quotes from chapter 1

"These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment."chapter, 1.pg.2

i thing that this quote means that the novel centers around the life of a beautiful woman named Janie Crawford with long flowing hair and a mind of her own. While young and at the insistence of her grandmother, she marries an older man she hardly knows and barely likes. He expects her to work harder than she wants to work. He expects her to work beyond the kitchen and do things that seem beneath her. She does not do what he tells. Even more, when she meets a sweet-smelling young man named Jody Starks she sees the promise of a life far more satisfying and so she runs off with him without ever looking back.

"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, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.

Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly." (1.1-2)

i think that according to Hurston, men are more practical than women; they know that their dreams are unattainable, as illustrated by the distant ships that rarely come onto shore. When they realize that their dreams are unrealistic, men become resigned to their fate and live on. On the other hand, women close that metaphorical distance by failing to distinguish between dream and reality. Their dreams are their reality and thus they live far more idealistic lives.