This novel by Zora Neale Hurston is also filled with imagery. Imagery is words or phrases that form a picture in the reader's mind. Many pictures are certainly formed in the reader's mind during this book as Hurston's descriptive language enhances the storyline immensely. This list includes a quotation of imagery in Their Eyes, the page number it was found on, and a short explanation of the imagery, all classified by chapter.
Chapter 1
1. “The great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume,” Description of Janie’s hair, which is a big symbol in the novel. Page 2
2. “Time makes everything old so the kissing, young darkness became a montropolous old thing while Janie talked.” Time loomed on as Janie told her story to Phoeby. Page 7
3. “These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human.” The gossipers sitting on their porches were treated as no better than pack animals when they were working during the day, but in the evening, they could finally act like humans again. Page 1
Chapter 2
1. “She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her.” This compares Janie to the blooming pear tree and how it is blooming as she is growing up and becoming a woman. Page 11
2. “Mind- pictures brought feelings, and feelings dragged out dramas from the hollows of her heart.” Nanny is trying to raise Janie while remembering the past things from her life, and trying to do better this time. Page 16
3. “’Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah’m a cracked plate.’” Nanny calls herself a “cracked plate,” meaning that she has been through a lot of hardships in her life and they have affected her deeply. Page 20
Chapter 3
1. “The new moon had been up and down three times before she got worried in mind.” It had been a long time before Janie started to worry that she wasn’t falling in love with Logan as she hoped she would with time. Page 22
2. “She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether.” Life is fast changing and constantly moving. Page 25
3. “He ain’t kinnin’ yo’ mouf when he carry on over yuh lak dat. He’s kissin’ yo’ foot and ‘tain’t in uh man tuh kiss foot long.” Nanny is saying that when Logan is doting on Janie by bringing in wood, he is sucking up to her, not showing his true love. Page 23
4. “She knew that God tore up the old world every night and built a new one by morning.” Every day is a new start. Page 25
Chapter 4
1. “They sat on the boarding house porch and saw the sun plunge into the same crack in the earth from which the night emerged.” This is symbolizing the start of a new day, and Janie has a new start for happiness. Page 33
2. “Ah aims tuh run two plows, and dis man Ah’m talkin’ ‘bout is got uh mule all gentled up so even uh woman kin handle ‘im.” When Logan states his intention to have Janie help plow with a mule, it refers back to the image of the black woman as the mule of society. Page 27
Chapter 5
1. “And furthermo’ everything is got tuh have uh center and uh heart tuh it, and uh town ain’t no different from nowhere else. It would be natural fuh de store tuh be meetin’ place fuh de town.” Building a store in Eatonsville symbolizes that the town is really becoming a community with a center. Page 40
Chapter 6
1. “The fact that the thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen.” Listening to stories and talking makes life seem a lot better than it is to Janie; it idealizes things. Page 51
1. “Every morning the world flung itself over and exposed the town to the sun.” This quotation is talking about the emergence of a new day in Eatonsville. Page 51
Chapter 7
1. “She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life benieath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels.” Janie eventually was so worn down by Joe’s abuse, that she had no reaction to anything and showed no emotion. Page 76
2. “For the first time she could see a man’s head naked of its skull. Saw the cunning thoughts race in and out through the caves and promontories of his mind log before they darted out of the tunnel of his mouth.” Soon, Janie began to be able to predict what Jody was going to do, say, and the meaning and emotions behind it long before he actually said or did the thing. Page 77
Chapter 8
1. “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.” This is the image that Janie has in her head of Death, which she knows will soon claim Jody. Page 84
2. “Rumor, that wingless bird, had shadowed over the town.” Rumors had spread across town that Jody was dying. Page 84
3. “The icy sword of the square-toes one had cut off his breath and left his hands in a pose of agonizing protest.” Joe Starks has died, in the midst of protesting against Janie’s accusations. Page 87
Chapter 9
1. “She sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world.” Though Janie presented a mournful face to Joe’s funeral, she is really ecstatic. Page 88
2. “Like all the other tumbling mud-balls, Janie had tried to show her shine.” Just like everyone, Janie had tried to dig through the layer of problems that tried to smother her shine. Page 90
Chapter 10
1. “’B’lieve Ah done cut uh hawg, so Ah guess Ah better ketch air.’” Tea Cake is saying that it looks like he has upset Janie, so he had better be gone. Page 97
2. “So its [the moon’s] amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day.” Janie watched as the light of the moon seemed to spill over the ground and cool it from the heat of the sun. Page 99
Chapter 11
