The text talks about people wishing. The paragraph is a generalization to all sailors instead of a specific sailor or person. "For some they come in with the tide" (1) This statement shows to the reader that not every person knows what they want out of life, but someone may figure out what they wish for at an unexpected time. When a wish "...comes in with the tide." (1) I portray the meaning to be that life and realization can come to a person. A human being needs to go with the rythym of life. "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." (1) By analyzing this sentence, I realized that it is talking about how a person will have a wish or a dream that they want to achieve, but are not able to achieve before they pass. A person will realize, or believe, the time they had to make their wish come true has run out and they need to stop trying. To give up. "That is the life of men." (1) This is a generalization to all human beings and how no one is able to reach or achieve their goal before they pass.
"Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches." (8) Janie has experienced a lot in her lifetime. "...a great tree..." (8) This part of the sentence symolizes how her life has been good altogether. The better parts of her life overpower the worse. The leaves of the tree are how her life played out. The leaves symbolize everything that has happened, not only the good but also the bad. Each leaf is part of her past and how it helped her become the woman she is today. "...things done and undone." (8) This last part really speaks to me because it shows how people make mistakes, it's natural to, and by doing so, a person learns how to fix these wrongs. Branches are after the base of the tree. The base holds the tree together, but you need braches to have leaves. The base of the tree is who Janie is all together. The branches are her paths she has taken to get to the little decisions she has made that have affected her life. "Dawn" is the beginning of a new day, new everything, but doom overpowers everything. This can make the reader feel the mood of tension, sorrowful, and detatched.
"Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah'm a cracked plate." (20) This was spoken by Janie's grandmother. She told Janie about a few of her hardships because she wants her grandchild to end up in a better environment than she was in. "Put me down easy..." (20) She wants to know her grandchild is safe so she can pass in peace.
There are many questions that have been rambling on in my mind while analyzing these few quotations. My thoughts are jumbled and I can not make sense of some of my thoughts or bring them to words. Some of them I can, and I feel as if what Hurston says on wishes, and how she explains that a person can not achieve their wish before it's too late, makes me feel very frustrated. Not only to Hurtson herself, but also to my own self. By her stating "....his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men." (1) makes me want to show Hurtson that people can achieve what they want out of life. Why would Hurston make such a broad generalization? Maybe it is true, but it seems quite unfair to those who have achieved their dream. I feel as if those people, by reading the text, would make them want to reach out to their community and say something on the lines of. "You can achieve your dreams. No matter who says you can not."
To be honest, I am still confused on what this "Oak tree" is about. My thoughts are directed to how tree's have life. This tree could mean that Janie has life and in her life for the most part, is good. I also wonder if the Oak tree will eventually begin to lose it's life or be taken down sometime later in the story. This would show how something in Janie's life has gotten to be worse. Then again, I feel that if this does happen, she will be able to get back up, and make her life grand because she seems to be a strong character.
I have no further questions to the quotes from Janie's grandmother, because I feel that I, for the most part, understand what she was trying to explain to Janie.
No comments:
Post a Comment