Journal #10: Theme

     I decided to switch up my theme from last night with one I came up with in class today. A few parts still need clarification, as they are a little too vague. The underlined portions of my theme (below) are the portions that, as dictated by Mrs. Wecker, need work. Feel free to make suggestions if any come to mind!

Theme: Through conforming to the expectations of others, one can forget one's own personality as a result of the desire to please those around them.

Supporting Quotes:

1. "'Janie, I reckon you better go fetch me dem old black gaiters. Dese tan shoes sets mah feet on fire. Plenty room in 'em, but they hurts regardless.' She got up without a word and went off for the shoes. A little war of defense for helpless things was going on inside her. People ought to have some regard for helpless things. She wanted to fight about it. 'But I hates disagreement and confusion, so Ah better not talk. It makes it hard tuh get along.'" (Hurston, pg 57)
• Hurston uses alliteration ("[...] without a word and went [...]") as well as an apostrophe here, as Janie is talking to no one in particular towards the end of this quote.
2. "Janie took the easy way away from a fuss. She didn't change her mind but she agreed with her mouth." (Hurson, pg 63)
• Hurston begins to portray Janie as submissive for the first time in the novel. It seems like organic imagery is used here.
3. "Times and scenes like that put Janie to thinking about the inside state of her marriage. Time came when she fought back with her tongue as best as she could, but it didn't do her any good. It just made Joe do more. He wanted her submission and he'd keep on fighting until he felt he had it. So gradually she pressed her teeth together and learned to hush." (Hurston, pg 71)
• Organic imagery is used again here. I like how Hurston describes Janie as 'fighting back with her tongue'... personification?
4. "The years took all the fight out of Janie's face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did, she said nothing. She had learned to talk some and leave some. She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels." (Hurson, pg 76)
• Both metaphor and visual imagery are at work here.
5. "'Maybe he ain't nothin',' she cautioned herself, 'but he is something in my mouth. He's got tuh be else Ah ain't got nothin' tuh live for. Ah'll lie and say he is. If Ah don't, life won't be nothin' but uh store and uh house." (Hurston, pg 76)
• There aren't really any obvious literary techniques here, but I like this quote because Janie is choosing to lie to herself rather than to admit defeat. It displays the theme I chose to work with while simultaneously showing that Janie truly is losing grip of her reality.

I commented on the following blogs: Jarrad Schulte, Travis Eurick, Kyla Padbury