"Then Joe Starks realized all the meanings and his vanity bled like a flood. Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish, which was terrible. The thing that Saul's daughter had done to David. But Janie had done worse, she had cast down his empty armor before men and they had laughed, would keep on laughing. When he paraded his possessions hereafter, they would not consider the two together. They'd look with envy at the things and pity the man that owned them. When he sat in judgement it would be the same. Good-for-nothing's like Dave and Lum and Jim wouldn't change place with him. For what can excuse a man in the eyes of other men for lack of strength? Raggedy-behind squirts of sixteen and seventeen would be giving him their merciless pity out of their eyes while their mouths said something humble. There was nothing to do in life anymore. Ambition was useless. And the cruel deceit of Janie! Making all that show of humbleness and scorning him all the time! Laughing at him, and now putting the town up to do the same. Joe Starks didn't know the words for all this, but he knew the feeling. So he struck Janie with all his might and drove her from the store.
In this passage, Hurston shows her use of syntax in towards the end when she begins to break up sentences. She uses short sentences like "Ambition was useless." and "And the cruel deceit of Janie!", which creates angry, choppy feeling. It shows how Starks is angry and is not thinking normally, hence the short sentences. Also, the tone in this passage starts as afraid and shifts into anger. Starks is afraid of the ridicule that he'll get, and once he begins thinking of the cause of this ridicule, he becomes anger. Hurston's word choice reflects the Starks anger, using insulting words like "good-for-nothing" and "raggedy-behind" to put nastiness into his tone. Hurston also uses the alliteration of sound of 's' to place emphasis on the ridicule that Starks would get.
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