Eyes Journal 5

They put her to bed and sent for her married daughter from up around Ocala to come see about her.  The daughter came as soon as she could and took Annie Tyler away to die in peace.  She had waited all her life or something, and it had killed her when it found her.
      The thing made itself into pictures and hung around Janie's bedside all night long.  Anyhow, she wasn't going back to Eatonville to be laughed at and pitied.  She had ten dollars in her pocket and twelve hundred in the bank.  But oh God, don't let Tea Cake be off somewhere hurt and Ah not know nothing about it.  And God, please suh, don't let him love nobody else but me.  Maybe Ah'm is uf fool, Lawd, lad dey say, but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin', Jesus.  Ah done waited uh long time.
      Janie dozed off to sleep but she woke up in time to see the sun sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark.  he peeped up over the door sill of the world and made a little foolishness with red.  but pretty soon, he laid all that aside and went about his business dressed all in white.  But it was always going to be dark to Janie if Tea Cake didn't soon come back.  She got out of the bed but a chair couldn't hold her.  she dwindled down on the floor her head in a rocking chair.


Tone: Worrisome/Depressed
 Hurston feels very sad towards this passage, using words like "killed", "die", "pitied","lonesome", "dark" and "dwindled".


Mood: Worried
Hurston tries to make the reader worried along with Janie, and possibly sad about the passing of Annie Tyler.


"They put her to bed" is forshadowing Annie Tyler dying. Hurston might of said Janie "got out of the bed" as a kind of contrast. Possibly hitting on the point that Janie feels so alive with Tea Cake


Hurston uses personification in the beginning of the 2nd paragraph. "The thing made itself into pictures and hung around Janie's bedside all night long." Hurston uses personification to show "the thing" that is the idea of Tea Cake off with another girl/getting hurt, bothering Janie. Janie is a wreck without Tea Cake at this point in the book, and Tea Cake has a tendency to go off for long periods of time, which destroys Janie during, but makes everything 200% better when he returns.


The end of the 2nd paragraph is written in 1st person, coming from Janie. Hurston has Janie beg to God to make sure Tea Cake is OK, and she tries to make a deal with him. This shows Janie's desperation when she is without Tea Cake. Hurston could be portraying her ideas on relationships. Is it good to derive a spouse of his/her presence and then bestowing it again to make everything okay again.


Again Hurston is using personification to portray the sun "creating" the sunrise. Using the "door sill" as the horizon, and his "spies" that he is sending ahead of him are the first beams of sunlight. The sunrise is so vividly depicted to show how intense it is for Janie after waiting around all night for Tea Cake. But why is the Sun wearing white when he walks away? What could that be referencing? Tea cake walking away from Janie with her money?




"a chair couldn't hold her." Hurston says this to show how weighed Janie is. She has the burden of worrying about Tea Cake all night and most likely all morning.