In the last two chapters of the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, an important theme that was depicted was: even when times get tough, you must to move forward with your life. 

In chapter 19, after Tea Cake gets sick, loses his mind, and attacks Janie; she was forced to kill him. Directly after she puts Tea Cake down the narrator says, "So that same day Janie's great sorrow she was in jail. And when the doctor told the sheriff and the judge how it was, they all said she must be tried that same day"(185). In this passage it is expressed that Janie never even got a single moment to grieve, before she had to progress through that day without a moment to pause. Even after murdering her husband(who she loved dearly) with her own bare hands, she must spend 3 hours in jail and face a room full of people and explain every detail of what happened. This shows that even when Janie has had the worst experience of her life at that time, she still went on with her life and did what she had to.

After shooting her husband to death and found not guilty in court, Janie must attend Tea Cakes funeral, "She went on in her overalls. She was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief"(189). Hurston uses the personification of grief to express that even though Janie was feeling a great amount of grief, she did not stop her life to grieve the death of her husband. She did what she knew was right, and attended his funeral. Even though she did not dress as nicely as she had for her ex-husband Joe's funeral, she felt more guilt towards Tea Cakes death. This lead her to have just enough will power to attend the funeral but not enough to "dress like grief" or to dress extravigantly, she simply wore overalls. The fact that Janie had had to murder the one person she loved most in the world, and then forced herself to attend his funeral afterwards, expresses the theme that even when times get tought, you must move forward with your life. 

Plot diagram:

A young man named Steve had come home from a long and stressful day of work. He had been fired from his well-paying job that day, had gotten dumped by his girl friend of two years and to top it all off, he had gotten a flat tire on his way home that afternoon. Steve was having the worst day of his life.  When he got home from this awful day all he wanted to do was collapse on his couch and enjoy a nice night of undisturbed sleep. Unfortunately he remembered he promised his 8 year old niece that he would take her out for ice cream for her birthday. This was the last thing Steve felt like doing at a time like this. So after a few minutes of self-pitying, Steve decided that just because he had a terrible day does not mean his niece must have one too. So he raced out to his car and sped over to his sister's house to take little Anna out for ice cream. After an enjoyable night of giggling, storytelling, and lots of ice cream, Steve drove home with a smile on his face and not a worry about the bad day he had, on his mind. 

In chapter 18, Hurston uses setting to develop the theme that you do not truely appreciate what you have until there is a chance it could be taken away. Hurston does this by showing Janie and Tea Cake's reactions to the setting and the hurricane that will hit them soon. 

At the beginning of the chapter there are rumors that a huricane will be hitting the town Janie and Tea Cake live in. This rumor forced many people to flee the area,"Thank yuh ever so mych, Lias. But we 'bout decided tuh stay" (156). In this passage it is apparent that Tea Cake has no doubt in his mind that there will not be a storm hitting the muck. It is also apparent that Tea Cake would risk Janie's life because "de money's too good on the muck"(156), not because he does not love her but because he does not truely appreciate her. 

Then when the huricane comes to the muck Hurston describes the setting where there was "water almost to their buttocks"(161). Even though there was so much water and danger outside of the house Tea Cake knew that the only way he could save Janie was to leave the house and walk. Tea Cake comes to the realization of how much Janie truely means to him and how much he would risk for her right before they had to leave because of the hurricane. Janie says to Tea Cake that she loves him and that all the time she spent with him was worth being in a hurricane for, so he dropped to the floor and put his head in her lap. "Well then, Janie, you meant whut you didn't say, 'cause Ah never knowed  you wuz so satisfied wid me lak dat. Ah kinda thought-" (160). This emphasizes how much Tea Cake realized he truely loves Janie, but he realizes this in a time of danger in which all he cares for(Janie) could be taken away from him at any second. Which illuminates the theme that you do not truely appreciate what you have until there is a chance it could be taken away. 

By taking her Grandmother's advice, Janie marries a wealthy man named Logan. Soon she realizes that this was a big mistake and she feels trapped in this terrible marriage. When she meets a man named Joe walking by her house, she feels he would be the perfect man to end her marriage for and run off to start a new relationship. After running off with Joe and figuring out who he truely is, Janie feels trapped in yet another awful marriage. By running off with Joe, Janie thought she would escape her dreadful marriage with Logan. This reveals that Janie had cared what society thought of her(including her grandmother), but after being cornered into her marriage with Logan, she grew up and made the independant decision to leave him for Joe. 

