Imagery

     The Imagery in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" was really great. Imagery itself is the use of words to help describe a story or at least in this case it is. In simpler terms it means when an author uses certain words to describe what a person, place, thing, or event in a story really looks like. It really makes writing better because you can just imagine everything in the story. The characters, the towns, the things they have, and all the events. It really brings the story to life, especially in this book. Zora's use of imagery really brought "Their Eyes Were Watching God" to life to me and I could imagine everything that happened in the story.

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.” Most of the day she was at the store, but at night she was there in the big house and sometimes times it creaked and cried all night under the weight of lonesomeness.” The house felt empty now because Joe died and Janie was all alone. Page 89

10.” He set it up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside.” Janie was happy that Tea Cake was teaching her how to play and she felt happy. Page 95

11.”In the cool of the afternoon the fiend from hell specially sent to lovers at Janie’s ear. Doubt.” Janie began to wonder if Tea Cake was true to her and not taking advantage of her like everyone said. Page 108

12.” When ah wasn’t in da store he wanted me to just sit there wit mah hands folded. And ahd sit dere wid da walls creepin up on me and squeezing all the life out of me.”  Janie was forced to just sit in the store and waste her life away because Joe forced her too. Page 112

13.”Outside the window Jacksonville looked like it needed a fence to keep it from running out on ether’s bosom.” This quote explains how Jacksonville was so big and was growing so fast. It was like it was just growing out from the sides and needed a fence to hold It in. Page 118

14.”To Janie’s strange eyes everything in the Everglades was big and new. Big Lake Okechibee,  big beans, big cane, big weeds, big everything.” This quote explains how everything seemed new and big to Janie. It was all different and and bigger than her old home in Eatonville. Page 129

15.”You done bruise mah heart, now you come wid a lie to bruise mah ears.” This is how Janie felt when Nunky tried to steal tea Cake. She felt like her heart was heart and when he denied it, it was like adding insult to injury. Page 137

16.”Mrs. Turner, like all other believers had built an altar to the unattainable- Caucasian characteristics for all.” This quote showed Mrs. Turners obsession with white folk and Janie. She thought an all white society would be paradise and therefore almost worshipped Janie, the only other part white woman in town. It was like she built up an altar for her.

17.”By dusk dark Belle Glade was full of loud-talking, staggering men.” This shows what the muck was like at night. It was full of drunk- staggering men that were all loud. It was just wild. Page 149

18.”Morning came without motion. The winds, to the tiniest, lisping baby breath had left the earh.”  This is what the calm before the big hurricane was like. You could call it the calm before the storm. There wasn’t much wind and that misled Janie into thinking there was no hurricane. It was just very calm out like baby breath. Page 155

19.”He went to bed. Way in the midnight he woke Janie up in his nightmarish struggle with an enemy that was at his throat.” This is what Tea Cake was like in his sleep when he had rabies. It was like a struggle with an invisible man who was trying to strangle him. Like “ A nightmarish struggle in his sleep.” Page 174

20.”She pulled in her horizon like a great fish net.” This quote describes what Janie had done in her life. She wanted to reach the horizon and it took all her life to do that. When she did it was like she was done everything in life and had 

pulled the horizon in. page 193

     My Favorite Image was the last one about thr horizone. " She pulled in her horizon like a great fish net. I think it puts the whole idea of the story into one small sentence. She had reached her goal. She had reached the horizon and experienced life. She was happy and had completed most of her goals. It was like she had took her dreams and pulled them all in to her.