English 12, Unit 3:
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Quoted Passages
Directions: Below you will find important quotes from the passages from the book. They are intended to help you check your comprehension of the text. You should be able to identify:
* The Speaker
* The Importance of the Quote =
- Character Details
- A Pivotal Change in the Story
- It Highlights Some Aspect of a Quality or Person
I will not be collecting this. It is simply designed as a test review item.
Chapter 1:
“ Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. 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. That is the life of men.” Ch. 1 P.1
“Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.” Ch. 1 P.1
Chapter 2:
“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.” Ch.2 p. 8
"'You know, honey, us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come round in queer ways. You in particular. Ah was born back due in slavery so it wasn't for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do . . . Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin' on high, but they wasn't no pulpit for me.'" Chapter 2, pg. 15
“[Janie] was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid.” Ch. 2
Chapter 3:
“Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” Ch 3 p. 25
Chapter 4:
“Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he [Joe] spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance. Still she hung back. The memory of Nanny was still powerful and strong.” Ch. 4 p. 29
Chapter 5:
“Over, Janie? I god, Ah ain’t even started good. Ah told you in de very first beginnin’ dat Ah aimed tuh be uh big voice. You oughta be glad, ‘cause dat meaks us big woman outa you.
A feeling of coldness and fear took hold of her. He felt far away from things and lonely.” Ch. 5 p. 46
“They had murmured hotly about slavery being over, but every man filled his assignment.” Ch. 5 p. 47
“It sort of made the rest of them feel that they had been taken advantage of. Like things had been kept from them. Maybe more things in the world besides spitting pots had be hid from them, when they wasn’t no better than to spit in tmato cans. It was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could be so different it put you on a wonder. It was like seeing your sister turn into a ‘gator.”Ch. 5 p. 48
“Speakin’ of winds, he’s de winds, he’s de wind and we’se de grass. We bend which ever way he blows,…but at dat us needs h im. De town wouldn’t be nothin’ if it wasn’t for him. He can’t help bein’ sorta bossy. Some folks needs thrones, and ruling – chairs and crowns tuh make they influence flet. He don’t. He ‘s got us throne in de seat of his pants.” Ch. 5 p. 49
Chapter 6:
“This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn’t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was… She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others. But he never said things like that. ..” Ch. 6 p. 55
“The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again. .. The bed was no loner a daisy field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired.” Ch. 6 p. 71
“She found that she had a host of thoughts she never expressed to him, and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know about. Things packed up and put away in parts of her heart where he could never find them. She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen.” Ch 6. p. 73
Chapter 7:
“She got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she didn’t value.” Ch. 7 p. 76
“Then one day she sat and watched the shadow of herself going about tending store and prostrating itself before Jody, while all the time she herself sat under a shady tree with the wind blowing through her hair and her clothes. Somebody near about making summertime out of lonesomeness.” Ch. 7 p. 77
Chapter 8:
“The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. .Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see…” Ch. 8 p. 87
Chapter 9:
“The Little Emperor of the cross-roads was leaving Orange County as he had come – with the out-stretched hand of power.
Janie starched and ironed her face and came set in the funeral behind her veil. It was like a wall of stone and steel. The funeral was going on outside. All things concerning death and burial were said and done… Weeping and wailing outside. Inside the expensive black folds were resurrection and life. She did not reach outside for anything, not did the things of death reach inside to disturb her calm. She set her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world.” Ch 9. p. 89
Chapter 10:
This is a transition chapter. I did not pick any quotes from this section.
Chapter 11:
“He was probably the kind of man who lived with various women but never married. Fact is, she decided to treat him so cold if her ever did foot the place that he’d be sure not to come hanging around there again. “ Ch 11 p. 100
"[Tea Cake] looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom - a pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God." Chapter 11, pg. 101
Chapter 16:
"Before the week was over he had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him. Being able to whip her reassured him in possession. No brutal beating at all. He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss." Chapter 16, pg. 140
Chapter 17:
"They huddled closer and stared at the door. They just didn't use another part of their bodies, and they didn't look at anything but the door. The time was past for asking the white folks what to look for through that door. Six eyes were questioning God." Chapter 18, pg. 150
Chapter 18:
"'Once upon uh time, Ah never 'spected nothin', Tea Cake, but bein' dead from standin' still and tryin' tuh laugh. But you come 'long and made somethin' outa me. So Ah'm thankful fuh anything we come through together.'" Chapter 18, pg. 158
Chapter 19:
"Janie held his head tightly to her breast and wept and thanked him wordlessly for giving her the chance for loving service. She had to hug him tight for soon he would be gone, and she had to tell him for the last time. Then the grief of outer darkness descended." Chapter 19, pg. 175
Chapter 20:
"'So Ah'm back home agin and Ah'm satisfied tuh be heah. Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons.'" Chapter 20, pg. 182
"Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see." Chapter 20, pg. 184
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