Their Eyes Were Watching God

Close Reading Envelope Activity

Created by: Marisa Januzzi
Northern ValleyRegionalHigh School, Demarest, NJ

Directions: Each student will be given an envelope with one of the following close reading topics on it. As you read, copy word for word significant passages onto index cards or small slips of paper and put them in the envelope. Don’t forget
the chapter and page number(s) and speaker.
Do not share what youhave chosen to include in the envelope until you are told to do so. Therewill be several activities using the contents of your envelopes. Thecontents and envelope topics will be used as essay prompts and testquestions. Groups
with commontopics will meet as well as groups formed from different topics to share thecontents of the envelopes, discuss why the passages were selected, and toarticulate the effect of the quoted passage on the meaning of the work. Be sure to write
legibly enough for another classmate to read yourselected passages as we will switch envelopes for activities.
Envelope 1: “’It’s uh known fact, Phoeby, yuh gottuh GO there tuh KNOW there…’” (183). Janie’s journey is connected with her self-fashioningas a woman. Look for passages that explore the significance of Janie’s journeyas such.
Envelope 2: Thehistorical past plays a role in the present moment of the story and of itsnarration. Cite examples.
Envelope 3:The familial past also plays a role in Janie’s story. How? Cite passages showing how things that happened in onegeneration of a family can affect another.
Envelope 4: Lookfor passages that illuminate the narrator’s perspective. Is the narrator’s voice always Janie’s,or close to Janie’s? Who speaks, and to what extent are we to understand the voice as objective?
Envelope 5: Trees and horizons are significantmotifs in this story. Choosepassages that help us understand what they might represent.
Envelope 6: Instudying folklore and crafting this novel, Hurston wished to preserve Blackoral forms, like southern Black English itself, storytelling, playing thedozens, and signing the blues. Choosepassages exemplifying the wisdom embedded in these
forms, and the reasons thebook couldn’t have been written entirely in standard English.
Envelope 7:Of all the differences between and among people, which is the biggest: race,class, sex, age, or some other difference? Choose passages showing this novel’s consideration of theissue.

Envelope 8:How does racism affect people? Find passages reflecting less obvious examplesof the effects of racist oppression.
Envelope 9: Whyor in what sense are “their eyes watching God”? Would you call this a religious book? Find passages speaking to the issue.
Envelope 10: Is Janie a feminist hero, or a woman dependent on men for her wellbeing?
Envelope 11: Is Janie fed by love, or stung by it? How about Tea Cake?
Envelope 12:In an early review of THEIR EYES, Richard Wright argued that Hurston’s novelpandered to white readers:
The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought… Her novel isnot addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastesshe knows how to satisfy. She exploits that phase of Negro life which is"quaint," the phase which evokes a piteous smile on the lips of the"superior" race.
Please choose passages to confirm or refute Wright’s argument about this book.