Journal #5: Hurston's language manipulation

Hurston definitely shows her awareness of language in her writing. Janie had the opportunity to befriend a man named Tea Cake earlier that day while working at the store in town and later that night, "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." (p.99) Her manipulation of language is apparent through her word choice. By using the words 'quenching' and 'drenching' both in the passage, Hurston is saying the day and the night are connected and one can run smoothly into the other because they rhyme. The use of the words 'fluid' and 'thirst' emphasizes how much the day longed for the night and how content it was once the night arrived. By saying 'amber fluid', Hurston paints a picture of the color of the night sky and allows us to admire it along with Janie.

Through Hurston's use of syntax, she shows us how she wants us to read the passage. By placing a comma in between 'earth' and 'and', she forces the reader to stop and take the transition from day to night all in while Janie is doing the same thing. The comma also helps the reader differentiate between the night and day because it breaks the sentence into two separate parts, in a similar way that 24 hours are broken up. Because there is not a lot of other punctuation, it allows us to see how certain things, like the moon rising in the night sky, run smoothly into others.

The use of tone lets us have a better insight to the characters and the way they are feeling at that point in time. The tone that Hurston uses in this passage shows that Janie is content. With the relaxed word choice, we see that Janie does not have a lot of stressful things on her mind. She is watching one of nature's gifts happening and enjoying it. It is apparent that Janie is comfortable not only on her porch that evening, but also where she is in her life at that moment.

The sound device in this passage is quite interesting. There is an alliteration with the sound 'ch' throughout these two sentences. The ch sound has a wholeness about it and makes the words sound complete, just like how the day is complete. There is a satisfaction that ties in with the ch sound and this brings to light that Janie has had a fulfilling day. The sound has a replenishing feel about it which illuminates the fact that Janie is doing the same thing in preparation for a new day.