Journal 4

3 Patterns:

1.  Clothing- Zora Neale Hurston uses clothing as a symbol of judgement.  The first thing the people in each individual town described in chapters 1-6 do is look at Janie's (and in one case Jody's) clothes in order to form their first impression.  Two examples of this from the book are:

• The first dialogue in the book itself, "What she doing coming back here in dem overhalls? Can't she find no dress to put on?  Where's dat blue satin dress she left here in?" [2]  I see this as the author's method of showing characterization (development) in reference to judgement of Janie's change from dressing like a traditional women to becoming more independent and wearing clothes more commonly worn by men, in essence ignoring the gender barrier.
• The second was when Janie and Jody were exploring Maitland, "They stared at Joe's face, his clothes and his wife." [35]  Along with other things, Hurston uses clothes once again as one of society's indicators of general "status".

2.  Questioning- Hurston uses questioning to show Jody's perseverance and aggressive intent to obtain power.  Through the constant questioning (especially shown in chapter 5) Jody is showing that he has no fear of and will stop at nothing to talk to the mayor.

• ""Just like Ah thought," Joe said.  "A whole heap uh talk and nobody doin' nothing'.  I god, where's de Mayor?" he asked somebody.  "Ah want tuh speak wid de Mayor.""[34]
• ""Where is de Mayor?" Starks persisted.  Ah wants tuh talk wid him"" [35] Notice the italicized him, again touching on the gender bias.

3.  Time- Hurston is very obvious and peculiar with her use of this motif, as "Time" is always capitalized in the book.  Two examples:

• My personal favorite use of the motif is on the first page of the book, "his dreams mocked to death by time" [1].  I like this because it is saying that men either achieve their dreams, or are teased by it as time goes by.
• "Time makes everything old so the kissing, young darkness became a monstropolous old thing while Janie talked." [7]  I also like this one because I have noticed that time does make things old not just in the obvious physical sense, but in the sense that when one has unlimited supply and there is no will or push behind obtaining something, that thing gets old in the sense that it is no longer interesting, fun, or worth one's Time.