Imagery

Imagery in Their Eyes Were Watching God

      Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Hurston, displayed many great examples of imagery. Imagery is visually descriptive or figurative language used especially in literature. This really enhanced her writings by allowing me as the reader to picture what was actually going on in the story in my head. Imagery is a great part to any book and Zora Hurston did a great job in incorporating it into Their Eyes Were Watching God.

1.  “the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume,” Description of Janie’s hair, which is a big symbol in the novel. Page 2

2. “time makes everything old so the kissing, young darkness became a montropolous old thing while Janie talked.” Time loomed on as Janie told her story to Phoeby. Page 7

3. “She had glossy leave and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her.” This compares Janie to the blooming pear tree and how it is blooming as she is growing up and becoming a woman. Page 11

4. “Mind- pictures brought feelings, and feelings dragged out dramas from the hollows of her heart.” Nanny is trying to raise Janie while remembering the past things from her life, and trying to do better this time. Page 16

5. “They sat on the boarding house porch and saw the sun plunge into the same crack in the earth from which the night emerged.” This is symbolizing the start of a new day, and Janie has a new start for happiness. Page 33

6. “The fact that the thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen.” Listening to stories and talking makes life seem a lot better than it is to Janie; it idealizes things. Page 51

7. “The new moon had been up and down three times before she got worried in mind.” It had been a long time before Janie started to worry that she wasn’t falling in love with Logan as she hoped she would with time. Page 22

8. “She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether.” Life is fast changing and constantly moving. Page 25

9.”What she doin back here in dem overhalls? Where’s dat blue satin dress she left here in.” The townsfolk are judging Janie and making comments about how she is returning a lot less dressed up than when she left. Page 2.

10.”From barren brown stems to glistening leaf buds,” Janie describes the peat trea as barren but budding. This shows that the tree is coming back to life which changes her views on womanhood and fertility( Page 10.)

11.”It was a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods.” Janie

describes his house as a very lonely place. It was also very tasteless. (Page 21)

12. "stylished dressed man with his hat set at an angle that didn’t belong in these parts His coat was over his arm… The shirt with the silk sleeveholders was dazzling enough for the world." 

Joe Starks is a very well dressed and stylish man. (page 27.)

13. “Joe noted the scant dozen of shame-faced houses scattered in the sand and palmetto roots and said, “God, they call this a town? Why,’tain’t nothing but a raw place in de woods.” This describes Joe's first opinion on the new town. It really shows his negative opinion of it. (page 34)

 14. “The rest of the town looked like servants’ quarters surrounding the “big house”. The house reminds them of slavery (page 47.)

15. “She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be.” This shows that Janie has lost her feelings for Joe. She no longer is in love with him (page 72).

16. ” Stands watchful and motionless all day with his sword drawn back, waiting for the messenger” This passage id describing Death (page 84).

17. “Six months of wearing black passed and not one suitor had ever gained the house porch.” This passage describes how Janie was morning and she wasn’t in a relationship with any other guy (page 91).

18.  “He could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God.” This describes how Janies feelings towards Tea Cake (page 106).

19.  “Done took to high heel slippers and a ten dollar hat! Looking like some young girl, always in blue because Tea Cake told her to wear it. Poor Joe Starks. Bet he turns in his grave every day.” Tea Cake has bought Janie a bunch of new eally nice items. The townspeople disagree and say Joe must be outraged that she is moving on so fast (Page 110).

20. “He peeped up over the door sill of the world and made a little foolishness with red.” This passage is describing the sun rising (page 120).

21. “The rick black earth clinging to bodies and biting the skin like ants.” This is describing how the dirt was on everyone and there was a lot of it (Page 131).

22. 17. “She began to be snappish a little. A little seed of fear was growing into a tree.” This is describing Janies growing fear and jealousy for Nunkie, the girl who constantly flirted with Tea Cake (Page 136).

23. “Look at me! Ah ain’t got no flat nose and liver lips. Ah’m uh featured woman. Ah got white folks’ features in mah face.” Mrs. Turner thinks that Janie has a lot of white people features in her face (Page 142).

24. Mah Janie is uh high time woman and useter things.  Ah didn’t git her outa de middle uh de road.” Tea Cake tells the men that he had to win Janie over. She isn’t some girls he just picked up from the streets (Page 148).

25.  “They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His.” The people who were watching the storm were wondering if god was just teasing them showing off that he was more powerful (Page 160).

26. “Corpses were not just found in wrecked houses. They were under houses, tangled in shrubbery, floating in water, hanging in trees, drifting under wreckage. The strom was so bad that it killed so many people wherever you looked there would be dead bodies (page 170).

27.” The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall.”

Even though Teac Cake was dead she still had many fond memories of him in her mind even if they wern;t in real life (Page 193).

My favorite quote was about all the death that the hurricane has caused. Even though this quote was very grim it shows you how scary the situation was like for Tea Cake and Janie. Could you imagine looking around and seeing dead bodies everywhere? This quote really put a picture in my head about how destroyed their town was from this storm. This is my favorite quote and imagery in the story because it helped me get a very good picture in my head about what was going on in the story.