3 literary techniques chapters 13-15

Page 116- Personification "The train beat on itself and danced on the shiny steel rails mile after mile."

Zora Neale Hurston's use of personification to describe the train that Janie takes to Jacksonville, not only gives the train an upbeat personality but builds an image in the readers mind of what the train looks like. This allows the reader to hear and see what Janie is experiencing and in turn allows the reader to connect with Janie more and to understand how janie is feeling, she's looking forward to the trip and the train ride is a happy one.

Page 118 - Simile "The room inside looked like the mouth of an alligator - gaped wide open to swallow something down."

This simile effectively portrays how Janie is feeling, upon discovering that her $200 is gone.
Tea cake has been gone for a while and Janie is starting to get worried, she's afraid that Tea Cake has run off with the money. Janie fears that Tea Cake has done the same thing that Who Flung did to Annie Tyler, robbed her and left her. The Alligator mouth, in the simile, represents this fear. Part of her believes the money may be lost in the room and the imagery of the alligator's mouth shows how hard the money is to find.


Page 122 - Hyperbole "When the fellow began to pick to pick the box the people began to come from east, west, north and Australia."

Hurston uses this exagerration to emphasize that people were coming from all over the place to attend Tea Cake's party of sorts. People weren't actually coming from Australia but the use of it as an example illustrates how widespread the people attending were. It gives the reader a better understanding of the scene and the setting.