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Similes
Definition of Stream of Consciousness
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by incorporating sensory impressions, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax... read full definition
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by incorporating... read full definition
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's... read full definition
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—What? How? Why?:
This book contains a narrator that describes the nature of Janie's mind and her thoughts on many occasions, so there are multiple moments in this book that could be described as a "stream of consciousness." With this sort of narrator with access to Janie's mind, whenever the narrator describes Janie's thoughts at some length is an example of a stream of consciousness. The most sustained example of this is early in the book and in Janie's story to Pheoby, when she describes when "her conscious life had commenced":
It was a spring afternoon in West Florida. Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard. [...] It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds, from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously. How? Why? It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why? This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck outside her observation and buried themselves in her flesh. Now they emerged and quested about her consciousness.
This passage begins with very specific, concrete details. The narrator states where Janie is and what she has been doing. But then those details start to become more complex, as the narrator begins to describe how those concrete details are affecting Janie mentally, "stirring" her. Then, after describing Janie's experience and her reaction to that experience, the narration continues its progression all the way into the actual thoughts in Janie's mind. "How? Why? It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why?" The narration follows the specific affairs of Janie's consciousness.
This transition into Janie's mind seems to happen in real time. It is quite a beautiful moment, as Janie sits under the tree surrounded by nature, placed in harmony with her own consciousness "singing." It is important to note, as well, that these reactions of Janie's consciousness are not in dialect. (The narrator, recording Janie's thoughts, uses "What?," but when Janie speaks that word aloud, it is usually spelled "whut.") Janie's thought is recorded in standard English by the narrator in this stream of consciousness.
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—At the Newel Post:
During Janie's first meeting with Tea Cake, there is a moment in which the narration slips into Janie's mind during dialogue, giving readers insight into her thoughts on Tea Cake. This is a special kind of narration called free indirect discourse, in which a narrator that is usually independent of any character suddenly enters a character's mind, and, as a result, the reader gets a chance to know that character's thoughts. Thus the reader sees, for a moment, Janie's stream of consciousness. In this scene, Tea Cake says he likes Janie, then:
At the newel post Janie whirled around and for the space of a thought she was lit up like a transfiguration. Her next thought brought her crashing down. He's just saying anything for the time being, feeling he's got me so I'll b'lieve him. The next thought buried her under tons of cold futility. He's trading on being younger than me. Getting ready to laugh at me for an old fool. But oh, what wouldn't I give to be twelve years younger so I could b'lieve him!
This passage has quite an interesting structure, where some parts of it are outside Janie's head, making judgments on her thought process as an outsider, whereas some parts are her own thoughts. First, there is a moment of normal physical observation: Janie "whirled around" and for a moment she was "lit up," either literally or metaphorically. Then, the narrator tells the reader that she had a thought, so the reader knows that this is an outside observation of the thought happening. Then, the book provides the actual content of that thought: "He's just saying anything for the time being, feeling he's got me so I'll b'lieve him." Then, the narrative pulls out again as the narrator tells the reader that the thought sequentially after this one "buried her under tons of cold futility." This means that the narrator is able to make subjective interpretations of Janie's thoughts as they happen. Then, the remainder of this paragraph is that subsequent thought—that Janie is too old for Tea Cake to play her as a fool.
It is unclear, throughout the book, whether the standard-English narrator, observing Janie's thoughts, actually is Janie herself. The frame narrative does indicate that Janie is telling the whole story, but at moments it seems like someone else is filling in the gaps for her. The narration quoted above complicates this problem: is Janie able to understand her own thoughts in such discrete, sequential fashion, as described here? Or is this an exterior narrator, who is explaining Janie's thoughts for us? Hurston leaves the question ambiguous in this stream-of-consciousness glimpse into Janie's mind.
Related Themes:
