1.1 Eyewitness to the flood

By Kristin Post

Provided by UNC Libraries / Documenting the American South

Learning outcomes

Students will:

• make connections between life and literature
• identify narrative concepts or themes
• think critically about narrative details and how they affect emotional impact

Students will be able to apply these concepts in a personal reflection.

This lesson plan will promote the discussion of:

• escaping danger and the emotional toll it takes on people
• how preconceived notions affect decision-making
• what it means to have “hindsight” and how that is useful for the future

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

one class period

Materials/Resources

• teacher’s guides to the interviews
• Documenting the American South oral history excerpts: Elberta Hudson, Renee Lee, and Johnnie Bratten
• Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapters 18 and 19

You may also wish to print out the transcripts of the interviews for the students.

Technology resources

• internet connection
• speakers
• computer
• headphones (preferred)
• CD player (in lieu of the computer, speakers and internet connection, if you have burned your own CD)

Pre-activities

Teacher preparation

1. Listen to the oral history excerpts.
2. Read through the teacher’s guides.
3. Familiarize yourself with chapters 18 and 19 of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Assign these chapters to your students to read.
4. Read over or watch the Hurricane Floyd story and review the facts.

Audio preparation

1. If you are playing audio from a CD player, you will not require a computer or speakers. In this situation, you will want to download the oral histories ahead of time and burn them onto a CD.
2. If you are playing the oral histories from a computer and speakers in your classroom, you can play them live or download the audio to your computer and play with a variety of audio players that can be pre-installed on your computer.
3. If you are going to use the computer lab, you do not have to download the oral histories. You and your students can simply listen to the audio excerpts included in this lesson plan.
4. Before you use the computer lab, you should ensure every student will have a computer and headphones. Also, ensure that the volume on all of the computers is not muted or too loud.

Consult UNC’s Resources for Teachers: Audio Toolkit if you wish to know more about downloading or playing audio files.

Activities

Activity 1: Opening discussion

1. There are many modern and ancient stories of escape in the midst of danger. Examples include Exodus in the Bible and Torah as well as the modern movie The Day After Tomorrow. Consider artistic works or recent real life events (Hurricane Katrina, September 11, the 2005 tsunami in Asia, etc.) that involve escape in the midst of danger and discuss the following points as they relate to Janie’s experience in chapters 18 and 19 in Their Eyes Were Watching God:
   • What people or items become important in these situations? What becomes less important?
   • What are examples of difficult decisions that had to be made?
   • What are the feelings of those who have left their homes?
2. Tell students:
   

   You will be listening to three oral histories from people who live in eastern North Carolina, and who survived the terrible flooding that followed Hurricane Floyd in September 1999. Like Janie, many of them did not believe that the hurricane would cause great damage. They also were faced with difficult decisions along the way. When you listen to these oral histories, you will learn about what they left behind, and their reactions to the dangers and choices they faced.

3. Lead students in a free-write activity. Take a minute, and ask students to write anything that comes to mind about the emotions and difficult decisions involved when people must escape in the midst of danger.

Activity 2: The buildup and escape, Elberta Hudson’s story

4. In Chapter 18, have students reread from the beginning to the passage ending “but their eyes were watching God” closely.
5. Using your teacher’s guide (Using the Elberta Hudson Interview), discuss answers to the preliminary questions.
6. Tell students:
   

   Next, you will listen to Elberta Hudson’s oral history. She also was caught unexpectedly by the floodwaters, and describes what happened to save her.

7. Using your teacher’s guide, read the introductory script aloud to the class.
8. Play the Elberta Hudson oral history excerpt. Running time: 2 minutes 47 seconds.
9. Using your teacher’s guide, discuss the answers to the follow-up questions.

