THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD
Standards Focus Activities
Chapter Seven Standards Focus: Point of View
Point of View is the perspective from which a story is told. The three most common types of point of view are:
?First person- the narrator is a character in the story; tells the story using the first person pronouns “I”, “me”and
“my”.
?Third person limited- the narrator is an outside observer of the action; is able to tell the reader about onlyone
person’s views, thoughts, and perspective.
?Third person omniscient- the narrator is an outside observer of the action; is able to tell the reader thethoughts,
feelings, and perspectives of many characters in the story.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is told from the third person limited point of view, although it is Janie’s story. While
the story is of Janie’s journey, told by Janie herself to her friend Phoebe, the narrator steps away from Janie’s voice,becoming an outside observer. Because it is third person limited, we are privy to the thoughts, feelings and
observations of Janie herself.
Directions: Take a moment to look around you. Find any object in your area and study it closely. Followdirections for each example below.
1. Using specific and powerful details, describe everything you observe about the object. Describe its color,shape, weight, height, texture, smell, taste, etc., using as many details as possible.
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2. Now, imagine that object had a life of its own. Use your imagination to come up with a story of the object’sjourney to this place. First, is it male or female? Where does it come from? What is it used for?Does it like its “job”? Why or why not? Write with as many details as possible, using personification andother imagery to tell your object’s story. This section will demonstrate the use of third person limited pointof view.
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3. Using the same object as above, write a first person account of the same object. In this case, you willbecome the persona of the object, explaining the same passage as above, only using the first person point ofview.
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4. In your opinion, which narration is more effective? Why?
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5. If Their Eyes Were Watching God were told from the first person point of view, how might the story be
different? Would it be a more captivating or interesting story? Why or why not?
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6. How might the novel be different if it were told from Phoebe’s point of view? Explain.
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7. Rewrite the following excerpt from Chapter Seven. Change the third person narration to first person
narration—Janie’s point of view. You will need to use a separate piece of paper.
The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did, she said nothing. She had learned how to talk some and leave some. She was in a rut in the road.Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels. Sometimes she struck out into thefuture, imagining her life different from what it was. But mostly she lived between her hat and her heels, withher emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods—come and gone with the sun. She got nothingfrom Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she didn’t value.
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©2006 Secondary Solutions Their Eyes Were Watching God Literature Guide