The word unfortunate was used three times in this blog...

Before reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, the only experience I had had with Zora Neale Hurston was in short essays, which I had enjoyed. I also enjoyed this novel, and I'm glad it was part of the curriculum. A couple years ago I saw the movie with friends, and found it idealistic and aesthetically pleasing, but not much else. Oprah calls this one of the best modern love stories, however, I am not convinced. As a story about love as an object, yes it is quite good; and captures well the dreams and idealistic views of the concept. As a story about love as a verb however, or character even, I did not find this novel an impressive "love story."
I was also unimpressed by Tea Cake as a man. Throughout the novel, Janie is ruled by men despite her independent, free spirit. While this is realistic of the time, it is still unfortunate that the talents of this vivacious protagonist are stifled by a string of second-rate men, specif ally, powerful men. Killicks is a powerful man because he owns land and in a sense, owns Janie. Jody also is wealthy, charismatic, and a leader in Eatonville. Even though Tea Cake is poor and owns nearly nothing to his name, he is also charismatic, and holds power over Janie for the simple fact that she loves him. Hurston is showing the weakness of women at the time, and in many ways, today as well. Women were over-ruled by men with money, with leadership in the eyes of others, and by men who abused the love of women. The novel builds up this hope for Janie, a hope that she will one day posses happiness, independence, and most importantly, the happiness and independence found through 'true' love. Unfortunately, this never really happens for Janie. Even Tea Cake, the knight who whisks her away from her old life with promises of love and adventure lets Janie down. He steals her money but all is forgiven when he wins it back in a game of chance. Later, he flirts with one of the muck workers, and refuses to be responsible and respectful of Janie and put a stop to Nunkie's advances. Finally, in chapter 17, he goes so far as to beat Janie. Blinded by love, she stays with him, stays silent, and the situation seems to be ignored completely. Is this the sort of love Janie has been waiting for her entire life? Janie is determined to continue loving Tea Cake, and while some may find her new forgiving attitude endearing and romantic, I find it rather tragic, and, when reading chapter 17, I shook my head in disappointment.
I still enjoy Janie as a character however, and in many ways, respect her a fellow woman. I was impressed with her decision to face the reality of Tea Cake's condition at the end of the novel, and in an act of love for him and need to protect herself, she shot him. I think that this act showed her final act of achievement over men. For once Janie had complete control over the situation. This is hinted at earlier in the novel when she become a better shot than Tea Cake. Guns were manly objects, and shooting was a sport reserved solely for men. Janie however, excels at it, and I find myself proud of her for holding some ground in a man's world.
Would this novel have had a stronger message if Janie's life had played out the way she and readers wanted it to? I don't think so. I think it took tragedy rather than a stereotypical love story to show her true strength. I still think it is unfortunate, however, that she did not achieve power over a man until he was rendered completely incoherent and unable to function do to rabies...

As I Lay Dying: Initial Response

For me, my appreciation of modernist works increses with each piece read. I like each piece more and more (well, sorta. I think I liked The Wastland more than Mrs. D. but whatever). I like As I Lay Dying, which is interesting because I don't think that it is something that I would normally have read. Also, I have a confession to make...I think Oprah has good taste...this is, afterall, An O Book Club novel...

I have always really liked books that focus on several different narrations, so that you are able to learn what each of the different characters are thinking. Even though William Faukner is classified as a different form than Virginia Woolf, there are several similarities in their writing. Both contain narration from several different characters, and both contain stream of conciousness that can be hard to follow at times. Readesr are allowed a view into the mind of th characters, but it still is impossible to understand completely these complex characters that Faulkner has created, and so at times I stopped myself while reading and said, "What?" Ok actually I found myself stopping, puzzled, quite a lot. There are a lot of bizarre things going on, and for me, it can be hard to catch-up to speed with all that is happening. Another thing about this novel that is hard for me to follow is the subject-verb agreement. At certain times, so many different characters are piping in their own thoughts, that it is hard to remember who the main narrator is, and who is saying what about what. Cetain sentences get me all befuddled and even a bit annoyed, like this section from Darl on page 40 "She wouldn't say what we both knew. 'The reason you will not say it is, when you say it, even to yourself, you will know it is true: is that it? But you know it is true now. I can almost tell you the day when you knew it is true. Why won't you say it, even to yourself?" I've never been a fan of grammar, and anayzing sentences. It all just gets too analytical and math-y for me. I love words, and I want words to just be, not classified. But I'm wishing I had paid attention more to all of my English classes, because I don't know how to classify all of the 'its' in this section. I think that 'it' is used here as a noun, and also a subject, and a direct object, and an indirect object..AHH! I really have no idea. But I know it's confusing to me. And, similar to Mrs. Dalloway, I find myself once again comparing this writing to Hemingway's. I can't help it, I just like his writing, and seeing as how he was a modernist author too, I guess it makes sense that I would find correlations. When reading Hemingway, it can be hard to distinguish which subject he is referring to with his use of nouns and propositions. Similarily, when Faulkner's characters ramble on about this or that, their thoughts quickly shifting through their stream of conciousness, it can be hard to follow them as a reader.

So far I really like this story, and it has been the easiest for me to read out of any of the other pieces we have looked at. I flew through the short sections, completing the assigned reading in two brief sittings. Each character is very developed by Faulkner, and I am interested to see what happens to this broken, lonely family. The family is very much messed up, and each of them are handling their bizarre life in their own way. Right now, the two characters I am most interested in are Dewey Dell, who I suspect was raped by this Lafe fellow and is now pregnant and wants an abortion from Dr. Peabody; Darl is the only one who knows this, due to some odd connection they have. I could be throwing darts in the dark though, that's just an initial guess. Vardaman I also love, and I want to adopt and feed. I am fascinated by each of the characters, but these two in particular I am interested in right now.