Journal #4: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Pg. 76

"The years took all the fight out of Janie's face.  For a while she thought it was gone from her soul.  No matter what Jody did, she said nothing.  She had learned how to talk some and leave some.  She was a rut in the road.  Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels.  Sometimes she stuck out into the future, imagining her life different from what it was.  But mostly she lived between her hat and her heels, with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods-come and gone with the sun.  She got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she didn't value.

"Now and again she thought of a country road at sun-up and considered flight.  To where?  To what?  Then too she considered thirty-five is twice seventeen and nothing was the same at all.

"'Maybe he ain't nothin',' she cautioned herself, 'but he is something in my mouth.  He's got tuh be else Ah ain't got nothin' tuh live for.  Ah'll lie and say he is.  If Ah don't, life won't be nothin' but uh store and uh house'" (76).

Syntax:  In this passage, Hurston used mostly lengthy and drawn out sentences in order to represent the long passages of time described by those sentences.  The sentences were also not too complex, hinting that the experiences they described did not include anything dramatic or momentarily significant.  Many of the sentences start with the same word, she, indicating repetition which was present in what the text was explaining.

Word Choice:  The word choice in this passage is very material.  Hurston uses a lot of personification to describe Janie's feelings, so many unrelated objects such as wheel, hat, heels, woods, sun, and others are connected back to the experience Janie is feeling through the use of metaphors and similes.  Many words were negative, representing Janie's feelings of hopelessness during this time.

Tone:  The tone was very negative and gave a sense of oppression during the passage.  Hurston portrayed this with words such as gone, nothing, rut, beaten, emotional, disturbances, and shade.  This feeling of hopelessness helps the reader understand the situation Janie is in, and it also shows that some of Janie's independent fire is starting to fade away due to the oppressive relationship with Jody.

Sound Devices:  When Janie is talking, "Maybe he ain't...and uh house" (76), she uses the word "nothin'" three times.  Hurston does this in order to install in the reader's mind the thought that Janie is giving up on her independence.  The negative connotation of "nothin'" helps the reader grasp the negative feelings that Janie is feeling.