“neither half of me wrought my ruin.

It was the falling asunder of halves,

Never a part of eachother,

That left me a lifeless soul”

This is an interesting idea. In most books when one person is attempting to be two people at one and put on a facade for someone else, or another group of people, this causes their demise. The stress and fastidiousness required to keep up two personalities and acts is usually too much and that is what kills them. That or they get discovered and murdered. Even if these two ‘people’ are working together for the real person to achieve their goals, it’s not a failure if the two don’t ‘jive’, a problem Henry Layton had.

Lucinda Matlock’s poem is deep and really reflects positively on her life. Despite how her sons and daughters turned out she’s able to accept that it’s time to go, at age ninety-six, and learns that life is something to be enjoyed as well as to be a time to experience everything you’re meant to experience.

“I lothed you, Spoon River, I tried to rise above you,

I was ashamed of you. I despised you

As the place of my nativity”

Archibald explicitly states what many residents of Spoon River have been thinking, that they just want to leave the place. Searcy Foote and Mickey M’Grew talked about college and how they saved up the money, or attempted to, so that they could go on and have a life beyond Spoon River. The small community where everyone knew something about everyone elses life was not what any of those who hoped to leave were looking for. It got to the point where Archibald was ashamed of the place where he grew up because it brought him nothing. He thought that if he were to change where he was born, he would have had more oppurtunities and been a different person who wouldn’t have to have been reminded of where he came from, and been embarrassed about it.

Archibald sought a more exciting life beyond the boring day-to-day gossip and small town of Spoon River.

“There was no culture, you know, in Spoon River,

And I burned with shame and held my peace”

This is why so many residents travel to France and Spain and other countries, something we were trying to figure out in the begining. They want more than they already have and have to go somewhere with such high expecatations. These places they travel to don’t live up to the reputations they’ve given them, but are still sometimes better than Spoon River.

Wendell P. Bloyd- It was interesting for me to see how the whole Adam and Eve story was just like God, and that’s why he crucified His Own Son

Franklin Jones- reminded me of George Gray, who failed to seize his opportunities and, in the case of Franklin Jones, didn’t finish his flying machine and become famous as he dreamt.

Pauline Barrett- a great quote i found from here was ” ‘One should be all dead when one is half-dead-’ Nor ever mock life, nor ever cheat love.’ ”

Albert Schirding- “But I know of a fate more trying than that: It is to be a failure while your children are successes”. He put all of his money into becoming superintendent and failed again, while his daughter was successful. And that’s what killed him.

Jonas Keene- He provides an alternate viewpoint to Alberts, saying that your children bring you honor, because you are the one that raised them. This relates very much to Mrs. Williams and that she thought all of the children might as well be raised by the county, but maybe Alberts “American Dream” inspired his kids and made them better. His failure could have led him to further inspire them to go and push their limits for success.

Mary McNeely- “To love is to find your soul Through the soul of a beloved one”. Maybe the American Dream is different in small town Spoon River, maybe they don’t desire money as much as love, something less tangible, but that would probably make you the most happy in a small town with nowhere to go.

For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.

And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.

To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire–

It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

This poem is probably one of the most abstract in the whole book, but that also makes it the easiest to relate to. George shys away from love because of his fear, and doesn’t answer the door, where oppurtunity may very well be knocking. He was driven to succede but afraid of failure, but wasn’t happy with his life while living in this fear.

It’s only once he dies that George realizes that he should have taken advantage of all those oppurtunities he had, for both love, meaning, and success. It’s almost that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and in this case gone is taken to the extreme, death.

This poem is full of advice to all of the living that will listen, sieze your chances, let the winds take you, and even if you may struggle you’re on your path to success and a fulfilling life!

Doctor Meyers thinks he did so much for the town as a doctor who took in those who could not pay, and then when he is blamed for Minerva’s death dies himself. He was “blessed” with a wife, and married kids, but then criticized for the death of a patient he took on, and his wife died, then him. He puts most of his blame on the the newspapers that disgraced him, but it was maybe his fault because he was so ‘great’ and took in anyone.

Mrs. Meyers feels bad that her husband failed at helping Minerva alive, but believes what he told her- that “he had broken the law human and divine” by attempting such a feat. She doesn’t seem to miss life as much as the doctor, but gives the advice to be peaceful and keep all of Gods comandments. I’m not sure where exactly this comes from though.

