Journal #9

Journal #9: Write a pastiche of Hurston by duplicating a theme that she uses and three stylistic elements. Use these elements with your own characters, setting, and conflict. After you finish your pastiche clarify what theme and techniques you used and how they were used in a way that mirrors Hurston's own use of them.

            “Whoosh!” an arrow wizzed by Ching’s head as he ran to the center of the courtyard.

“I got to get da revenge on Chong fo killing my dad and brudha!” he thought to himself as he beheaded guard after guard.

As he went on his rampage, Ching’s thoughts flashed back to that afternoon.

“But what can I do masta? Dey kill Dad and brudha! Exclaimed Ching

“You must do what yo inna ninja tell you to do.” Master Fou said.

Ching’s thoughts came back to the ensuing battle just in time for an arrow to pierce his left arm.

“AHHHHHH” screamed Ching. But he kept on running

“It’s okay. It’s just a fresh wound, I stronga then dis.” Thought Ching.

He finally made to the great oak door that separated him from his cousin, Chong.

With a burst he slammed the door open “I find you da finally!” he yelled.

Chong sat on the great throne that Ching’s father used to occupy. “You da fool, yo dad and brudha only want da money and riches, they don’t care fo yo family, its dey fault dat everybody die!”

“But…no dey neva do dat!” Ching fell to his knees in disbelief..his dad and brother had actually died because of greed? They left his whole family to die because of money?

Theme: Individuals that try to advance in society by taking advantage of the capitalistic will end up hurting those around them.

I matched this theme with the one that Hurston uses with the 3 husbands in Their Eyes. In this passage, Ching’s father and brother chose money over family and ultimately ended up hurting/killing them them.

The techniques I used were apostrophe, flashback, mentor, verbal irony, and dialect. The dialect that I used was similar to the way that Hurston used it because throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God, dialect is used very effectively to give a cultural aspect to the story and help the reader understand what kind of background each character had. In my story, I used Master Fou as a mentor to the protagonist, Ching. This is comparable to Hezekiah in Hurstons novel because Hezekiah often gives advice to Janie about Tea Cake much in the same way that Master Fou does with Ching. I also used apostrophe to help give some information about what kind of person Ching is. Hurston uses this strategy as well with Janie.