Storyboarding is an excellent way to focus on types of literary conflict. Have your students choose an example of each literary conflict and depict them using the Storyboard Creator. In the storyboard, an example of each conflict should be visually represented, along with an explanation of the scene, and how it fits the particular category of conflict.
Janie feels increasingly aggravated and disturbed by Jody’s constant remarks about her age and her body. She knows that he is feeling self-conscious about his own aging body and is projecting it onto her, but when he critiques her in front of men in the store, she fires back at him, insulting his manhood and comparing his body to a woman in menopause. He strikes her out of humiliation and his lost sense of pride.
Shortly after Janie is married to Logan Killicks, she keeps waiting to be happy. She’s been told her whole life that when people get married, they fall in love, so she marries Logan and waits for the love to begin. After a year, Janie realizes that being married does not create love, and her dreams of love and marriage die. She becomes restless and expectant for something more.
Janie returns home to Eatonville and finds that the other women of the town are gossiping about her. They are jealous of her beauty, and speculate that she acts as if she’s better than they are. They remember how she left Eatonville with all of Joe Starks’ money, and they wonder where Tea Cake is, a man much younger than Janie. Their jealousy clouds their ability to accept her, so they ostracize her. Pheoby is the only person who stands up for Janie.
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Student Instructions
Create a storyboard that shows at least three forms of literary conflict in Their Eyes Were Watching God.