Examples Of Dialectical Journal For The Great Gatsby

1. “Ships at a distance have man’s wish on board.” (Hurston 1). The very first sentence of the novel reminds most about the novel the Great Gatsby, the quote is saying that men have dreams that are achieved, wanted, or never achieved. The next paragraph however points out that women have no dreams, that they forget what they don’t want to remember, yet remember everything they don’t want to forget. Why does the book first state that men live with dreams while women don’t? Why does the author criticize this? To point out that the book was written by the first female black author, but why is she comparing men and women as women being “helpless”? Why is there a sense of inequality here? Does the comparison between men and women reflect off the

What does she mean by “burying the dead”? Further along the reading, it is clearly stated that she wasn’t burying people who were expected to die. “She had come back from the sodden and the bloated; the sudden dead, their eyes flung wide open in judgment.” (Hurston 1) Does this mean she came back from murdering people? As shown in the movie and described in the novel, she did return very odd and different. When she did come back, to point out that she was judged. Thinking back to the first quote, it might sound like that women were discriminated the most. Based off the book and movie she was being judged by black men as well, why are blacks are criticizing there own

It seems like many are being judged and talked smack about between both men and women. The quote before “If God don’t…”, mentions “well, Ah see Mouth-Almighty is still sittin’ in de same place. And Ah reckon they got me up in the mouth now” (Hurston 5). I feel that she’s mentioning that she should stop talking smack about people since “god is watching”. In reply it is mentioned that if you pass people without judgment, they will “wonder” and look/find out your life and see what you’ve done. People who do this know more about you more than yourself, they “heard” bout you. First off who is “they”, since it sounds like they are mentioning that god is watching. Though, it is stated that if god doesn’t think or care about them, “they are a lost ball in tall grass”. I somewhat feel that this quote is saying that if god doesn’t think about them anymore (then I do) they are said to be lost or isolated (in high grass). All this makes me wonder since the word “judgment” is brought up more than once (in text). Also, I feel this has a deep connection to the novel title. “Their eyes were watching god”. Who is “their”? Keyword that stood out for me was “were”. Are “they” not looking up to god anymore? What made them stop watching god? It is stated that the “Mouth-Almighty” (I’m assuming this is god) is in the same place. What does that mean? Same place? I’m confused that