Pastiche: 

After Joe's offer to run off and get married, Janie was drowning in confusion. On one hand she could stay with Logan and have a financially stable life, yet a very miserable one. On the other hand she could run away with Joe and live a life of happiness, but maybe not such a wealthy lifestyle. With this tough decision Janie had to think about what Nanny would say, "Come over tuh yuh Grandma, honey. Let me teach yuh somethin about men, Janie. One thing I promised myself I would do befo' I died was tuh make sure yuh well off wid a good husban. An that's why I'm tellin yuh tuh stay wit Logan. Yuh might have yuh eye on dis Joe right now, but listen tuh me honey, soon you'll be wishin yuh had the things yuh have now that yuh can only get from a husban like Logan. So do Nanny dis one fava an I'll neva ask yuh tuh do anything fo me ever again. Please jus' stay with Logan, honey. For me, Janie". With this advise Janie knew Nanny would have told her, she made the decision to forget about Joe and to keep her marriage with Logan alive as long as she could. By letting Joe go, Janie went on with her everyday life. Even though she listened to Nanny and took the more financially beneficial route, she never got the satisfaction of knowing whether her life would have been greater with Joe. This forced Janie to leave behind the thought of Joe, and move on with her train-wreck of a marriage to Logan.

Journal #6 Their Eyes...

Alliteration: “He wouldn’t dig potatoes, and he wouldn’t rake hay: He wouldn’t take a whipping, and he wouldn’t run away.” 

Hyperbole: “The porch was boiling now.”

In this passage Jody and other people from Eatonville are on the porch socializing when Mrs. Tony Robbins, “Jody was on the porch and the porch was full of Eatonville as usual at this time of the day.” In this key passage the motif of the porch is used once again. The porch represents the guidelines on who Jody accepts and respects in town. Most of the time Joe will go out on the porch to chat with friends and other people from Eatonville. Throughout Jody and Janie’s relationship, Janie tries to gain Joe’s respect and enter the porch territory. Unfortunately every time she does when Joe is around he demands that she go inside and work. Janie learns to keep her feelings towards Jody inside and to not argue with him to make him happy. But no matter how long she bites her tongue for, she would end up never gaining Joe’s respect. 

After a long day of work and socializing with Tea Cake, he goes home and Janie relaxes out on the shop porch on her own, “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.” In this passage, Hurston uses imagery to highlight the importance of nature. Throughout the book Hurston describes nature through imagery to portray the mood at the time it is described. In this passage Janie had just finished spending the day with Tea Cake. By the way she describes the the moon’s “amber fluid” and how it was “quenching the thirst of the day” it is apparent that she very much enjoyed her day and Tea Cake’s presence. 

Some people from town, including Joe, are on the porch when Mrs. Bogle walks toward them, “She was a wind on an ocean. She moved men, but the helm determined the port.” In this passage Hurston uses a metaphor to describe Mrs. Bogle. She chose to use a metaphor to describe her to give the reader a better idea of who this woman is. By referring her to “wind on the ocean” in terms of men, the reader now understands that even though she was described as being old in the paragraph before this quote, she still has a control over men. This passage also gives the reader an understanding of how much Joe does not respect Janie, because right after Hurston describes how all the men think so highly of Mrs. Bogle, Jody orders his own wife to go inside and tend to this other woman. 

Hurston has a excellent awareness and manipulation of language. This is clearly depicted on page 91 in the book Their Eyes Were Watching God. In this passage Janie is speaking with a man that lives in town named Ike Green. There is quite a lot of dialogue in this scene which gives you a good idea of Hurston’s unique tone, sound devices, word choice, and syntax. 

The characters have a very unique dialect by using words that are not normally used in our vocabulary, in this time and area of the world. For instance she chooses words like “ah” instead of “I”, “de” instead of “the”, “mo’” instead of “more”, “ain’t” instead of “are not”, the list is endless. She uses a very interesting syntax as well. When the characters speak they normally have very poor grammar. They generally put words in the incorrect place in a sentence and have a very informal way of speaking. For example when Janie says to Ike, “Dis jubjick you bringin’ up ain’t fit tuh be talked about at all.” This sentence expresses the character’s poor grammar and vocabulary very clearly. Instead of using proper sentence structure by saying “This subject isn’t appropriate to ever talk about.”, she purposely says this sentence incorrectly to emphasize that the characters in her book are very intellectual they simply do not use proper grammar when they speak. 

By using very informal language, Hurston solidifies a very realistic tone throughout the book, through the dialogue of her characters. By using this form of speaking, the sound of the characters’ voices have a unique sound. This is portrayed in this passage through the dialogue of Jamie and Ike, “Lawd, Ike Green, you’se uh case!” When Jamie says this to Ike the interesting word choice, sentence structure, and sound of her voice gives her a southern accent, which portrays that she is from the South. By using the word "Lord" and "nigger" in this passage it is shown that the time period of this book is set in the past when there was still racial tension in the south. The sound devices, tone, syntax, and word choice Hurston uses throughout the book, emphasizes where and when this book is taking place, and gives her characters a great level of uniqueness. 

