General Instructions
The professor will evaluate these responses based on the cogency, clarity, insightfulness, and development of ideas. Be sure to analyze specific passages for support. For each response, if you have your own idea for a response on the assigned readings instead of the assigned questions, just clear it with me first.
Reading responses do not need to be in essay format but must be typed (10-12 font, double-spaced) and edited for clarity, grammar, and mechanics. You may use relevant portions of your reading responses in the longer
Directions: Choose one question to answer. Remember that a successful response will quote and analyze key passages from Their Eyes Were Watching God.
A. Analyze Their Eyes Were Watching God as a coming-of-age story with the theme of romantic love. How do Janie’s various relationships in the novel define her identity?
B. To what extent is Their Eyes Were Watching God a feminist novel? To answer this question, you could focus on Janie’s search for an authentic identity or Hurston’s decision to have Tea Cake die.
B. Look at the theme of seduction in the novel in relation to power. How does the power dynamic in the novel shift in each of Janie’s relationships?
C. Looking at Their Eyes Were Watching God as a naturalistic novel, consider the impact of gender and/or race on Janie’s character development in the novel. To what extent is the novel a naturalistic one?
D. How does Hurston use her background as an anthropologist with a focus on folklore in Their Eyes Were Watching God? More specifically, consider her use of dialect, her focus on storytelling, and/or the significance of the porch in African American life.
E. Analyze examples of metaphor, simile, symbolism, and personification the novel and their significance in developing character or theme. Provide at least one example of each term.
Here’s the link for the book: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/losrios/reader.action?docID=7001745&ppg=1
If you’re unable to access this version, there are copies of the book readily available online. Please let me know if you encounter any problem.