Journal #4

FYI, my copy of the book is different from most of the books so my page numbers are different.

One pattern throughout the book so far is the flower dust motif. It represents happiness for Janie. It first appeared when she was lying under the tree when she saw the bee with the flower (pg. 24). The flower dust is mentioned again when Janie leaves with Joe. She is extremely happy at this point and expecting "to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything" for the rest of her life (pg. 54). After Joe hits Janie for the first time, it was said that she no longer have "dusting pollen over her man" (pg. 112). In this instance, the lack of dust represents unhappiness.

Judgment is another motif in this book. Someone is constantly talking about someone else. For example, in the beginning of the book when Janie returns and is talking to Pheoby. Pheoby explains how judgment is always present in the world, "So long as they get a name to gnaw on they don't care whose it is, and what about, 'specially if they can make it sound like evil." (pg. 17) Another example of someone being judged is when Matt Bonner is made fun of for his mule (pg. 82). This is done as a form of entertainment for the men on the porch, but it is always done at the expense of someone else.

Another pattern is color. White is portrayed as a beautiful or powerful color. This has a particularly large impact on the story because of the time period and the area in which it takes place. For example, when Joe had his house built, he had it painted  "a gloaty, sparkly white". He painted his house this way in order to show is authority in the town; it worked. Everyone else in the town felt that his house was the center of the town, and the color made this an even stronger idea. Another example of white being portrayed as a "good" color is when the men on the porch are trying to impress the women walking by. When a woman named Daisy is walking by, she is wearing white clothes. She has "big black eyes with plenty shiny white in them" and her hair has "a kind of white flavor" (pg. 106). This woman is thought of as beautiful, and almost every description of her included the color white. This shows how white is used to put a positive outlook on what it is being used to describe.