Buds, Bees, and Trees

Kyle Knibbe

Natalie Johnson

     This passage takes place in the story where Janie’s Grandma was a sleep in bed with a headache at about the time when her grandma wants her to marry Logan. At this point Janie is confined to a box and is not exploring the world for herself. She has not yet learned to make decisions for herself. In the passage, Janie talks about kissing bees singing and how she had glossy leaves and bursting buds. With her comparison to nature, she is talking about all the potential she has but is not using it right now. Later in the passage, it says, “…she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her.” She is using this metaphor to say that she wanted to go do something with her life, but she couldn’t find a place to do it and she didn’t know what to do. Even when she is looking up and down the road, she is looking for something to do, yet still cannot discover what she wants to do, and is waiting for someone to tell her what to do or is “waiting for the world to be made”, her world to be made for her. In this passage, it is the narrator that it speaking and explaining what Janie is thinking in her head. This passage has no quotation marks so all of the text is explaining thoughts that aren’t being spoken. In a way, the narrator is thinking for Janie because Janie doesn’t like to make decisions for herself.