Journal #8

Stylistic Attributes

1. "He was lying on his side facing the door like he was expecting somebody or something. A sort of changing look on his face. Weak-looking but sharp-pointed about the eyes. Through the thin counterpane she could see what was left of his belly huddled before him on the bed like some helpless thing seeking shelter"
An oxymoron is present in this passage, when Hurston says "weak-looking but sharp-pointed". Hurston uses this in order to emphasize whats left of Joes spirit shining through his faded exterior. Personification is also used in this passage. This is used to add character to the text.

2. "Janie starched and ironed her face and came set in the funeral behind her veil. It was like a wall of stone and steel. The funeral was going on outside. All things concerning death and burial were said and done. Finish. End. Nevermore. Darkness. Deep hole. Dissolution. Eternity. Weeping and wailing outside. Inside the expensive black folds were resurrection and life. She did not reach outside for anything, nor did the things of death reach inside to disturb her calm."
Syntax plays the role of the predominant technique in this passage. Hurston uses short concise sentences while expressing Janie's feelings about Joe's death and burial. She does this in order to emphasize the brusqueness Janie felt, and her opinion in general.

3."The next morning Pheoby picked her way over to Janie's house like a hen to a neighbor's garden. Stopped and talked a little with everyone she met, turned aside momentarily to pause at a porch or too-going straight by walking crooked. So her firm intention looked like an accident and she didn't have to give her opinion to folks along the way"
The literary technique displayed here is that of a paradox, a contradiction. Hurston uses this particular technique in order to expose Pheoby's actual intentions to the reader, but not the rest of the characters.