The signifiicance of the hair

                This passage was a very significant portion of the book because it started to show the beginning of Janie’s full characterization.  This passage had a few main ideas but the major idea in this passage was the difference between Janie being a child vs. an adult. Years ago she had all her dreams crushed, which led to her “becoming a woman,” which had an ironic tone to it, but “years ago she told her girl self to wait for her in the looking glass,” (87) or basically  she was telling herself that she could still be a child, even after she had to grow up. However, even after she had “hidden it away,” she still had outgrown her child after all the trouble she had been through.  Another important concept in this passage was the thought of tone. She had constantly been forced to conform to society’s rules, such as when Jody made Janie put her hair up, not for the reason of just keeping her hair out of the supplies, but because it caused Jody to have a feeling of envy towards other men who were entranced in her hair. When she was finally able to let her hair down after Jody died, she was able to feel free with its “weight, length, and glory which was all still there;” furthermore, after she had the epiphany of her glorious hair and looks, she still realized she had to conform to society and “iron her face” leading to the reader’s realization that she still is locked behind the bars of society. The final concept that played an important role in this passage was the language and repetition in this passage. There wasn’t a lot of repetition in this paragraph; however, the one part of the paragraph that was repeated was Janie’s hair. The hair throughout this book has had an odd connotation outside of being just hair because it was always treated as a desired item by every guy because it was something special and unique. This meant that when she let it free again out of the kerchief and showed off its glory, she was finally free to be herself again. These are the 3 main concepts that are important in the book.

Blake Ocampo and Alex Renner 2A