IB Junior English Journal Response #6

Topic Sentences for the Passage:

1. Janie uses Annie Tyler’s story in the first paragraph as a base for most of her feelings of doubt and fear.  Most of the ideas here centers on something that Annie waited for, presumably love.

2. In the second paragraph, a lot of thoughts run through Janie’s mind as she starts to think about her relationship with Tea Cake.  Here the author creates a pleading tone which show feelings of desperation and a bit of impatience.  Religion seems to be a part in most of Janie’s dialogue in this section.

3. The overwhelming thoughts of despair and desperation force her to rest.  As she wakes up, we see that she is given a spark of hope through the personification and alliteration of the sun brightening.  This creates the image of a god or power that is being restored in her.

Purpose:

The relationship between Janie and Tea Cake is at a downward trend near the beginning of this passage.  This is presented to us through the death of Annie Tyler and a short part of Janie’s dialogue.  However, nearing the end of the passage we see that people have no control over time, but what they can do is wait and with waiting comes hope.

Comments:

-Emily H.

The observations for syntax repetition were insightful, particularly on the word “Ah’m”.  One can agree that, that word does express meaning to some extent in Janie’s dialogue.  Here are some questions to consider though.  What other literary elements could describe the use of this word?  What effect would other spellings of this word have on the piece?

-Austin S.

Under parallel structure, you mentioned that Janie hasn’t realized her dreams.  One can also say that her dreams could have been the “it”.  What she aspires for in life, her goals could possibly be the “it”.  A question one can draw from this is, could dreams be a symbol of something?

-Courtney

In the paragraph section on “Sun/Darkness/Horizon” there is a very clear and direct analysis on how the sun and darkness relate to Tea Cake.  One can also surmise that the sun is a sign of inspiration or a small step to hope for Janie.  Are there any other literary relationships that can be found from this concept?