Happiness or Day Jah Voo? (based on scenes in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston)

Cory

Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

Topic #1: Narrative that tells a story from Janie Stark’s point of view.

-This narrative is told from the point of view of Janie, after she had married Joe and left Logan, and looks back

on how this happened.

Happiness, Or Day Jah Voo?

Boy I shir got tarred werkin down thurr in those thurr fields cuttin dem god danged seed ‘taters. Logan thought dat I gots to werk hard fer him because his first wife werked hard. ‘Parently I wu’n’t be good nuff for him, cuz I wanted to be inside the house takin care my man and makin beaten bisquits while he worked hard. But Naaah, he had tah “drive down tah Lake City for a mule” and make his wifey work. Well, I ain’t no first wife of his, I’z a lady, and a lady don’t cut no fields fer her knightnshiningarmer! I just got plain ‘ol got sick n tarred. Seriously, he wanted so much outa me. Now he can kiss my royal diasticutis!

When ‘Ol Joey Starks came commin round tha way on dat road, I cud see him from my seat wurr I waz cuttin’ dem tater’s. He was dah guy I been dreemin of all dis time, tah get me way from my mizzerabull laff. I gave ‘im some sweet well water tah slake dat thursty throat of his. I got in quotations wid him and he told me dat I shuddent be doin’ wat I be doin now, doin deh “man’s work.” Dats wat I was be thinking all long!!!! I gotsd so happy at dat time, cuz all dat time I ben wating fer a way to get away frum dat terrible man Logan Killicks. One nite, I was so upset wit Logan cuz he kept telling me to do all ‘dis borin werk. I was all lak “If you can stand not to chop wood and tote wood Ah reckon you can stand to git no dinner.” Ohh Lawd Lawd Lawd he almost wuz cryin’. Secretly I wuz so happy dat I stood up to dat mizzerble excuse for a man.

Erry day after dat day since he came down to see me, he came again, the bee tah mah bloom, deh horizon wuz vizz’ble, I swurr tah gahd. Den one day I told Logan dat I wanted tah leav him. He was all like “ya right” but I cud see dat he was hurtsd by it, which was good because he treeted me lak I was my mother, a slave. Despicable. I ain’t no slave. Mmmm umm. Not afta wat mah Nanny went throo tah make my laff az good az it cud get. Not then, not now. Joe waz tah ‘xact opp’sit wut Logan wuz. While Logan wanted me tah work, Joe wanted me tah “relax and enjoy life.” Dass wat ahm talkin ‘bout!

Fahnly, one mornin’, Joe was tah come and pick me up. To really stick it in his face, I made Logan a final breakfast so he cud see what he wud be missn’ widout a nass wife lak me to whip up dem’ hearty meals lak dat. Dat ‘il teach him a kidogo. Heh, sure will be tough fer him up dere. Dat booboo never loved me, he jus thad an anya uku. I think he only wants a wife so he dun’t haffta do all da work ‘round da house. Hell, wouldn’t s’prize me if hiz first wife didn’t really die, but juss lak me ran right off wid a betterman. Tah me, Logan iz a lazy son of Combunction, passin off his work to me.

Joe picked me up dat morn’ in a hired rig, almost lak a dream, and dah wagg’n carried us off tah Green Cove Springs, and we gots married tuhgethah, and we was buggin’. We took dah train down tuh a town full uh colored peoples juss lak me, and Joe wuz surprisinly gud at conversin’ tuh everyone. I was m’pressed. For duh hole train radd we wuz talking bout wut to do wid duh new town we wuz goin to. Joe had duh whole thing planned out.

When we gots to duh town it wuznt as gud as we both had hoped fer it to be, but Joe wuz still cool ‘bout it. We only hadz 50 acres wen we gots thurr. Joe di’nt think that was gud ‘nuff, so he went out and bot s’more land fer deh town. 200 acres t’be ‘xact. After dat, he bilt a mail place and a generile stoar. Den one day he told me I hadda werk in dat dere generile store. I was like in my hed “Aww hell nah, hurr we go aggin!”. Frum dat point ahn, our relashunship wuz a ball was lak a snowball rollin down a hill, ‘xcept instead of snow the snowball was collecting… bad… So our relationship gotstd bad. He start’d gittin all crazy and all ‘bout my hair. He thought there was be other guyz tran’to git wid me cuz mah hair was purrty. His control started tuh get more stronger, and I gots more sadder.

