Patterns

Reading through chapters 5 and 6 of Their Eyes Were Watching God I noticed several patterns.

1. The use of highness or high ground.

There is a motif of highness throughout the book. Near the beginning, Nanny tells Janie to stand on high ground.

"Ah been waitin' a long time, Janie, but nothin' Ah been through ain't too much if just take a stand on high ground lak Ah dreamed." (16)

Joe Starks thinks about Janie's discontent and thinks about how much he has given her.

"Here he was just pouring honor all over her; building a high chair for her to sit in and overlook the world and she here pouting over it!" (62)

1. Janie's hair.

The book makes many references to Janie's hair. It is mentioned at the beginning of the fourth chapter. Janie notices things about her first husband.

"He had ceased to wonder at her long black hair and finger it." (26)

Amo Hicks talks to Janie and later bitterly said to his friend, "'Tain't nothin' to her 'ceptin' dat long hair." (38)

Joe makes Janie use a head rag because:

"Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. [...] That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was. He never told her how often he had seen the other men figuratively wallowing in it as she went about things in the store." (55)

1. The sun or light.

Nanny mentions the sun in when talking to Janie:

"Ah got with some good white people and come down here in West Florida to work and make de sun shine on both sides of the street for Leafy." (19)

The sun is included in a metaphor:

"The sun from ambush was threatening the world with red daggers, but the shadows were gray and solid-looking around the barn." (31)

After arriving to the town, the first thing Joe Starks does as mayor was to send money "off to Sears, Roebuck and Company for the street lamp." (44)