Cheyanne leaned over the balcony and looked out across the lake. It was the time of the night that most people ought to be asleep, but she wasn't. She hadn't slept a wink. The cool night air blew against her nightgown, ruffling the smooth silk behind her in plume, twisting and billowing back towards the door. Then she heard footsteps. She turned around just in time to see Michael coming towards her. He was in the plaid pajamas she had bought him last Christmas. He stopped perhaps five or six feet in front of her, and waited. They stared into eachother's eyes for a long time, thoughts racing through their heads. Then she spoke.
"I can't go on doing this. It's not fair, the things you expect me to do, the person you expect me to be. It's not me. I want to be me." She closed her eyes and let out a breath, waiting for his response.
"Listen to you! Talking to me like this, you act as though this is all my fault, like I'm the one who started all this. You act lik I'm controlling you, you act like-"
"You ARE controlling me!" She yelled angrily. She was about to go on, but she stopped herself. Stay calm. Stay calm. She crossed her arms and turned to look back out at the lake.
"When I first met you, things were incredible. You were the first guy that I'd met that actually seemed to care about me, about MY thoughts, MY feelings. You were great and you- you...er..." She trailed off.
"But I what?" He asked quietly.
"You just changed! I don't even know what you did but you just changed! You started getting this, this weird vision of what we were suppossed to be like. 'Oh, Chey let's go do this' or 'Hey, Chey do it this way,' or whatever the heck you wanted me to do, and I just can't stand it anymore. You choked the life out of me with all of this, and I really can't stand it. Not now." She sighed deeply and turned back around. He stood like a statue, unwavering, the wind lightly tossed his hair.
"I need to go. I'm going home." She walked past him back into the house. Her bags were waiting.
The theme that I used in this passage was that unbalances of power in relationships will ultimately lead to failure of the relationship as time passes. This mirrors TEWWG in that it represents how Janie's first two marriages have failed. The literary techniques that I used in this passage were irony, diction, and syntax. I used irony in this passage by initially having Cheyanne state that he was a great guy, and she had initially expected alot out of him, but he ended up being one of the worst, as demonstrated through the dialogue. This mirrors Hurston's use of irony regarding Tea Cake, in that he is exactly what Janie is looking for, and she comes to trust and love him, but she is forced to kill him in the end. I used diction in this passage specifically when I used the phrase "choked the life out of me", because I believe that it evokes strong images, especially regarding power. This mirriors Hurston's use of diction who often uses this kind of strong imagery in her language. And lastly, I used syntax in this passage at the end, in which Cheyanne gives a long, complex statement regarding her feelings towards Michael, which is then followed by a short but strong sentence in which she informs him of her desire to leave. This mirrors Hurston's use of syntax which often involves complex and simple sentences together to show a shift in feeling or emotion.
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