So now hurr I am, trapped in uh ‘nuther relashunship that is wid a guy dat controls mah laff az much as he can. Ahll never reach dat horizon. Love is a Sisyphean struggle. How I lurned dat word wid duh turrble vocablary dat I gotz I don’t know. But it works. So iz duh next man I meet gonnah be happiness, or duh same thing all ova again, or will I be stuckszed with this man fer mah whole laff. I hope not, I hope he getz rull sick n’ dies…

"Flight" by Sherman Alexie Review

I was recently recommended by my English teacher at a book fair at school to try reading a book by Sherman Alexie, a very dynamic author, who often uses his Indian heritage as a theme in his books.

I chose to buy the book Flight, mainly because of the interesting cover and the large text. I'm glad I chose this book, because it was one of the best books I have ever read. The story begins with a 15-year-old rebellious half Indian/ half White foster child in a new foster home. He tells us to call him Zits, without telling us his real name. He hates everyone, except for one 17-year-old interestingly called Justice. After a certain incident (read to find out) he begins an odyssey throughout the lives of many different people, and time era's, each with a challenge or an epiphany. It is a truly deep and modern novel, and I highly recommend it.

Alexie's style is so unique. The book reads very fast-paced, and the sentences are not too hard to understand, yet there are so many profound meanings and connections made throughout the book, which he won't outright say until the end, but you will most likely notice them beforehand. Via the mind of Zits (and the bodies and minds of others), Alexie conveys messages that truly make you think, without obscuring them with complex sentence structure.

Also, Alexie has a great sense of humor, he'll throw in lines that catch you off guard and make you laugh. Just on the third page he throws in a line which immediately made me respect his humor because of how peculiar but funny it was.

"And my alarm clock isn't playing Blood, Sweat & Tears or any other kind of music, so I punch it quiet, get out of bed, walk into the strange pink bathroom, and pee for three minutes"

I laughed out loud when I read this and just thought "What?". You pretty much have to read on after this. This book never gets boring, because there is always something happening, and every previous sentence makes you want to read the next one. Go buy this book!

______________________

I'm glad to actually be able to praise a book, because recently I have been forced to read, or sparknote some pretty miserable books such as "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston. I'll post my thoughts on that book later.

Anti-Poetry Poetry

So recently was just in the time of year in english class where the teacher starts to whip out the poetry book. Poetry just isn't for me; sorry poetry enthusiasts. But in my boredom for poetry I got involved with writing anti-poetry, which I surprisingly enjoyed. I popped in my headphones in my Ipod and started writing down my ideas in my "Notes" app for the Ipod Touch, and heres what came out:

1st one:

Poetry,
Loaded sentances,
Like questions,
Objection.

2nd:

Hey look!
Unconventional
----------------Sentance
---------Structure...
-------Minimal Words...
S P A C E
-------------Wonder
-----------------------What's [inside]
like
-------------a picture?

3rd:

Keep it simple,
Like Occam,
and his razor.
But don't forget
The open ended suggestions
Or it will be read but once

4th:

Poetry,
Its meaning deep like oceans.
Like oceans,
Much the same.

Thats it. I don't know I kind of liked a couple of them, and surprisingly enjoyed writing it. I actually think that there's plenty of poetry that I would enjoy greatly, just not the stuff I read in class. So these poems are only influenced by the poetry and poets that I have learned about in class. Maybe I'll find some that I like some time, just not now, because I don't feel like it.

Beckett's Suspension: Did He Really Mean It?

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090414&content_id=4266542&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos

Im not a sports commentator, but this is a situation I would like to voice my opinion on, being a Red Sox fan and all. Josh Becket was suspended six games after a game in which he hummed a pitch past Bobby Abreu's head after Abreu had called for time.

Here is the video of the incident, in which Beckett was not ejected during the game, but suspended for six games after the game was over. I don't think Beckett meant to throw at his head, I just think that he realized at the last moment that Bobby Abreu had called for time and it was too late for him to stop, and his confusion made him lose control of the ball.

However, I do believe that this situation in the game could have been prevented from escalating to the level which it did, with both benches clearing, including the late-arriving bullpen. If Beckett hadn't walked towards Abreu yelling (then again I don't know what he was yelling or if it was bad), and maybe gestured towards him that the pitch wasn't intentional, then the clearing of the benches might have been avoided.

Bobby Abreu handled this situation very well in opinion, considered the circumstances. He did not charge the mound like many other players would, or even get excessively mad, until Beckett started towards him. He just threw his hands up because he didn't get why Beckett did that, and he was not expecting it at all. If someone threw a 94 mile-per-hour fastball right past my head, after I had already called time-out, I would definitely be pretty mad too.

I think that these two teams can definitely put this incident behind them, and Abreu will forgive Beckett for his faux pas. On another note, The Angels beat the Sox 2/3 games right after losing an extremely valuable teammate, Nick Adenhart, to a drunk driver, which is very impressive. Hopefully the two team's next meeting won't go so rocky next time.