Jody vs. Curt Lemon: Imagery of Death

            “His eyes stared unwillingly into a corner of the room so Janie knew the futile fight was not with her. The icy sword of the square-toed one had cut off his breath and left his hands in a pose of agonizing protest” (page 87). Hurston uses the “icy sword” as imagery for Jody’s death. She uses the icy sword image because it represents how instantly death came, like a sword actually cut his breath off because one moment he was arguing, the next moment he was dead.

            Hurston’s imagery of death for Jody is very similar to Tim O’Brien’s illustration of Curt Lemon’s death in “The Things They Carried”. He writes that Lemon’s death was almost beautiful “the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms.” O’Brien also uses imagery to describe death; the sunlight represents a bobby trap bomb that Lemon stepped on and in an instant he was gone.

In contrast, Janie knew Jody was dying, but the platoon had no idea that Curt Lemon would die so suddenly. However, the two deaths are similar because they die in the blink of an eye; so suddenly that if the reader skipped a line they would’ve missed it. Both Hurston and O’Brien use imagery to portray death to create to the reader a sense of involvement from the reader, making the reader feel like they are watching the death.

The Grim Reaper is very often associated with death, which is very suiting for both texts.