Doc Hill had a wife that wasn’t as sympathetic, but was actually his motivation to care for the sick. He doesn’t seem to think of himself as great as Doctor Meyers did, and is almost proud when he sees all the people gather around on the lawns. I’m not sure who Em Stranton is either, but I think it has to do with him not leaving those who didn’t care about him (his son and wife) and being able to love her.

Now, dat’s how everything wuz, Pheoby, jus’ lak Ah told yuh.  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 (191).

Janie had more of an adventure than she could have expected. I believe that if she had to go home right after the good times in the Everglades, she still would have been happy at home.

“They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (160).

“If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk. It’s so many people never seen de light at all. Ah wuz fumblin’ round and God opened de door…Once upon uh time, Ah never ’spected nothin’ but bein’ dead from the standin’ still and tryin’ tuh laugh. But you come ‘long and made somethin’ outa me (167).

“You was twice noble tuh save me from dat dawg. Tea Cake, Ah don’t speck you seen his eyes lak Ah did. He didn’t aim tuh jus’ bite me, Tea Cake. He aimed to kill me stone dead. Ah’m never tuh fuhgit dem eyes. He wusn’t nothin’ all over but pure hate. Wonder where he come from?” (167).

“don’t say you’se ole. You’se uh lil girl baby all de time. God made it so you spent yo’ ole age first wid somebody else, and saved up yo’ young girl days to spend wid me” (172).

“She wished she had slipped off that cow-tail and drowned then and there and been done. But to kill her through Tea Cake was too much to bear. Tea Cake, the son of Evening Sun, had to die for loving her” (178).

“Love ain’t somethin’ lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore” (182).

““It was not death she feared. It was misunderstanding”

“Tea Cake was the son of Evening Sun, and nothing was too good” (189).

“Sometimes Janie would think of the old days in the big white house and the store and laugh to herself. What if Eatonville could see her now in her blue denim overalls and heavy shoes? The crowd of people around her and a dice game on her floor! She was sorry for her friends back there and scornful of the others”

Janie is living a completely different life here in the everglades than she did in Eatonville. She isn’t striving to sit on the porch and chill, but voluntarily works to keep occupied and spend more time with Tea Cake. This also has the added benifit of making her look like less of a snob to the town and they all take a liking to her. Now what does Janie have to aspire to? She has found love and a life that is happy in all respects. Why will Tea Cake leave her and lead everyone in Eatonville to think he stole her money?

“You’se got de world in uh jug and make out like you don’t know it” (104).

Janie is afraid of Tea Cake leaving her and leading her on.

“At the newel post Janie whirled around and for the space of a thought she was lit up like a transfiguration. Her next thought brought her crashing down. He’s just saying anything for the time being, feeling he’s got me so I’ll b’lieve him. . The next thought buried her under tons of cold futility. He’s trading on being younger than me. Getting ready to laugh at me for and old fool. But oh, what wouldn’t I give to be twelve years younger so I could b’lieve him!” (105).

Janie does believe Tea Cake and everything he does. He probably stole that money he brings back to her and didn’t win it gambling, that why he comes back hurt. He does seem to prove himself to her though, and she believes him.

” You changes everything but nothin’ don’t change you- not even death” (86).

Janie says this to Jody when he’s on his deathbed. First she can’t even enter the room but forces herself to, and is just in time too. Jody ends up dying and she’s upset. We see at the funeral Janie is thinking about how Jody is really gone and the narration sentences even turn to one word to show how upset she actually is. She seems to feel free and even literally lets her hair down and burns the bandannas with great feeling, but shows the world that she is still mourning, even if she isn’t inside anymore. I’m not sure if Janie really is or isn’t upset, but I would say that her moving onshows that at least after more than 6 months she is completely over it.

Janie then decides it’s not worth pretending to be sad anymore and should be free so when a man comes into the store because he went to the wrong place for the game that everyone is at, she begins flirting with him. Tea Cake sticks around all day then even helps her close and walks Janie home.

I found an interesting blog with links to others about Their Eyes Were Watching God here.

It is this act that lets Janie believe that maybe she can stay with Jody, but then he gets mean again as he gets old. He continues to believe that Janie is his to be watched, and her hair should be hidden so that no one else, but him can enjoy it. Jody makes another strong statement in these chapters,

“Dat’s ’cause you need tellin’. It would be pitiful if Ah didn’t. Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves” (71).

Today we see that Janie shouldn’t be treated like that, but back then it was the norm. I wonder now if all women felt rebellious inside. Of course all of the books we read are about women with fire in their hearts, but maybe all women felt this way and we just have the tendancy to view them as weak and passive when they’re really not.