Journal 3

Pg. 27: Simile: "Logan held his wad of tobacco real still in his jaw like a thermometer of his feelings while he studied Janie's face and waited for her to say something."

This simile shows how nervous Logan is about how Janie feels about him. As their marriage continues, they seem to grow further and further apart as Logan treats Janie with less respect. It seems as if whenever he says something to her, he holds his breath because he is afraid she will leave him. The comparison between the tobacco and a thermometer shows his stiffness and nervousness in waiting to see what she will do next.

Pg. 29: Symbol: "Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon."

The pollen and blooming trees is a symbol which Janie uses for love. At the beginning of the book, she says that she wants to feel what she feels when sitting underneath the pear tree. But she wants to feel that feeling with a man. At the end of chapter two, it seems as if she's given up her dream of feeling that way with a man, however this sentence shows that the subject of true love still lingers in the back of her mind.

Pg. 31: Personification: "The sun from ambush was threatening the world with red daggers, but the shadows were gray and solid-looking around the barn."

The author includes this to create a clear picture in one's mind, talking about how the sun was rising. However I think that the shadows around the barn represented how Janie was feeling about her marriage and situation. The next sentence includes how Logan "looked like a black bear doing some clumsy dance on his hind legs". This situation is set up to show the reader how Janie feels towards her husband.

Pg. 33: Motif: "They sat on the boarding house porch and saw the sun plunge into the same crack in the earth from which the night emerged."

Throughout the book so far, there has been a motif about night and day. At the beginning of the book, the author describes how when the sun goes down, life comes back into people. The sunrise always seems to "threaten the world" in some way. This sentence is the last in the chapter, and I believe it is included there to set the scene for the next part of the book, just as this motif does at the beginning of the book.

Pg. 28: Southern Dialect in the Narration: "Kept hearin' 'bout them buildin' a new state down heah in Floridy and sort of wanted to come."

Throughout this part of the narration, the text becomes southern dialect. For me, this gave the story more of a personal feeling. I felt as if I were talking to the character myself. I believe that that is the very reason the author included it here, to be on a more person level with the reader.