Activity 3: The hierarchy of survival, Renee Lee’s story

10. Have students read from the passage mentioned above (“As soon as Teacake went out pushing wind in front of him”) to “Step round dat side and step off!” in Chapter 18 closely.
11. Using your teacher’s guide (Using the Renee Lee Interview), discuss answers to the preliminary questions.
12. Using your teacher’s guide, read the introductory script aloud to the class.
13. Play the Renee Lee oral history excerpt. Running time: 1 minute 59 seconds.
14. Using your teacher’s guide, discuss answers to the follow-up questions.

Activity 4: The dog, Johnnie Bratten’s story

15. Have students read through the rest of Chapter 18 (from “Soon after Tea Cake felt he couldn’t walk anymore” until the end of the chapter) closely.
16. Using your teacher’s guide (Using the Johnnie Bratten Interview), discuss answers to the preliminary questions.
17. Using your teacher’s guide, read the introductory script aloud to the class.
18. Play the Johnnie Bratten oral history excerpt. Running time: 2 minutes 29 seconds.
19. Using your teacher’s guide, discuss answers to the follow-up questions.

Assessment

Writing a personal essay

Students may choose from any of the following for a longer written essay response to the lesson. Some of the prompts require that students have read more of the novel than chapters 18 and 19.

• For Johnnie Bratten, his dog is one of the few possessions he was able to retrieve from the floodwaters. Consider as well what possessions Elberta Hudson and Renee Lee are able to save or not save. Write an essay about two possessions: one that you use or value highly now that you would abandon in a flood, and one that you would save in the event of a flood. Cite the novel or the oral histories in describing the choices you would make.
• Analyze the aftermath of the hurricane and the way the author builds toward the tragedy of Tea Cake’s death, and compare this to how the author built tension around the impending hurricane. Contrast Hurston’s fictional narrative with the details that you learned and heard in the oral histories. Was she realistic in her narrative? What impact does the fictional narrative have? What about the oral histories?
• Discuss the ideas of hindsight and foresight. The author is careful to foreshadow both of these tragedies, yet we are sympathetic with the characters for ignoring some of the signs. Likewise, we can understand how Janie feels with hindsight. When might she have made different decisions that may have changed the outcome? When might the people in the oral histories have made decisions that changed their outcomes?
• Though Their Eyes Were Watching God is not solely about flight from danger, Janie is on a journey, wherein with each new path she takes she also leaves something behind. Discuss the various departures in Janie’s life, and what motivated her to leave. Discuss the flights described in the oral histories. How are these different than some of the departures in Janie’s life?

Writing a poem

Consider the title of the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and the references to vision and sight contained in chapters 18 and 19. Consider ideas of hindsight and foresight in relation to the hurricane and to the aftermath. Integrate specific lines from the novel with an original poem on the theme of foresight and hindsight. You may choose to write in the voice of the character from the novel, in the voice of one of the oral histories, or in your own voice. (Italicize the lines from the novel to distinguish them as quoted material.)

• Next: Using the Elberta Hudson interview

For teachers

• Next: Using the Elberta Hudson interview

Learn more

• Photographs of Hurricane Floyd To illustrate their oral histories, the Southern Oral History Program has gathered images from photographers across the state. You'll find many images of Hurricane Floyd's devastation here.
• Hurricane Floyd: The Story North Carolina has faced its share of hurricanes. The worst natural disaster to ever strike the state, surpassing all of these hurricanes, was the storm that made landfall at Cape Fear on September 16, 1999 - Hurricane Floyd. Read about the community it affected, the building of the storm, the damage it wrought, and rebuilding efforts.
• Hurricane Floyd: Fact Sheet This fact sheet for students includes basic information and statistics about Hurricane Floyd. It also contains a short research activity.
• Reading primary sources: An introduction for students A step-by-step guide for students examining primary sources, with specific questions divided into five layers of questioning.

Related topics

• Search LEARN NC for more resources on Elberta Hudson, Hurricane Floyd, Johnnie Bratten, Lenoir County, North Carolina, Pender County, Renee Lee, White Stocking, floods, and ticks.