Journal #6: Death, from Janie's Perspective

1. "Death, that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the West."

Hurston personifies death by capitalizing the word and giving it human qualities, like living in a house.

2. "lived way West."

Perhaps Janie, who has lived all her life in the South, considers the West to be an alien place, much like Death. It further paints Death as an alien occurrence.

3. "What need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him?"

In this sentence, Hurston puts the immortality of death into a metaphor. Nothing, not even nature, can ever wear down Death. It will always come.

4. "Stands watch and motionless all day with his sword drawn back, waiting for the messenger to bid him come."

Here is another metaphor. Death is not thought about very much until he/it comes, hence Death stands motionless all day. As sickness finds Jody, Death rushes into the minds of all the townspeople.

5. "Been standing there before there was a where or a when or a then."

Hurston uses parallel structure to emphasize Death's existences since the beginning of time. Hurston repeats the idea that life and death go hand in hand. In a way, all the emphasis on the inevitability of Death contrasts with Jody's denial of his deteriorating condition. The contrast makes Jody's insistence that he would recover sound desperate.

6. "She was liable to find a feather from his wings lying in her yard any day now."

Hurston uses metaphors to remain ambiguous about Joe's eventual death. Much like the rest of the book, Hurston uses ambiguity to comment on death. It allows the author to comment of the event before it happens, and provide the background to Janie's introspection.

7. Between "Poor Jody!" and "... been buried against him" was all in dialect.

The dialect gives the effect that Jody is the one that is talking and gives the sentence authenticity. Without directly quoting Jody or switching to his point of view, Huston effectively reveals his inner thoughts.

8. "Palm and china-berry trees."

Here, Hurston uses the motif of trees, which is present throughout the book. People are stand in the shadows of the trees, similar to the shadow that Rumor has cast over the town.