Therefore Marg began to think of love. Love, that stranger that enters your life and changes it forever. He goes unseen until that point in your life when you have found the person you will spend the rest of your life with. What happens when you find that special person? At the exact moment he finds a true connection between two people, he steps out from his mysterious and deceiving hideout where he sits and awaits his calling to enter civilization, and notifies you that you have found the One. He will always be there, and has always been there. Waiting to leave his hideout. She was expecting him to pay her a visit soon. She was anxious for that day to come. Lucky Girt! She ain’t even over the drinking age yet and love’s already found her. Marg told Girt Love might be playing tricks on her, but she refused to listen to her friend’s jealous advice. The problem was that that is exactly what Girt was doing, she was rushing Love. Similar to Romeo and Juliet rushing into their marriage. Love had reached out to her already. That’s what she thought. But others had disagreed. She would be planning her wedding and making a family in the near future, not knowing that she was too young and innocent to make that decision this early in her life. Soon people would find out about this false love. People who would not have cared about Girt before, would go to her and warn her not to rush Love. Rumor, that contagious disease, might end up benefiting Girt by helping her to not fall for Love’s cruel and deceptive tricks.  

Journal #3 ch 5-6 Their Eyes...

1. Allusion: "You can't welcome uh man and his wife 'thout you make a comparison about Isaac and Rebecca at de well, else it don't show de love between 'em if you don't." (42)

2. Motif: "When people sat around on the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for others to look at and see, it was nice." (51)

3. Metaphor: "She must look on herself as the bell-cow, the other women were the gang." (41).

4. Joe expressess how he felt after seeing Walter play with Janie's hair behind her without her knowing. "He felt like rushing forth with the meat knife and chopping off the offending hand." (55). In this passage Hurston uses Imagery to truely display how much Joe cares for Janie and how jealous he can get over her. This quote portrays the angry side of Joe which the reader can see whenever he feels jealous over Janie. The image of a meat knife chopping off a hand gives the reader a clear idea of how angry Joe can get and to what extent he will go to protect his wife. This anger he possess turns into paranoia that this incident will happen again, which leads him to force Janie to wear her hair up and covered so that no one can ever touch it in the shop again. 

5. Janie and her grandma, Nanny, are talking about Janie's future, and Nanny is specifically telling Janie the type of man she should marry. "Ah wanted yuh to school out and pick from a higher bush and a sweeter berry." (13). In this passage Hurston is using a "sweeter berry" as a metaphor for financially sound men in society, that can provide for Janie. Nanny uses this metaphor to express how high of standards she has for the man Janie will marry. She wants her to have a successfull, happy, stress-free life, and the only way she can get this is to marry a wealthy man. The image of a "sweeter berry" really gives the reader an idea of how good a man has to be for Janie to marry, in Nanny's eyes. 

Journal #2 ch. 3-4 Their Eyes...

All y'all 'omen need tuh reach hiya an show how strong yuh are. We be spected to go down a bad path from de day we was born. But we needs tuh prove dem wrong and make somethin of ourselves in dis world. 

We spected tuh do workin from when de sun come up tuh when de sun come down ereday. We's black 'omen needs tuh make somethin uh aselves. No mo cookin an cleanin an workin all de day long. We make de men do dat fo us.  We 'omen are free jus like de menfolk, so dey should treat us as equals. We make dem babies an what dey do fo us? Dey make us do mo cookin an cleanin. 

We need to be strong ladies fo our chillun, yuh hear! Dey don need tuh see us cryin an moanin bout our workin. We needs tuh be examples fo dem, an step up an show dem that they can have a future much betta den ours. We be given our lives to make somthin outa dem. So be useful and show jus how powerfull us 'omen can be!

Journal #1 ch.1-2 Their Eyes...

The strong and kind hearted woman Janie is shown to be as she is older was greatly influenced by her childhood. Without any parent figures in her life when she was young, her grandmother raised her and taught her many life lessons as she grew into a fine young woman. As she is older other people gossip about her behind her back, but because of the way she was raised, Janie learned to ignore it and to live life the way she was taught to live it. That was to respect yourself. Over all, Janie would not be the strong, powerful woman she is today, without the childhood she had. 

By looking at the writting style, the use of past tense, and the understanding of hardships, one can infer that the narrator is a woman. I percieve this because of the deep understanding the writer has of Janies hardships, that a man simply could not relate to. Like the becoming of a woman as Janie describes. The knowledge the author has about this time in Janie's life could not have been described by a male. Her writting is descriptive and easy to read. She describes things to make the readers feel as if they were in the story. As if we were characters in the story, giving us the emotions the characters are feeling in the book.