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Exploring Zora’s Style

Ms. BoehmAP Language

+Their Eyes Were Watching God

Genre Bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel), American Southern spiritual journey

Time and place written Written in seven weeks during 1937 while Hurston was in Haiti Published in New York

First publication: September 1937

Setting Time: early twentieth century, presumably the 1920s or 1930s Place: rural Florida

Point of View The novel is Janie's life-story, told to Pheoby Watson by Janie herself Throughout the novel, a third-person omniscient narrator interrupts Janie's

narrations and direct presentations of characters' speech The narrator's mode of speaking is distinctly literary in contrast to the dialect

of the other characters Frame story: story within a story

+Coming-of-Age Novel

A novel in which an adolescent protagonist comes to adulthood by a process of experience and disillusionment. This character loses his or her innocence, discovers that previous preconceptions are false, or has the security of childhood torn away, but usually matures and strengthens by this process.

Examples are everywhere… To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

+Hurston’s Style

Perfect practice for analyzing style on the AP exam

Hurston has appeared numerous times on both the AP Lang and Lit Exams… and her work(s) may appear again! Example Prompt

The passage below is the opening of Seraph on the Suwanee (1948), a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. Read the passage carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze the literary techniques Hurston uses to describe Sawley and to characterize the people who live there.

+Defining Style Style in literature is the literary element that describes

the ways that the author uses words — the author's word choice, sentence structure, figurative language, and sentence arrangement all work together to establish mood, images, and meaning in the text.

Style describes how the author describes events, objects, and ideas.

One easy way to understand literary style is to think about fashion styles. Clothes can be formal and dressy, informal and casual, preppy, athletic, and so forth. Literary style is like the clothes that a text puts on. By analogy, the information underneath is like the person's body,

and the specific words, structures, and arrangements that are used are like the clothes. Just as we can dress one person in several different fashions, we can dress a single message in several different literary styles.

+Steps for Analyzing Style

1 Comprehension check

2 Consider the presentation

3 Draw conclusions

+Step 1: Comprehension Check

Think “context”

Do you understand the surface… Setting Characters Plot

Crucial step for forming a base for your analysis If you don’t understand what’s happening in the text, how

can you analyze the style in which it’s happening and why that style is important for the overall meaning (purpose)?

+Step 2: Consider the PresentationThe style that an author uses influences how we interpret the facts that are presented. Wording and phrasing can tell us about emotions in the scene, the setting, and characters. If you're still not convinced, consider the differences between the following sentences:

He's passed away. He's sleeping with the fishes. He died. He's gone to meet his Maker. He kicked the bucket.

The version of that sentence that a writer chooses tells us a lot about the situation, the speaker, and the person being spoken to (the audience).

Euphemism: a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

+Step 2: Consider the Presentation Imagery

Sensory details, symbols, allusions, words/phrases

_____ Diction Types: colloquial, dialect, abstract,

connotation

_____ Syntax Sentence structure, sentence

patterns Declarative, imperative,

interrogative, exclamatory, simple, compound, complex, periodic, juxtaposition, parallelism, repetition

______ Tone (Attitude) Details, word choice (diction),

imagery

Literary Elements Setting, characterization, plot,

theme, point of view

Organization Chronology, compare/contrast

Types of Writing Narrative, persuasive, descriptive

+Step 3: Draw Conclusions

Based on your ideas, generate a statement that draws all your ideas together toward a common purpose

Comprehension Check

Consider the Presentation

Draw Conclusions

+Exploring Hurston’s Style Original

"No sich uh thing!" Tea Cake retorted.

Informal "Nothing like that ever happened," Tea Cake replied.

Formal "With great fortune, that happenstance did not become a reality," Tea

Cake stated.

Journalistic, after Ernest Hemingway "It did not happen," Tea Cake said.

Archaic, after Nathaniel Hawthorne "Verily, it was a circumstance, to be noted, that appeared not to so much

have been a reality as to have evolved as a thing that had not yet come to be," Tea Cake impelled.

+Exploring Hurston’s Style

AAVE (African American Vernacular English) or BE (Black English) Rhythm and word choice Janie’s conversation with Nanny in Ch. 2

Oral features or heard speech Discussion of Matt Bonner’s yellow mule on the store’s porch in Ch. 6

Colorful figurative language Metaphors and imagery

Pear tree and blossoms in Ch. 2 Personification

Description of the storm in Ch. 18 Biblical images and references

“Old as Methusalem” in Ch. 7 The Virgin Mary image comparison in Ch. 6

+Example

“And Ah can’t die easy thinkin’ maybe de menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit cup outa you: Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah’m a cracked plate.” Ch. 2 pg. 20

1. Comprehension Check Janie and Nanny are talking about Janie’s future. Nanny hopes for her to marry soon so

that she is taken care of after Nanny passes on.

2. Consider the Presentation Colorful figurative language (metaphor) Southern dialect or AAVE

3. Draw Conclusions The use of southern dialect and metaphorical phrasing in Hurston’s passage brings

readers into the mind of Nanny. We know what she thinks and feels concerning Janie’s future. This personal style ultimately brings us closer to Janie through Nanny’s words and helps us to understand Janie’s choices and reactions to others.

+Your turn to try…

For the remainder of class (Due Wed. 2/25) Read and annotate the excerpt from Chapter 1 (be sure

to include a key) This passage is filled with literary devices… your

annotated passage should reflect this! Make a style analysis chart that indicates

Line numbers Quotation (use ellipses for longer quotes) Technique The way the stylistic choices affect the meaning