Introduction

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a book written by an African American woman named Zora Neale Hurston. This novel was written in 1973. It is set in Central and Southern Florida in the Early 20th Century. The main character of the novel is an African American woman named Janie Crawford. This book is a story of her life and journeys.

Works Cited: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/08/TheirEyesWereWatchingGod.JPG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Their_Eyes_Were_Watching_God

25 Random Things About Me

1. My favorite sport (to play and watch) is football.

2. I'm terrified of spiders.

3. I still watch Hannah Montana.

4. My sister is basically my best friend.

5. I do most of my personal thinking in the hot tub or in the shower.

6. I like to make funny faces in the mirror.

7. My favorite movie is the Lion King.

8. I love eating crabs.

9. Last Summer, I went to Japan.

10. I think my brother Patrick is the coolest kid alive.

11. My mom is my role model.

12. I went to Riverside Elementary School.

13. At night, I like to go outside to the playground.

14. I think things through way too much.

15. I laugh at everything.

16. My favorite color is purple.

17. I can still perfectly remember the day that my father died.

18. When I get older, I want to live in Michigan.

19. I love cats.

20. I love having red hair.

21. Before my best friend Erin and I were best friends, we hated each other.

22. I read the whole Twilight series.

23. I love Pokemon.

24. I love go watch Manswers.

25. In 7th grade I was in my school play, Beauty and the Beast.

Symbolism

1. Janie's Hair - Janie's hair is long and beautiful, this symbolizes freedom of her because it describes who she is and it makes her unique.

2. Overalls - The overalls that Janie is wearing in the beginning of the book symbolize that she was a working woman.

3. Pear Tree - The pear tree symbolizes Janie's emotional state. When Janie is being loved or is in a joyful mood, the tree blossoms inside of her, figuratively speaking. When she is unhappy, the tree inside of her begins to die and is not the pretty vision of the pear tree she loved. "The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree" (page 13). The pear tree symbolizes how Janie is feeling on the inside, the pear tree is herself.

4. Gate - The gate symbolizes Janie's protection. Nanny had her hidden behind the gate before she began to bloom with the pear tree. When her Nanny saw her kiss Johnny Taylor over the gate, this is when the gate opens for her, and she cannot be protected by it anymore.

5. Mule - The mule symbolizes work. It is said by Hurston that black women were the mules of the day, this means that they were being forced to work like mules. Logan bought Janie the mule so that she could work, which is exactly what her Nanny did not want.

6. Head Rag - The head rag symbolizes restriction on Janie's freedom and protection. Janie's hair was beautiful and Joe did not want anybody in the store to see it, so she had to wear a head rag and hide her hair away.

7. Tobacco Spittoon - These spittoons symbolize how Joe had money, and he wanted to flaunt it. Only white men had spittoons for actually spitting tobacco. Most of the black men of the day only had them for decoration. This shows how Joe was becoming the white man of the town.

8. High Chair - This high chair symbolizes how Joe is trying to put Janie on this high chair, and trying to make her envied by the other people, but he keeps tearing her down from it, because he does not believe that women should have a high place in society and that they belong in the home.

9. Lamp - This lamp symbolizes how Joe is "lighting up the town" and he is making it a better place; where this town started off as a run-down town with no mayor, Joe transformed it.

10. Horizon - The horizon symbolizes Janie's future and how she is looking up to it, but she does not know what is yet to come for her, and she is still trying to find her true love at this point in the book.

Imagery in Their Eyes Were Watching God

1. “Foot Prints in the Sky” (pg. 1) – All of the people saw that Janie had come back
home because it was sun down and she had left her own imprint.

2. “Grape Fruits in her hip pockets” (pg. 2) – This describes Janie’s firm butt.

3. “Great Rope of hair” (pg. 2) – This is saying that Janie has very long black thick hair all the way down to her waist.

4. “Pheoby held her tongue for a long time” (pg. 7) – Pheoby is quite eager to find out about Janie’s life but did not want to show her curiosity.

5. “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone.” (pg. 8) – Janie describes her life like a tree, with opportunities taken and not, and that she is still blooming.

6. “The thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace…” (pg. 11) – Janie associates the pear tree with her own blooming and with love and marriage.

7. “That was before the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags and her eyes” (pg. 12) – After the impact that the pear tree makes on Janie she notices Johnny Taylor, not as she knew him before, tall and lean, but as a new man, glamorous to her.

8. “There are years that ask questions and years that answer… did marriage compel love like the sun the day?” (pg. 21) – Janie has so many questions to ask, and so many of them are unanswered. She wants to know about marriage but can only ask questions hoping to see the answer.

9. “Long before the year was up, Janie noticed that her husband had stopped talking in rhymes to her” (pg. 26) – Janie had figured out that Logan was not trying to impress her anymore, and just wanted her to work for him now.

10.”Janie turned from the door without answering, and stood in the middle of the floor without knowing it.” (pg. 32) – This signifies that Janie was turning her back on Logan and had given up on him.

The meaning of my name

The name Ashley comes from the root Ash, and Leah. Leah means wood. The meaning of the name Ashley is Ash-Tree and Lives in the ash tree grove. In ‘Gone with the Wind’ Ashley is used as a boy’s name also. The name Ashley comes from Old English. Ashley was a very popular name in the 1990’s.

Anna is my middle name. Anna means gracious and merciful; it comes from Hebrew origin. Anna was originally the name Hannah, and then just shortened to be Anna. There are many songs that are named Anna. It is a pretty common and popular name.

My parents chose the name Ashley for my first name because it was the only name that they could both agree on. My father wanted me to be named Anna, or Isabella after his grandmother or mother. My mother did not like either of these names, and suggested that they used Anna as my middle name, it being a family tradition to use another family members name for the first or middle name, and my mother and father both could agree on Ashley. My parents had no idea what they would have named me if I was a boy.

I enjoy my name; I think that it fits me very well. If I had been named Isabella I don’t think that name would have fit me as well as Ashley fits me. People respond to my name in different ways, many people have said that my name fits me very well. Most people call me Ashley, many of my close friends and family call me Ash, and some of my closest friends call me Lee.