Journal #7

1. "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board." (Hurston 1)

Zora Neale Hurston is using this line to compare ships to dreams of men. She does this to show that dreams of men are often times just too far out there to accomplish. Like ships on the water searching for land. Men are just waiting and searching for their boat to land. Meaning that they don't necessarily act out toward accomplishing their goals and just wait for it to come to them. This connects to Their Eyes Were Watching God  because it shows the contrast between men and women. With the women doing what they want, to get what they want.

2. "Nanny's head and face looked like the standing roots of some old tree [...]" (Hurston 16)

In this quote, Hurston uses the tree to symbolize life. She uses it in the sense that Nanny is literally old and looks like a tree because of her age. Also, she uses it symbolically to represent life. It works in this way because Nanny is elderly and the quote is trying to say that she is elderly by comparing her to the old roots of a grand tree. The tree comes up repeatedly throughout the novel, representing life again and again. Sometimes old and some times new.

3. "She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree [...]" (Hurston 14)

This quote is used by Hurston to characterize Janie. This quote characterizes Janie by putting her in a lazy sort of naive set of mind because she is just 16. This is only the beginning of the story and after all of the events of the novel are said and done, the characterization of Janie is far more mature sounding which parallels the fact that she has matured throughout the novel.