Journal 5

They put her to bed and sent for her married daughter from up around Ocala to come see about her. The daughter came as soon as she could and took Annie Tyler away to die in peace. She had waited all her life or something, and it had killed her when it found her.

The thing made itself into pictures and hung around Janie's bedside all night long. Anyhow, she wasn't going back to Eatonville to be laughed at and pitied. She had ten dollars in her pocket and twelve hundred in the bank. But oh God, don't let Tea Cake be off somewhere hurt and Ah not know nothing about it. And God, please suh, don't let him love nobody else but me. Maybe Ah'm is uh fool, Lawd, lak dey say, but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin', Jesus. Ah done waited uh long time.

Janie dozed off to sleep but she woke up in time to see the sun sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark. He peeped up over the door sill of the world and made a little foolishness with red. But pretty soon, he laid all that aside and went about his business dressed all in white. But it was always going to be dark to Janie if Tea Cake didn't soon come back. She got out of the bed but a chair couldn't hold her. She dwindled down on the floor her head in a rocking chair.

(Hurston, 119-120)

Figurative Language: Hurston personifies the sun in a friendly way. The way the sun is personified is similar to Tea Cake. The way the sun peeks over the “door sill of the world” sounds like something Tea Cake would do. The sun also symbolizes a new beginning and because Tea Cake was juxtaposed with the sun, Tea Cake is a new beginning for Janie.

Allusion: Hurston makes and allusion to Eatonville to show that Janie doesn’t want to go back to the watchers. She doesn’t want to become one of their subjects “to be laughed at and pitied”. Janie knows what she is doing is not what is expected of her. She knows the town will talk about everything they don’t agree with and turn it into something bad.

Sensory Details: Color and light are mentioned a lot in the text. Dark is contrasted with light. Hurston contrasts dark with light because the colors represent her life with and without Tea Cake. Light is associated with life. When the sun comes up, Hurston says that the sun “made a little foolishness with red. But pretty soon, he laid all that aside and went about his business dressed all in white”. The significance of this is, red and white each symbolize a part of Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship. The red is when they were first meeting and were fooling around with each other. Red is often associated with love romance or liking someone. The white is Janie and Tea Cake’s love for each other. White is associated with purity, rebirth, and among other things, eternity. This shows that Janie is happy with her life now and wants to be with Tea Cake for the rest of her life.

Mood: The mood for this passage is worrisome. We don’t know whether or not Tea Cake is going to come back to Janie. Hurston does this to show Janie’s love for Tea Cake. This proves that her love for him is real and not just something she is doing to escape her old situation with Joe and the town.

Dictation: Hurston’s dictation is simple and straightforward. She uses conversational words and sentences to deliver her meaning. Hurston does this to demonstrate how Janie is thinking. She isn’t thinking of anything other than if Tea Cake is alright, if Tea Cake is being faithful, and what she is going to do if Tea Cake never comes back.

Repetition: When Janie is praying, she repeats “Lawd and God”. Janie does this because she scared for Tea Cake and for herself. She doesn’t want to lose Tea Cake and she doesn’t want to have to live life by herself again.

Organization: Hurston changes the point of view in the text. First it is the narrator but then it switches to first person of Janie and then it goes back to being the narrator. Hurston switches to first person to show us how desperate Janie is to get Tea Cake back. The first person dialect grants the reader a look into Janie’s mind.

Syntax: When Hurston describes Janie praying, Hurston puts allot of commas in the sentences. This shows that her thoughts are all occurring at the same time. She is just spouting her feelings to God. This proves that Janie is very worried about Tea Cake.

Purpose: I think the purpose of this passage is to show the reader how Janie’s views of love and life have changed. This is a rebirth for Janie. Her life has meaning now.

Some other words that seemed interesting.

Killed, die, laughed, pitied Ah not know nothing about it, fool, dwindled.