Journal Entry #9

Mini-Pastiche #2

Annette sat tall on the park bench waiting for Benjamin. Time had slipped from him and Annette was becoming impatient. The black birds were scavenging for food stealing from all the other ravens for the food on the other side of the pathway as Benjamin came. He was walking nonchalantly up the side walk as if he had all the Time in the world, as if the world was bowing down to him as their leader.

" Well it took you long enough to get here." Annette murmured as he floated down to take a seat beside her without making any noise. He didn't respond. "Hello??" Annette asked ticked off when she spotted the ear buds in his ears. Annette tried to reason out in her head a way not to be furious with Benjamin because he was not an easy person to be angry at.

She took a deep breath and right when she was about to explode her thoughts, Benjamin took out an ear bud and exclaimed "Guess what? I got the job in Tillamook."

Annette was  absolutely speechless. Her anger was slowly slipping away like the waves of the ocean out in the distance. She stammered "That's great." She tried to sound enthusiastic but she couldn't fake emotions easily, it just didn't come naturally to her. They sat in silence for a minute. It looked like Benjamin was trying hard to think of what to say.

"I saw Peter on the way here," Benjamin began, "he wanted me to give him the money I don't have for his groceries."

"He's broke again? Goodness when is he going to learn to stop waisting in on gum. He's not a teenager anymore."

"He's not broke Annette. He is currently not spending money on groceries to save up for the race on Saturday." Benjamin stood up taking Annette's hand and led her to the nearest building. "Do you think you could spare $5?"

"For Peter? Never. Do you know how much of money he has borrowed from me and never returned? $200. That is a lot of money and I need to pay off my student loans. There is no way I am lending $5 to Peter. It adds up over time."

Peter walked out of the restaurant as Annette and Benjamin were walking in. "Hey Annette!" Peter greeted trying not to sound to needy, "Do you happen to have 10 dollars on you? I'm just a little short on my bill for groceries right now."

"Peter, I..." Annette began, "I just don't have the money anymore. I have my own bills to worry about."

"Annette, you know how much I want to go to this race this weekend more then anyone. Please I have a pay check coming in on Monday." Peter pleaded giving her his desperate look.

"Alright. Here is the 10 dollars. I expect all the money you owe me on Monday though. That's 210 dollars." Annette yelled as Peter ran over to the grocery.

On Monday she never received any money. The time had made no difference.

Theme: Women are inferiority to men's pride and dreams causes internal conflict within them.

Stylistic elements: foreshadowing, symbol, and rhetorical question.

I used foreshadowing with animals like Hurston does. Hurston uses animals as well as other techniques to foreshadow events. In my pastiche I used black birds as the people stealing like Peter, and the ravens as the people being stolen from like Annette. My symbol was time. The time had not made any difference nor had the time changed though out the passage, and time represented the way men take advantage over women, by making them wait and not giving them what they need. My rhetorical question got the readers attention to the reason why no one ever gives Peter money, it temporarily gets the reader on Annette's side.