Hurston uses metaphors such as “They made burning statements out of questions, and killing tools out of laughs” (2) and when she describes the women criticizing Janie’s clothing she says “It was a weapon against her strength” (2). A few small metaphors like this in the first chapter relate to weapons or warfare. When Pheoby leaves, Hurtson says “She left the porch pelting her back with unanswered questions” (4). The imagery or war is repeated in much of her figurative language. Using something like weapons to compare the story to as opposed to something softer suggests that the story is more dark and harsh. That, much like a war, things are destroyed, people are hurt, and you have to be strong to survive. Janie is portrayed as a strong character and it’s accurate to describe her as similar to a soldier since she does have to “fight” a lot in her life, not in a literal sense, but emotionally fight through her struggles. Overall, her choice of metaphors sets a particular mood for the story, a mood of hard times and warfare.
It’s interesting how she decides to set up the story with so many metaphors that are pretty dark because the book as a whole really isn’t dark, it has a lot of messages or power, strength and hope. I wonder why she chose war as opposed to something else? Also, why make Janie so mysterious at the beginning? She also uses nature in many of her metaphors so I wonder how she connects nature and warfare?
One of the biggest literary techniques that Hurston uses in her novel is contrast. She applies a lot of smaller contrasts within paragraphs and sentences. For example she says “Dawn and doom was in the branches” (8). Dawn is so hopeful and graceful and soft, and then doom is so dark and opposite but she talks about both of them being “In the branches” metaphorically speaking, since she is comparing her life to a tree. She also says “They sat on the boarding house porch and saw the sun plunge into the same crack in the earth from which the night emerged” (33). This could be a metaphor, talking about how the sun, representing the day and the light, is from the same place as the night, representing darkness. Through all her contrast between light and dark, happy and sad, she is showing how much life changes and how we all experience dark times and well as brighter times. Sometimes even the same things that start out good, can end badly. This relates to Janie and her three marriages throughout the novel that started off bringing her happiness but then things fell apart.
Why does she choose to make the contrasts so extreme, like light and dark? I wonder if there’s something deeper than just contrast that has to do more specifically with lightness and darkness, because lightness and darkness contrast could also have racial connotations, especially in this time period. The difference and contrast between white and black people. In what other ways does the book convey contrast besides just metaphors?
Hurston uses personification in her book in a few different circumstances. In one instance she says “…never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked by Time” (1). She chooses to capitalize both the word watcher and the word time. In regards to time by capitalizing it, it becomes like a proper noun, like time is not just a thing but a whole separate entity, kind of like saying “Father Time”. I think for one, it makes the mood a little more mysterious, it makes time sound almost ominous. She also says “the night time put on flesh and blackness” (10). She personifies the night which is interesting since again it has to do with time. A lot of authors personify common things like inanimate objects, a tree or an apple or something. I think it’s interesting that she personifies things like time and night. She says that night “put on flesh”. It sounds so dark. Hurston writes “the panting breath of the breeze” (11). I like how she describes that because it’s so specific you can just hear the type of breeze she’s describing. Also, it sets a different mood the fact that it’s “panting” instead of saying something like deep breaths, or soft breath. She uses personification to help the setting come to life and it also aids in all the metaphors that she writes comparing things to nature and to animals.
I wonder if the references to time are because as Janie’s looking back on her story or as a person looks back on their life they wonder where does the time go? Also, why does she choose to create such a mysterious mood, saying “put on flesh and blackness”? She also capitalized “watcher” on the first page, which kind of reminds me of the title “Their Eyes Were Watching God” because God is always capitalized so it’s almost like there’s God and then there’s the “Watcher”. I wonder who she’s referring to when she says Watcher or whether it’s just people in general? Why does she capitalize watcher? Will it appear again in the book or does it connect to anything else in the novel?
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