I believe there is a connection between Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Odyssey. The main characters, Janie and Odysseus, are both on journeys. They both have goals, however they don't really know how to reach them. Janie wants to be loved and Odysseus wants to reach his home. Both are "displaced persons". In each story, we are lead through episodes of the characters' lives and shown the struggles they face. At the end of each story we assume that the characters have reached their goals and yet neither has a truly happy ending. Janie finds love with Tea Cake, but he dies. Odysseus returns home, but must leave for yet another journey.

Zora Neale Hurston in "There Eyes were Watching God" and Flannery O'Connor in "The River," both relate because the main characters are trying to get to a better place. In "There Eyes Were Watching God" Janie is confused about her husband Logan. She says, "Cause you told me Ah mus gointer love him, and, and Ah don't. Maybe if somebody was to tell me how, Ah could do it." Janie seems to be disconnected from Logan and she doesn't know what love feels like. That's why when she meets Joe and has different feelings she almost dreams of a better place.

In "The River," the little boy doesn't have a very good home life and he goes to the river to get baptized. After getting baptized the boy doesn't understand the concept and he feels that now he is going to have a better life. When the mom asks the boy what the preacher said he replied, "He said I'm not the same now", "I count." At the end of the story the boy goes back to the river and tries to get under the water to the better place.

It seems that Janie and the little boy both have dreams of something better but they are not sure how to achieve those places.

This article questioned the reader to think what should be considered an American classic and what should be taught in the classroom so that students are well-rounded in their literary achievement. I like that the article shows us that books are not only text, but other things can be used as text as well. The classroom is very important to a learning experience and I believe that we learn just as much from each other as we do from the books we read. I think that it is very useful to hear others' opinions on articles and we might even hear stuff from someone else in class that we might have missed when we read the book, story, or article ourselves. One other thing that I question is how long does a book have to be out to consider it a classic? There are modern books that I find very interesting, not just because the public took to it but because it is a good book that questions the reader. So the five books I would choose are The Great Gatsby, The Scarlett Letter, Invisible Man, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and I would even like to read parts from the Bible. These books were basically chosen, however, because I've been told that they are American classics, when I would probably like to teach some modern books too...but I guess its centered around the classics then modern as well.