1. “’Look lak we done run our conversation from grass roots tuh pine trees.’” Tea Cake is saying that he and Janie have talked so long and about so many things that their conversation is spent and it is time for him to go. Page 106
2. “He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung around him. He was a glance from God.” Janie is describing Tea Cake as though he is a gift from God and even the air around him smells like it is full of herbs. Page 106
Chapter 12
1. “’Ah jus lak uh chicken. Chicken drink water, but he don’t pee-pee.’” Pheoby is saying that she can listen to secrets, but she will keep them inside and not tell anybody else. Page 114
Chapter 13
1. “Janie dozed off to sleep but she woke up in time to see the sun sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark. He peeped up over the door sill of the world and made a little foolishness with red. But pretty soon, he laid all that aside and went about his business dressed in white.” This is describing the sunrise, with the first little rays of light, then red light, and finally the white light of the sun that lasts until sunset. Page 120
2. “So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.” After being hidden deep inside her for many years while she was married to Jody and could not show much emotion, Janie’s soul is finally coming back up to the surface. Page 128
Chapter 14
1. “It’s hard trying to follow your shoe instead of your shoe following you.” It is a hard life when you are walking around to find money and work instead of the work and success coming to find you. Page 131
2. “People ugly from ignorance and broken from being poor.” The people who were coming to the much for work were certainly not glamorous and confident, but dirty and desperate. Page 131
Chapter 15
1. “A little seed of fear was growing into a tree.” Janie’s fear that Tea Cake would leave her for Nunkie was growing. Page 136
2. “’You’se something to make a man forgit tuh git old and forgit tuh die.’” Tea Cake is saying that Janie is so beautiful, he could focus on her and completely forget to grow old or die. Page 138
Chapter 16
1. “Janie’s coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair made Mrs. Turner forgive her for wearing overalls…” Janie’s complexion and hair were different from that of other black people and drew Mrs. Turner to her because they were similar to the features of white people. Page 140
2. “Like the pecking order in a chicken yard. Insensate cruelty to those you can whip, and groveling submission to those you can’t.” Mrs. Turner sees the relationship between people of different skin colors like that of a chicken yard, with the darkest skinned people at the bottom. Page 144-145
Chapter 17
1. “’She figgers we’se jus’ uh bunch uh dumb n**gers so she think she’ll grow horns. But dat’s uh lie. She’ll die butt-headed.’” Mrs. Turner thinks that she will have power in the muck because she is better than everyone else, but Tea Cake says that she will not have any power over the people of the muck. Page 149
2. “It got so the floor was knee-deep with something no matter where you put your foot down.” Mrs. Turner’s diner was so destroyed by the end of the fight that broke out that the entire floor was covered in glass, tables, chairs, and many other things that one could not step without stepping in layers of debris. Page 182
Chapter 18
1. “It woke up old Okechobee and the monster began to roll in his bed. Began to roll and complain like a peevish world on a grumble.” The storm made lake Okechobee begin to churn and rush, as if it was waking up from a slumber. Page 158
2. “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” In the midst of the raging hurricane, Janie, Tea Cake, and Motor Boat realized that their lives were truly in the hands of God and only He could save them. Page 160
3. “Night was striding across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands.” The darkness of night had taken hold of the world, and there was no light to see by. Page 158
Chapter 19
1. “And then again Him-with-the-square toes had gone back to his house…His pale white horse had galloped over waters, and thundered over land.” Death had swept over the land with the coming of the hurricane, but now it was over, and its consequences had to be dealt with. Page 159
2. “But something Sop had told him made his tongue lie cold and heavy like a dead lizard between his jaws.” Tea Cake wanted to talk to Janie about his awful sickness, but something that his friend had told him made him stay quiet and filled him with dread. Page 179
Chapter 20
1. “The day of the gun, and the bloody body, and the courthouse came and commenced to sing a sobbing sigh out of every corner of the room; out of each and every chair and thing.” Janie’s horrible experience of the day when Tea Cake died all came together and made the very room seem to sigh with memories. Page 192
2. “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.” Janie had lived a full life, so she sat back to reflect on the things she had seen in her life, rather than constantly moving and chasing her dreams. Page 193
My favorite piece of imagery from Their Eyes is found on page 25 and reads, "She knew that God tore up the old world every night and built a new one by morning.” I love this imagery because it describes how each day is a blank canvas. Each sunrise brings a new day to start fresh and new without the burdens of the last day to drag you down. It also recognizes that God is the one who builds the world and causes everything to happen. These two themes truly resonate with me.
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