green time, and an orange time. But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gat and expected things . . . She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up. It was wonderful to see it take form with the sun and emerge from the gray dust of its making.

This passage is filled with an incredible amount of literary devices. For instance, the image of the pollen gilding the sun and sifting down on the world shows how Janie still has her idealistic fascination with creation and reproduction. The metaphor of the world as a stallion in the blue pasture and the image of God repeatedly tearing down the world all emphasize the mysterious power of the natural world and suggest that Janie still has some hope and faith despite her frustrations in her marriage.

Hurston also uses a lot of symbolism in this novel. For instance, one of the most significant symbols is the pear tree that young Janie would sit under and think about the world. It is there that she is “stirred” by nature and the idea of intimacy. Under the pear tree, she becomes excited about the idea of marriage and sex and the tree thus becomes symbolic of her views of love throughout the book. For instance, the narrator explains:

The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree, but Janie didn’t know how to tell Nanny that.

The idea of being with Logan ruined the idealistic visions of intimacy that Janie had under the tree but later when Tea Cake comes into her life she thinks to herself:

He could be a bee to a blossom—a pear tree blossom in the spring.

This reference to the symbol of the pear tree suggests that Janie has finally found a type of love like the one she idealized.

The language of this novel is richly poetic, employing many different literary devices. Hurston uses a third-person narrator, privy to the characters' thoughts. The novel opens as the narrator explains the difference between men and women, using a metaphor to illustrate the contrast. “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board”; Some ships come to shore, and the man’s wishes are fulfilled, while other ships stay away. Whether a man’s wishes come true or not is a matter of luck, and the narrator says “that is the life of men.” Women, on the other hand, “forget all of those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget.” In other words, women control their lives, because living in itself is the goal, and they don’t waste time trying to chase down a dream that cannot be fulfilled. The narrator says that “the dream is the truth,” and women “act and do things accordingly.” This metaphor establishes the personality of Janie, highlighting her independence and sense of identity.

Dialect is another literary device Hurston uses. This lends a sense of realism and authenticity to her characters and their relationships. It also generates sympathy for Janie, drawing the reader into the story. Furthermore, Hurston utilizes metaphors in order to emphasize the cruelty of the townspeople, such as "they made burning statements with questions, and killing tools out of laughs.” This brings the pain that language can cause to life. The fact that she is able to ignore this talk and greet them politely is courageous, further building her character. The townspeople, on the other hand, only become more upset, and “hope that she might fall to her level some day.” This statement is very ironic, because Janie’s refusal to entertain the townspeople’s nosy questions proves that she is, in fact, above them.