Horizon Motif Presentation by Jada Watson https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz Jada and Anthony presentation. en-us 2021-02-09 18:54:52 UTC 2025-11-18 07:04:05 UTC hello@padlet.com Page Number 1 jwatson20241_1 https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1184060543 "Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide.  For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight ever landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by time. That is the life of men."
Our first theme statement------ There is a hope and promise that we all wish to achieve throughout our lives to find our true meaning but when put in a hierarchical society, there is less opportunity for certain people.

 
  In the beginning of Their Eyes Were Watching God the motif of the horizon is used to represent the hope and promise that we chase after for our whole lives. Her use of the horizon further emphasizes the larger theme of fulfillment and spirituality. 
 
The horizon conveys men's dreams never actually falling true.


She uses the motif in the book to directly represent the hope and promise (or lack there of) of black women post slavery era. 


]]> 2021-02-09 18:56:31 UTC https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1184060543 Page Number 28 jwatson20241_1 https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1184065210 “Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun- up pollen and blooming trees but he spoke for far horizons. He spoke for change and chance.”

In this example, the horizon represents change and chance. Janie stopped seeing Joe for a little while because she kept thinking of what her Nanny wanted for her, but she likes Joe because he stood for change. The connotative meaning of horizon is showing change and chance. The use of horizon in 29 relates to the use of the word in 1 because they both talk about chance and dreams which relate to each other. 

]]> 2021-02-09 18:57:19 UTC https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1184065210 Page Number 89 jwatson20241_1 https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1184068055 “Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon-for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you-and pinched it into such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter's neck tight enough to choke her. She hates the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love.”

She chokes her with her horizon representing how Janie was confined to how much she could dream in her earlier years. Janie’s grandmother is choking her with her optimism for the future limiting her to the life that she wants to live. It seems that throughout her life, Janie never really had her own horizon because as we saw on the first page of the book, it's a man's place to dream and hope for good to come.


]]> 2021-02-09 18:57:49 UTC https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1184068055 Page 99 jwatson20241_1 https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1209421090 “So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise. Soon it's amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day.”
 
While this excerpt doesn't  At this moment Janie is sitting on her porch admiring the horizon thinking. Hurston uses personification of the horizon by saying it quenches the thirst of day almost painting it as a healing or relief for the day past. We think that Hurston was truing to say that at the end of the day, a new hope flows into each of us who have a horizon and optimism for the future giving us strength to chase our goals the next day. This is what janie seems to be realizing during the middle of the book, she wants to reach her goal of being happy and content.

]]> 2021-02-17 01:48:22 UTC https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1209421090 page 193 jwatson20241_1 https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1209435746 “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”
Our second theme statement-----
When one chases fulfillment, there is some sort of journey along the way to lead them to their ultimate goal of satisfaction. 

At the end of the book, Hurson uses the horizon to symbolize Janie's new found closure as she looks back on her experiences with Tea Cake.
 
Janie feels content and satisfied with her life and they way that everything turned out. The horizon in this excerpt is representing Janie's true life that she chased her whole life to achieve. She feels whole now that she reached her goal and lived for a little. She calls in her soul to come and see the happiness that Tea Cake left with her. 


]]> 2021-02-17 01:58:37 UTC https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1209435746 page 191 abugliari2024 https://padlet.com/jwatson20241_1/47ozjnzlq1nxbpyz/wish/1211552083 “Ah done been tuh de horizon and ba1ck and now Ah kin set heah in my house and live by comparisons”(191). 

In this use of horizon, Janie talks about how she has been to the horizon and back. The horizon represents change and her dreams which were fulfilled through Tea Cake, and now she can sit and be satisfied with her life. The connotative meaning of horizon is Janie's dreams. Like all the other uses of Horizon before, horizon keeps it's recurring theme of change, dreams, and happiness. 


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