Journal Entry #6

Death Passage

• Decision: Hurston described Death with characteristics of a human.
• Effect: This gives death more of a strange human feeling. Hurston says Death lived in the west giving the effect that there is something beyond Death.
• Decision: Hurston uses the setting of Death's home to compare it to Joe's power over the town as governor.
• Effect: This gives the effect that Joe and Death are similar. Hurston does this to show that in Jody and Janie's marriage, Joe had become all powerful and his pride became more important than their marriage is because Joe had no "winds blow against him..." (Hurston 84). Joe had been standing in "his high house that over looked the" town, where Death looked over the world (Hurston 84).
• Decision: Zora Neil Hurston connects the characterization of Death and Janie. In the novel Janie says she is waiting for Jody to die, which is the exact same thing as Death's job. Death waits for the messenger to come and tell him to go to someone.
• Effect: This gives the effect that Hurston wants the reader to see Janie as a watcher who watches things happen but feels like she can't do anything about them.
• Decision: The symbolism of the feather represents what Death leaves behind.
• Effect: This gives the effect that Death is a materialistic thing 
• Decision: Zora Neil Hurston creates an internal conflict within Joe which is Joe vs his pride.
• Effect: She makes Joe look like a self centered person who is too high for his own wife to come see. This gives the effect Joe needs no help when he really does which leads to his death.
• Decision: Zora Neil Hurston uses external conflict to show why Joe got sick. Joe got "Godly sick". "Godly sick" symbolizes him getting sick because of his job as mayor. This is because God looks over everything as does Joe in his town but unlike God, Joe gets very sick for being a God like figure in his town.
• Effect: Hurston tells us that no one person can have absolute authority.
• Decision: Zora Neil Hurston uses the symbolism of the two-headed man to represent to portray to two sides of Joe.
• Effect: This portrays Joe as a person who leads two lives, the life where he is sick, and the life where he is the mayor hiding that he is sick letting himself get worse. Hurston does this to show that the two-headed people will refuse help themselves, they think they are invincible.
• Decision: Hurston uses the palm and china-berry trees to represent the passing of Joe.
• Effect: This creates a noble effect in the passing of Joe.
• Decision: Hurston uses the location of the setting to show that Joe while he was dying had no more authority over the towns folk, "who would not have dared to foot the place before crept in".
• Effect: This gives the effect that Hurston is saying that when a authoritative figure is gone the authority is gone from the people which is why the towns folk came into the yard.
• Decision: Zora Neil Hurston uses the phrase "shadowed over the town".
• Effect: This gives the effect at the time the town is darkened by the dread of Joe passing.