Eyes Journal 6

I. The purpose of this passage, as Hurston intended it to be, is to show that Janie has been waiting for her "perfect love", and perhaps Janie has been waiting just a little bit too long, for Janie feels as if she has wasted her time waiting around for this love.

II. Hurston uses the stark similarities between Janie's and Annie Tyler's situations in the first paragraph to show the beginning of the regret that Janie is starting to feel.

III. Hurston uses the beginning of the second paragraph to show that Janie truly believes that she is in a "worst-case" scenario.

IV. Hurston not only switches the point of view from third to first person in the end of the second paragraph, but she also lets us hear Janie's prayer, that way we can get a glimpse into just how desperate Janie is feeling.

V. In the last paragraph of the passage, Hurston continues to show Janie's distress by telling us how she "dozed off", implying that she cried herself to sleep.



To Jessica:
I really like how you pointed out the ambiguity of the words "thing" and "it".

I thought that Hurston really leaves the interpretation of those words up to the reader, but of course whatever the interpretation is it is bound to be of a fearful mood.

I thought that the "thing" that haunts Janie are her thoughts about her worst-case scenario: Tea Cake abandoning her.

To Olivia:
I think you interpreted Hurston's tone very well. I agree with you that at the beginning Hurston creates a very "somber" mood. I also like how you picked up the fact that the mood changes throughout the passage. In my opinion, I thought that the mood became more distressed.

To Cierra:
I really liked your analysis on the first sentence of the second paragraph: "The thing made itself into pictures and hung around Janie's bedside all night long." You nailed it when you said that that sentence was filled with imagery. I thought that the imagery was a little more specific towards how Janie was feeling. I thought that sentence showed that Janie was afraid of Tea Cake leaving her, and that she could not get rid of that nagging fear.