Journal #1

I perceive Janie as a strong woman who is confident in who she is. She is independent and not bothered by the opinions of the women on the porch who gossip about her all the time. As a younger child and into her teenage years, Janie was quite the dreamer. As described in the book, she loved to sit under the blossoming pear tree in her backyard and contemplate the beauty and possibility she saw in the world. This is an exceptional quality about Janie. Even though her early life was such a struggle - with her growing up motherless and fatherless, without a permanent home, and under the harsh judgment of her classmates - Janie still sees beauty in the world all around her and has hope for her life. "Oh to be a pear tree - any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her." It seems that Janie is not quite a dreamer anymore, likely due to the experiences she has had between her childhood and now that changed the way she thinks, but the way in which she tells her story is not exactly cold and hopeless either. One last notable quality about Janie is the loyalty she has toward those she loves, as seen through her love for her grandmother and Pheoby.

I see the narrator as easygoing and relaxed. The language used by the narrator is a contrast to the dialogue of the characters. While the dialogue tends to be kind of choppy and straightforward, the narrator takes his or her time explaining what is happening, and the word choice includes plenty of imagery and metaphors. I liked seeing this imagery style demonstrated in the passage that describes Janie's afternoon under the pear tree on page 10 (also the section of the book that the above passage is from).