Journal #6

Death, that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the West. The great one who lived in the straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof. What need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him? He stands in his high house that overlooks the world. Stands watchful and motionless all day with his sword drawn back, waiting for the messenger to bid him come. Been standing there before there was a where or a when or a then. She was liable to find a feather from his wings lying in her yard any day now. She was sad and afraid too. Poor Jody! He ought not to have to wrassle in there by himself. She sent Sam in to suggest a visit, but Jody said No. These medical doctors wuz all right with the Godly sick, but they didn't know a thing about a case like his. He'd be all right just as soon as the two-headed man found what had been buried against him. He wasn't going to die at all. That was what he thought. But Sam told her different, so she knew. And then if he hadn't, the next morning she was bound to know, for people began to gather in the big yard under the palm and china-berry trees. People who would not have dared to foot the place before crept in and did not come to the house. Just squatted under the trees and waited. Rumor, the wingless bird, had shadowed over the town.

• Personification: Death is described as a bird because birds travel through the air and are free to go where they want. It lives in the west because that is an unfamiliar place to Janie. It lives in a house with no protection because since it is death then it has nothing to fear. It has been around forever.
• Dialect: This is the only word in this passage that is in Janie’s dialect. Perhaps to remind the reader that she was the one that was thinking about death.
• Motif of trees: The tree motif is there because they represent how Janie is changing and in this part of the book the trees are creating a shadow of death in her life.
• Jody’s name: Throughout the book Jody is called either Jody or Joe maybe this could show how he changed after he got married to Janie. Jody is the governor who bosses his wife around and Joe is the well of man that Julie fell in love with. Two-headed man could also describe his two personalities.
• Foreshadowing: Later in this chapter Janie finally tells him what she thinks about him and then he dies. So he finds out what “had been buried against him” then the bird comes with his sword drawn. This foreshadows his death and what Janie says to him before he dies.