Imagery and figurative language is used to enhance the reader's ability to visualize and understand. Imagery is adding adjectives and figurative language to describe something. Figurative language is making comparisons in writing. There was a lot of figurative language in
Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Imagery
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Chapter One
1. “The sun was gone, but he had left his footprint the sky.” The sun went down but there was still some light. It was dusk. Page 1.
2. “They made burning statements with questions, and killing tools out of laughs.” The people were asking things that were implying something else and laughing, which brought embarrassment to Janie. Page 2.
Chapter Two
1. “Pheoby’s hungry listening helped Janie to tell her story.” Pheoby was listening intently to what Janie was saying because she was very interested. Page 10.
2. “She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight.” - The bee is helping the flower to turn to fruit and helping the tree reproduce. Janie thinks this is a beautiful union. Page 11.
Chapter Three
1. “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” There are some years that people question their lives and feel lost. There are other years when a person gains lots of wisdom and understanding. Page 21.
2. “She often spoke to falling seeds and said, “Ah hope you fall on soft ground,” because she had heard seeds saying that to each other as they passed.” Janie knows that once a person takes off and moves to one direction of life, it’s a toss-up. A person never knows what life will bring them and Janie hopes wherever they ‘fall’, they fall on something soft and good. Page 25.
Chapter Four
1. “The shirt with the silk sleeveholders was dazzling enough for the world.” Jody’s shirt was shiny and had a sharp look that anyone could appreciate. Page 27.
2. “The sun from ambush was threatening the world with red daggers, but the shadows were gray and solid-looking around the barn.” It’s sunset. Page 31.
Chapter Five
1. “Speakin’ of winds, he’s de wind and we’se de grass.” Jody was telling the people of Eatonville what to do. Page 49.
2. “Joe noted the scant dozen of shame-faced houses scattered in the sand…” The houses look nearly run down. Page 35.
Chapter Six
1. Every morning the world flung itself over and exposed the town to the sun.” The sun came over the town so that everything was exposed. Page 51.
2. “She’s got those big black eyes with plenty shiny white in them that makes them shine like brand new money and she knows what God gave women eyelashes for, too.” She has really beautiful shiny and uses her eyelashes to flirt with the men in town. Page 67.
Chapter Seven
1. “Then one day she sat and watched the shadow of herself going about tending store and prostrating itself before Jody, while all the time she herself sat under a shady tree with the wind blowing through her hair and her clothes.” Janie is thinking about her life and how she has become a pawn of Jody’s. She does what is asked of her without feeling. Page 77.
2. “But Janie had done worse, she had cast down his empty armor before men and they laughed, would keep on laughing.” Janie told all the men of Joe’s old age and she took away their thoughts of his superiority. Pages 79 and 80.
Chapter Eight
1. “The icy sword of the square-toed one had cut off his breath and left his hands in a pose of agonizing protest.” Jody died while arguing with Janie and looked like he was in unrest. Page 87.
2. “But the stillness was the sleep of swords.” When Janie and Jody aren’t talking, it’s not a sign of peace, but a sign of fighting that causes silence. Page 81.
Chapter Nine
1. “But when God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered all over. Then after that some angels got jealous and chopped him into a million pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. So they beat him down to nothing but sparks but each little spark had a shine and a song. So they covered each one over with mud. And the lonesomeness in the sparks make them hunt for one another, but the mud is deaf and dumb.” Janie is saying that guys are beautiful on the inside but they lose part of themselves somewhere in life. They long to become everything they can be. Page 90.
2. “Most of the day she was in the store, but at night she was in the big house and sometimes it creaked and cried all night under the weight of lonesomeness.” The house was quiet and lonely. Page 89.
Chapter Ten
1. “So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise. Soon its amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day.” The town is glowing with moonlight. Page 99.
2. “He set it up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside.” Janie was touched and excited that someone wanted to play checkers with her because she felt unwanted. Page 97.
Chapter Eleven
1. “…he came in the afternoon driving a battered car. Jumped out like a deer and made the gesture of tying it to a post on the store porch.” Tea Cake was acting like his car would roll away because it was so beaten up. Page 108.
2. “Janie awoke the next morning by feeling Tea Cake almost kissing her breathe away.” Tea Cake wakes Janie up by kissing her, and taking her breath away. Page 107.
Chapter Twelve
1. “When you see uh women doin’ so much rakin’ in her head, she’s combin’ at some man or ‘nother.” Janie has been doing her hair so it looks really nice to get Tea Cake’s attention and other people are noticing it. Page 111.
2. “Ah jus lak uh chicken. Chicken drink water, but he don’t pee-pee.” Janie is saying that Tea Cake does everything a normal person does, but he does it better.” Page114.
Chapter Thirteen
1. “The train beat on itself and danced on the shiny steel rails mile after mail. Every now and then the engineer would play on his whistle for the people in the towns as he passed by. And the train shuffled on to Jacksonville, and to a whole lot of things she wanted to see and know.” The train is on its way to Jacksonville and entertains people on the way there. It brings Janie to her destination. Page 116.
2. “But, don’t care how firm your determination is, you can’t keep turning round in one place like a horse grinding sugar cane.” Janie is looking for her money all over their room but she couldn’t find it. She had looked everywhere but realized she wasn’t going to find it. Page 118.
Chapter Fourteen
1. “Ground so rich that everything went wild. Volunteer cane just taking the place.” The soil is so rich with nutrients on the muck that seeds grow without being planted. Page 129.
2. “It’s hard trying to follow your shoe instead of your shoe following you.” People want to go places and it’s harder for you not to be tired then to have a dream and have your body’s tiredness holding you back. Page 131.
Chapter Fifteen
1. “A little seed of fear was growing into a tree.” Janie had a little fear of Tea Cake falling for another girl but then she became more scarred and upset. Page 136.
2.
Chapter Sixteen
1. “She was an ironing board with things throwed at it.” Tea Cake is making fun of Mrs. Turner’s body. He thinks that her pelvis is pushed out in front of her as to make her body, neck to knees, a straight plane. Page 140.
2. “He laughed a lungless laugh.” Mr. Turner was laughing at his wife but in a mocking way. Page 144.
Chapter Seventeen
1. “She got ninety-nine rows uh jaw teeth and git her good and mad, she’ll wade through solid rock up to her hip pockets” Sop-de-Bottom is talking about if he beat his wife like Tea Cake beat his, she’d yell and attack him. She would do whatever it takes to get back at him. Page 146.
2.
Chapter Eighteen
1. “The men walking in front and the laden, stolid women following them like burros.” The Indian women were wearily following the Indian men. Page 154.
2. “…dat lake is liable tuh bust.” The lake on the muck is so full it could explode. Page 156.
Chapter Nineteen
1. “He saw the hand of horror on everything.” Tea Cake is walking around and can see how much the town has been ripped apart. Page 169.
2. “Ah feels lak uh motherless chile round heah.” Tea Cake is talking about the unfairness in the town after the hurricane. The white men are mistreating the blacks and the blacks feel unprotected and exposed. Page 172.
Chapter Twenty
1. “Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.” Janie is saying that the meaning of love is different to every person in different relationships. Page 191.
2. “She pulled in her new horizon like a great fish net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulders.” Janie is taking the feeling or her new start and new opportunity and holding on to it. Page 193.
