able to make decisions that truly make her happy because the same things that may make other female members of the Eatonville community happy are not the same things that make Janie happy.

Thier Eyes Quote #4

In Chapter seven, Janie finally gets sick of the way Joe verbally abuses her. Every chance Joe gets, he is always trying to point out how old Janie is getting when in reality, Janie is still somewhat young and still beautiful and Joe is the one getting fat and old. He’s insecure with himself so he tries to divert the attention to Janie. Joe has a huge ego and prides himself on the belief that every other man is jealous of his beautiful wife and his social status. One day Janie get fed up and reacts to one of Joe’s comments by pointing out how Joe’s fat and aging body. She cuts him down from his pedestal in front of a bunch of Joe’s friends and shatters his ego. This is a huge turning point in the relationship between Joe and Janie.

Thier Eyes Quote #3

There is a key turning point in Janie’s journey to self-reliance in chapter 4. The event that set this change in motion was the death of Janie’s grandmother. With the woman who had done all of the thinking for you gone, Janie was left to think for herself. The beginning of chapter four shows how unfair and dysfunctional Janie and Logan’s marriage. Then Joe Starks comes along and offers Janie a life of luxury. Janie decides to leave Logan, who symbolizes a life of abuse and unfairness/ unhappiness, and marry Joe Starks who will give Janie money and social status.

There Eyes Quote #2

"[Janie] was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid." (page 11).

Here, Hurston is showing the transcendental qualities that Janie has. The way Janie appreciates nature is just one example I have noticed so far. Janie also seems to have given up a life of luxury, to a life of poverty. Janie also said that "[The members of her black comunity] don't know if life isn't a mess of corn-meal dumplings, and if love is a bed-quilt". This shows that Janie, as opposed to the women of her community, tries to appreciate life for more than what she was tought growing up. When she admires the tree in full bloom in the same way that Thoreau admired different aspects of nature. Thoreau spoke about the epic battles that the ants took place in "Walden Pond". Janie referrs to the bee sucking the nector from a flower as a marrage between the flower and the bee. They are both greatly fascinated by these different aspects of nature, and they both appreciate the events in the same way that others may appreciate certain objects of luxury such as a brand new BMW.

1. "Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, 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." (page 1).

This quote talks about dreams, and how people choose to persue or not persue thier dreams. The begining of this quote says that all people can see theier dreams. The author then says that some people let thier dreams sail away, while others let thier dreams slip away from them. The author said that other people leave thier dreams un attained forever even though they are within reach. Then the author talks specifically about women and how they persue or dont persue thier dreams. Some women force themselves to forget about thier dreams because they care too muc habout what other people think about them. So women instead to do what they are soposed to. The author wants people to realize thier true dreams and to persue them untill they are trully happy.