1. Symbol-Kissing bee represents Janie's longing for love.
"She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in ever blossom and frothing with delight. So this was marriage!" (Page 11)
"Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen blooming trees, but spoke for far horizon." (Page 29)
2. Parallel Structure-Janie's character is developed along with the idea of trees gaining and suffering.
"Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered and things enjoyed, things done and undone.Dawn and doom was in the branches." (Page 8)
3.Motif-Women are treated like animals that must do work.
"'He picks [the load] up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see." (Nanny, Page 14)
"'...and dis man Ah'm talking' 'bout is got uh mule all gentled up so even uh woman kin handle 'im." (Logan Killicks, Page 27)
4. Paradox-They are because he is, but he only is because they are.
"They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down." (Page 50)
5. Foreshadowing-Hints at the bad relations that are about to come between Janie and Joe.
"'Ah often wonder how dat lil wife uh hisn makes out wid him 'cause he's uh man dat changes everything, but nothin' don't change him'" (Page 49)
"Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered and things enjoyed, things done and undone.Dawn and doom was in the branches." (Page 8)
This quote represents the parallel of how Janie's life is developed within the book and how a tree's life is developed. In the book, the author gives Janie much suffering. Janie finds the love, but he turns out to not be what she hopes for. This is developed much like the cycle of seasons a tree goes through.
In the spring, the tree blooms, much like Janie's happiness. A period of content is followed, where the tree dances in the wind full of life. Then fall comes, and the leaves begin to scatter, hinting at the desolation they will leave behind, much like Janie's experiences of discovering the true nature of her husbands. The last season is winter, where there is just coldness and loneliness. Janie experiences this, constantly getting a feeling of cold and loneliness when she glimpses at her husbands' true nature.
"They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down." (Page 50)
This quote is a clear example of a paradox. At first it makes sense if you just think that the two concepts depend on each other. But if you delve deeper, you begin ask why and how. The statement defies logic by stating that A happens because B happens, but B happens only because A happens. This cycle becomes never ending, much like the "chicken or the egg" question.
In the book, this paradox serves to cause the reader to question the power that Joe Starks actually holds. The reader view this as a representation of a mini-government, where the people give one person power over them. Joe becomes the Leviathan of the town.
This can allude to the black overseer of the slavery era. Joe is a hard master over his people, but answers to a higher being (possibly the government, or the good of the town). He struggles to maintain a balance of command and servitude.
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