Reading Under A Microscope (PINK) Cooper and Dilip

           In this passage, we see Janie coming outside to see the road and have some inner thoughts. Imagery is shown through of the natural descriptions shown and used by the author such as, "Glossy leaves and bursting buds" or, "She searched as much of the world as she could". A tone in this passage reveals itself. A certain tone of detachment and neediness is shown by Janie looking up and down the road in desperation. The passage reads, "she searched as much of the world as she could from the top of the stairs to the bottom." This specific sentence begins to introduce a concept of detachment and isolation. The sense that these stairs have become the entire world in Janie's perspective is belittling to her confidence and worldly views in this passage. It is clearly evident that this shrinking in perspective directly relates to her life in general. Her family was belittled by the slavery in her Nanny's early years. Her childhood was belittled by inappropriately sexual men. Also, she suffered or a very long time in a harsh one-sided relationship with her dominating husband Jody. This passage is truly rife with figurative language and use of literary concepts.

Blooming Janie

The close reading passage uses many different types of figurative language, tone, and repetition. One type of figurative language used in this close reading is the personification of bees kissing and also bees singing. We think this represents Janie’s desire to grow up and be free just like the bees. The tone this passage has is hopeful but at the same time it also has a confused tone. Janie is not sure where she belongs or who she is, but she is hopeful that she will find out soon enough she just isn’t sure when. The repetition in this passage is used in different ways. Nature is a main idea that is repeated multiple times to show Janie’s thoughts on the world and how she feels about herself. She explains how trees bloom and grow and she pictures herself blooming and growing one day just the same. All in all the pink close reading passage on page 11 uses many differerent types of figurative language, tone, and repetition.

-Mufaro and Caitlynn

A Slave in a Free Wold

In the passage, Janie is caught kissing Johnny Taylor. Nanny is angry and tries to persuade her that Logan Killicks is a better match for Janie because he can ensure her safety and comfort. She is doing what she thinks is best, but her perspective of the world is different than Janie’s. Nanny grew up as a slave and was raped, while Janie grew up as a free black girl. Nanny’s bias is seen when in the passage, she says “...as Ah can see” (Hurston 14). “Maybe its some place of in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don’t know nothin’...” (Hurston 14) is what Nanny says to Janie in her attempt to convince her to marry Logan. This quote signifies her lost hope in an America where everyone is free- the idea seems foreign and far into the future. For now, “de white man throw down de load and tell de n***er man tuh pick it up...because he have to” (Hurston 14). The men only pick it up to satisfy the white men, but “he hand it to his womenfolk...de n***er woman is de mule” (Hurston 14). This is similar to when an older sibling passes off their esignated chore to the younger, weaker child. The author explains that women are the truly oppressed people, which simultaneously takes a stand against slavery and patriarchy. She compares women to mules, which is also an example of them carrying the burden and plays on the animal imagery motif as well. While Nanny doesn't want Janie to make the same mistakes, she is also setting Janie up for failure, which can be seen later in the book.

Ali and Ira

Their Eyes were Reading the Pink Passage

    This Passsage is an introduction of the metaphor of the tree and an introduction of Janie as character situated at the beggining of the book. The introduction of the tree is also the intorduction of the novels complete comparison of Janie to the tree. One example is the passage talks about the tree blooming, which is a representation of Janie becoming an adult and in a sense"evolving". This setups compariosn between these two throughout the rest of the book. One other thing that happens in this passage is a characterization of Janie. Janie leaving the house while her Grandma is asleep shows that she is a free spirit and also a anxetious person because she was "...Waiting for the world to be made." This means that she couldn't wait to get older and expierence situatiosn in the real world. One last thing that occured in this passage was actuall where it was situated in the book which was at the beginging of the book. This is a perfect place to place this paragraph because it was an elegant introduction to many of the motifs that had been repeated thrughout the ovel. One example is the repition of the tree or even reoccurong visuals of Janie's character such as later on we see her free spirit shen she lets down her hair showing her rebelous ways towards Jody. Through this, we are introduced many ideas, creating a structure for the rest of the novel.

                       --Swivine and Adam

Cameron and Jonathan--Close Greending

This passsage contains multiple sections involved in close reading. The most important are context, concepts and speaker. For context, this passage is situated soon after Jody (Joe)nis elected mayor of Eatonville. The townsfolk say that Janie, being the mayor's wife, should give a speech. But before she can get started, Jody cuts it all off. They walk home together, and it creates an interesting juxtaposition. It creates a juxtaposition between Janie's sadness and dejectedness, and Jody's joy and pleasure. This juxtaposition occurs throughout the rest of the novel. There is one big concept that this passage conveys, because it occurs consistently through the book. That  is the concept of Janie's silence. Whenever she builds herself up to speak, she is shot down by Jody.  For speaker, it starts with Jody speaking, then moves on to the narrarator. This is important because it shows Jody's prominence in his voice, while Janie is really lacking.

Waiting For The World to be Made

The narrator uses figurative language, tone, and concepts to give the readers a better understanding of how Janie see's life.  The figuratice language is used to describe Janie and her thoughts. It says " Oh to be a pear tree- any tree in bloom!" (11) The narrator gives Janie the characteristics of a tree and uses the word bloom as a sexual term. This sentences is figurativly saying that Janie wants to find love and go on an adventure. She isnt blooming yet, which means that she hasn't found the love she is searching for. The passage uses an extended metaphor of trees bloosoming and of nature to describe how Janie sees life. In the passage Janie has a very dissapointed tone because she is unhappy with her life. Because of this she also has an anxious tone because she is waiting for a new chapter in her life to begin. In this passage the tone stays consistent to show that she wants a new life but it has not yet come. Some of the main ideas that help the reader understand Janie and what she wants for life are wanting to find her love and her waiting at the gate for her life to start. Together these ideas form a theme of " when the buds bloom, you will find your happiness."


Serah and Hannnah -pink

Their Place in the World (blue)

In the passage on the bottom of page fourteen, Nanny was talking to her very disgusted. This is because she kissed Jhonny Taylor and Jhonny is not one of the best people to be running around with especially because Janie is a young girl. In the passage Nanny was talking to Janie after she "slapped some sense into Janie".  The actual character Nanny is doing the talking or dialogue in this passage.  The speaker is reliable to a certain point, she is very wise due to her past expiriences in slavery and with her daughter(Janies Mother). The slavery does alter her point of view slightly, she says,"So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up.  He pick it up because he have to, but he dont tote it.  He hand it to his womenfolk de nigger woman is de mule"(14) This shows a very strong impression of slavery however slavery was not that long ago, so the speaker is in fact reliable in this passage. Now moving on to tone, the tone in the passage is really strong and powerful. While reading you can "feel" the tension in the air from nanny with this tone. The tone is made up of fear,"Ah been prayin' fuh it tuh be different wid you. Lawd, Lawd, Lawd!"(14) and that is not the only thing, there is also realization. The passage is jam packed with tons of tension and fear from the connection with Janie and Nanny.


Spencer Perr
Mark Gutierrez