Journal #6

So Janie began to think of Death. 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 dal 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. She was liable to find a feather from his wings lying in her yard any day now. She was sad and afraid too. Poor Jody! He ought not to have to wrassle in there by himself. She sent Sam in to suggest a visit, but Jody said No. There medical docters wuz all right with the Godly sick, but they didn't know a think about a case like his. He'd be all right just as soon as the two-headed mad found what had been buried against him. He wasn't going to die at all. That was what he thought. But Sam told her different, so she knew. And then if he hadn't, the next morning she was bound to know, for people began to gather in the big yard under the palm and china-berry trees. People who would not have dared to foot the place before crept in and did not come to the house. Just squatted under the trees and waited. Rumor, that wingless bird, had shadowed over the town.

Hurston personifies death in many ways. She has this way of making death more appealing to the human senses. Making death into a person makes it a lot more intense of a passage. It makes they passage darker and almost morbid. Hurston also compares Death to a bird. I think she does this because some superstitions compare death and birds, especially crows.

A motif Hurson used is that death can be power. In the passage above it says what need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him. This shows that death is all powerful. Death is almost seen as a super power that no one can run from or hide from. It is also saying that Death can't be harmed and doesn't have to hide from anything. Death is strong and nothing is able to push it around. Also I think the passage is saying that Death is inevitable.