In chapter 18 of Their Eyes Were Watching God, a hurricane is coming towards the Everglades. Before the storm hit the Everglades, they were all "staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God."
Why is the quote above important?
When Janie and Tea Cake were on their way to Palm Beach, "they passed a dead man in a sitting position on a hummock, entirely surrounded by wild animals and snakes. Common danger made common friends. Nothing sought a conquest over the other."
Explain the quote. Why does "common danger" make "common friends"?
Besides being the title of the book, the first quote is important because it describes how Janie, Tea Cake, and the rest of the community are dealing with their fear before the storm. Even though they are looking at the dark of the storm, or the unknown, what they are really doing is watching God, watching for a sign of what's to come, watching what His plans will be. Many African Americans are religious and many referred to scripture and Christianity during the hardships they faced; similar Mrs. Turner's quote about cruel deities, they are watching to see if God plans to make them suffer more. The next quote refers to the situation where a common enemy brings two or more people together in camaraderie, even if they were enemies themselves before. A good example of this is in WWII, where the US and USSR become unlikely allies to defeat the Germans and Japanese. When faced with the danger of the coming hurricane, all of the wild animals and humans don't have time to be fighting with one another - they are too busy worrying about the storm.
ReplyDeleteI think that this quote is a reference to the blacks' struggle for power in society. I see this quote as if all blacks in that time were living in poverty, a "common danger." So, when all the blacks lived together, "nothing sought a conquest over the other." Therefore, they didn't want to compete with each other for wealth and power because they all shared a common disadvantage in the world, which was oppression from the whites. So, all the blacks chose to live together because they all shared this same "common danger" in the world.
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